Drawing freehand polylines

Tool

Tool set

Shortcut

Freehand

Freehand_Tool.png 

Basic

       Alt+5 (Windows)

       Option+5 (Mac)

Use the Freehand tool to draw a freehand polyline in a manner similar to drawing with a pen. Once the object is drawn, it can be reshaped.

freehand_mode.png 

Mode

Description

Freehand Edit

Reshapes the singularly selected polyline, polygon, rectangle, circle, or arc; for more information, see Reshaping objects with the Freehand tool

Preferences

Sets the smoothing level when drawing a curve. Increasing the degree of smoothing decreases the vertices, and therefore it is easier to reshape the curve. Decreasing the degree of smoothing increases the vertices which produces a more accurate representation of the curve. Select Off to draw the curve without using the smoothing feature.

To draw a freehand polyline:

1.      Click the tool.

2.Click Preferences to open the Freehand Tool Preferences dialog box and select the smoothing level when drawing a curve.

3.Click in the drawing to set the polyline start point. Move the cursor to create the desired freehand polyline shape.

4.Click again when the object is complete.

The number and placement of polyline vertices is determined by the object shape and specified degree of curve smoothing. For example, an object consisting of a series of arcs and curves created with a low degree of curve smoothing contains more vertices than a series of lines created with a high degree of curve smoothing.

Markers can be added with the Attributes palette (see Marker attributes).

By default, the Freehand tool applies a fill of “None.” Change the fill type before sweeping a freehand polyline, if rendering of the sweep volume is desired.

 

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