Drawing > Drawing with the Graphic Hose tool

 

Drawing with the Graphic Hose tool

For quick illustration, you can use the Graphic Hose tool in the Xtra Tools toolbar to "spray" frequently used objects on your document page.

Objects in hose (left) and spraying result
 

The Graphic Hose panel lets you store up to 10 images (including bitmaps, groups, blends, text, envelopes, and symbols) in each "hose." When you paint with the hose, the images are applied in an order based on the options you choose.

FreeHand comes with a collection of predefined hoses. You can edit these hoses or create your own.

To select a graphic hose:

1

Choose Window > Toolbars > Xtra Tools to display the Xtra Tools toolbar.

2

Double-click the Graphic Hose button in the Xtra tools toolbar to display the Hose dialog box.

3

Select Hose to display the hose sets.

4

Choose a hose from the pop-up menu to activate it and display a preview of the first object in the set. You can use the Contents list to preview the other objects in the set.

5

To preview individual objects contained in the hose, choose an option from the Contents pop-up menu.

To draw with the Graphic Hose tool:

1

Choose Window > Toolbars > Xtra Tools to display the Xtra Tools toolbar.

2

Click the Graphic Hose button.

3

Drag the tool, controlling the spray as follows:

Increase or decrease the speed and direction of dragging to control how objects are placed. Dragging faster spaces the objects farther apart.

Use the Left and Right Arrow keys to increase or decrease the spacing between objects as you spray them.

Use the Up and Down Arrow keys to increase or decrease the scale factor as you spray hose objects.

Click to place individual objects with the hose.