Polyline tool

The Polyline tool lets you build a Bezier path made of segments that are either straight lines or circular arcs. This is useful because it is difficult to draw a circular arc in the middle of a path any other way.

A path drawn with the Polyline tool made of a straight segment, followed by a circular arc, and so on.

To create a path with the Polyline tool:

  1. Select the Polyline tool  in the Toolbox.
  2. Click anywhere in the workspace to set the starting point of the path.
  3. Do one of the following:
    • Move the cursor, and then click to add another node for a straight-line segment. You can hold down the SHIFT key to constrain the position of the node to 90- or 45-degrees from the previous node.  (The actual angle is determined by the Rotation steps setting in the Units and Grids panel of the Options dialog box .)
    • Move the pointer, and then click and drag to add a circular arc segment. The point at which you click before dragging determines the tangent of the curve that will be created. This point will not actually be on the curve, but will define the angle between the straight line segment and the arc segment. You can hold down the SHIFT key to constrain the circular arc to 90, 180, or 270 degrees. When you let go of the mouse button, Expression Design adds the appropriate nodes to the path.
  4. Repeat step 3 until you're ready to end the path. Note that you can remove the last node you added by pressing the DELETE or Backspace key.
  5. To end the path (stop drawing), do one of the following:
    • To create a closed path, position the cursor on top of the first node (the starting point) and click.
    • Double-click at any point to place an ending node.
    • Press ENTER or ESC to end the path at the last-placed node.

Appending paths

When the Drawing tools append to path option is selected in the Stroke panel of the Options dialog box, you can easily extend an already-existing path with the Polyline tool by placing the cursor over the beginning or end point of the line and then drawing. Or, you can draw a new path with the Polyline tool and place the cursor over one of the open nodes of a path as you release the mouse button. In this case, the new path will be joined with the old one.

Tip: Using the Polyline tool to draw straight line segments is easy. You just click, click, and click. However, drawing arcs takes some getting used to. Remember that when you draw an arc the point where you click determines the angle at which the arc attaches to the line, but it has no effect on the actual size of the arc. So, you'll find that you sometimes have more control over the shape of the arc when you click farther away from the previous node (before you start dragging), even if you're trying to create a small arc.

To draw this polyline curve, click once at point 1, again at point 2, then hold down the mouse button at point 3 and drag to point 4.