Polygon tool

The Polygon tool lets you create a wide variety of polygons and stars, such as hexagons, sickle blades, and spirals. Drawing a shape with the Polygon tool results in a closed path made up of either Bezier corner points (for straight-edged shapes) or B-spline nodes (for curved shapes).

To draw a shape with the Polygon tool:

1. Deselect all objects (press CTRL+SHIFT+A).
2. Select the Polygon tool  in the Toolbox.
3. Set up the Polygon values in the Create Polygon category in the Properties panel, including number of points, inner depth, and twirl angle. For more on these controls, see "Polygon tool settings," below.
4. Position the cursor where you want the center point of the shape, and then drag out the shape. Dragging farther from the initial point where you clicked determines the shape's size. As you drag, the shape also rotates around its center point. You can constrain the angle of rotation by holding down the SHIFT key. (The constraint angle depends on the Rotation steps value in the Units and Grids page of the Options dialog box .)
5. When you have the shape you want, release the mouse button.

Polygon tool settings

When no objects are selected on your page, and you select the Polygon tool in the Toolbox, the Create Polygon category appears in the Properties panel. Also, the very similar Edit Polygon category appears when you select a polygon object on your page. These controls determine the look of the resulting shape.

• Points  The Points slider determines the number of points on the shape. For example, if you set this to 3, you'll create a triangle. If you set it to 6, you'll create a hexagon or a 6-pointed star.
• Inner Depth  When the Inner Depth slider is set to zero, your shape will be a regular polygon, like a triangle or a square. If you increase the inner depth value, Expression Design adds "inner points" between each of the corner points and indents them to create a star shape. The inner depth is a percentage of the radius, so an inner depth of 100% makes the "arms" of the star so narrow that they become lines.
• Twirl Angle  The Twirl Angle determines the curve from the inner points and the outer points. If the Inner Depth control is set to zero, increasing the Twirl Angle rotates the polygon.

A polygon with no Twirl Angle or Inner Depth (1), with an Inner Depth setting of 30% (2), and with a Twirl Angle (3).

Expression Design creates polygons and stars by placing a series of Bezier or B-spline points. After you create the shape, you can edit these nodes to adjust the shape of the path. However, once you edit a node, the object is no longer a star shape so the Edit Polygon category disappears from the panel.