Adding, removing, joining, and aligning nodes

When you add nodes, you increase the number of segments and, therefore, the amount of control you have over the shape of the object. You can delete selected nodes to simplify an object’s shape.

When curve objects contain many nodes, it is difficult to edit and output them to devices such as vinyl cutters, plotters, and rotary engravers. You can have the number of nodes in a curve object reduced automatically. Reducing the number of nodes removes overlapping nodes and can smooth a curve object. This feature is especially useful for reducing the number of nodes in objects imported from other applications.

Reducing the number of nodes to smooth a curve object

You can join the start and end nodes of an open path such as a line to create a closed object. This feature is useful for filling an object with color because you can apply fills only to the inside of closed objects. For information about applying fills, see Filling objects.

You can align the nodes of a curve object horizontally or vertically.

Aligning nodes horizontally

To add or delete a node

To	Do the following
Add a node	In the toolbox, click the Shape tool , select a curve object, and double-click where you want to add a node.
Delete a node	In the toolbox, click the Shape tool, select a curve object, and double-click a node.

To reduce the number of nodes in a curve object

1 .	In the toolbox, click the Shape tool .

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To reduce the number of nodes in the entire object, click the Select all nodes button on the property bar.

To join the end nodes of a single subpath

1 .	In the toolbox, click the Shape tool .

3 .	Click the Close curve button on the property bar.

You can close multiple subpaths in an object by clicking Object Join curves and choosing settings in the Join curves docker. For more information, see Joining curves.

To join the nodes of multiple subpaths

1 .	In the toolbox, click the Shape tool .

3 .	Click the Extend curve to close button on the property bar.

If you want to join nodes from separate curve objects, you must first combine them into a single curve object, and then join the end nodes of the new subpaths. For information about combining objects, see Combining objects.

To align nodes

1 .	In the toolbox, click the Shape tool .

4 .	Click the Align nodes button on the property bar.

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