LESSON

Editing Shape Paths

Description

The Path Tool is used to edit the paths of your vector graphic shapes.

Video recorded using: Ignition 8.1

Transcript

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[00:00] Once we've created shapes using the Drawing Tools, we can then edit and reshape them. In this lesson, we'll learn how to alter the appearance of existing shapes using Ignition's Path Tool. The Path Tool is found in the Drawing Tools palette at the right side of the Designer window. Let's demonstrate use of the Path Tool with these existing three simple shapes: a five pointed star, a straight lined closed polygon, and this curved-sided tooth shape. Let's start with a star shape. We'll select the shape, then click on the Path Tool. Now that it's enabled, we see a small graphics handle appear on each of the star's vertices. Now we can simply click on any one of these handles, and drag it to a new position to reshape the star into some other shape. We'll do this for a couple other ones. Or if we'd like precise placement of any vertices, we can select its handle, then head up to the toolbar and specify exact (x,y) coordinates for it.

[01:12] We can similarly manipulate the polygon shape. Once again, we'll select the shape. Then click on the Path Tool to enable it, and again, the graphics handles appear on the vertices. Then as before, we can select any of the handles and drag them to reshape the polygon. Or to do precise vertex placement, we can select one of the handles and then specify exact (x,y) coordinates for it up in the toolbar. We can also alter shapes created from curved line segments. Let's next consider this tooth shaped object by selecting it, then clicking on the Path Tool. This time we see not only graphics handles, but also two additional handles for each one, which represent tangents on each side of the center handle. Now, we can not only change points on the curves, we can also change the curvatures, on both sides of those points.

[02:08] We can do all kinds of curve shaping or flattening. We can turn this into any kind of curve shape we wish. Finally, for our straight line shapes, we can also alter their shape by adding or removing vertices. To demonstrate, let's once again select the closed polygon, then select the Path Tool. If we select one graphic handle, we can flatten the shape by heading up to our toolbar and selecting the Remove Point icon. Or if we select two adjacent handles, we can augment the shape by selecting the Add Point icon. Now, an additional vertex is added to the shape, which we can move around as before, by dragging its handle. So by using the Path Tool, we can reconfigure existing Drawing Tools shapes by moving around the graphics handles of their vertices. This lets us reshape vertices, add or remove vertices, or change the curvature of curved segments.

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