Drawing lines

A line is a path between two points. Lines can consist of multiple segments, and the line segments can be curved or straight. The line segments are connected by nodes, which are depicted as small squares. CorelDRAW provides various drawing tools that let you draw curved and straight lines, and lines containing both curved and straight segments.

Freehand and Polyline tools

The Freehand and Polyline tools let you draw freehand lines as if you were sketching on a sketchpad. If you make a mistake while drawing freehand curves, you can erase the unwanted part immediately and continue drawing. When drawing straight lines or segments, you can constrain them to straight vertical or horizontal lines.

The Freehand tool lets you control the smoothness of the curved line you are drawing as well as add segments to an existing line. However, the Polyline tool is easier to use for quickly drawing a complex line that consists of alternating curved and straight segments.

In addition to drawing freehand lines and straight segments, you can use the Polyline tool to draw circular arcs.

You can choose settings to control how the Freehand and Polyline tools behave. For example, you can change the default smoothness of a curved line that you’ve created with these tools.

2-point line tool

You can draw straight lines by using the 2-point line tool. This tool also allows you to create straight lines that are perpendicular or tangent to objects.

Bézier and Pen tools

The Bézier and Pen tools let you draw lines one segment at a time by placing each node with precision and controlling the shape of each curved segment. When using the Pen tool, you can preview the line segments you are drawing.

You can draw lines with multiple segments by using the Bézier tool and clicking each time you want the line to change direction.

You can draw curves by using the Bézier tool and dragging the control handles at the ends of the Bézier curve.

B-spline tool

By using control points, you can easily shape a curved line and draw B-splines, which are typically smooth, continuous curved lines. B-splines touch the first and last control points and are pulled by the points in between. However, unlike the nodes on Bézier curves, control points don’t let you specify the points through which a curve passes when you want to align a curve with other drawing elements.

The control points that touch the line are referred to as "clamped." Clamped control points function as anchors. The control points that pull the line but do not touch it are referred to as "floating." The first and last control points are always clamped on open-ended B-splines. The points in between float by default, but you can clamp points if you want to create cusps or straight lines within the B-spline. You can edit completed B-splines by using the control points.

The path of a B-spline curve is determined by the control points you set.

3-point curve tool

The 3-point curve tool lets you draw simple curved lines by specifying their width and height. Use this tool to create arc shapes quickly without manipulating nodes.

You can draw a curved line by specifying its width (left), and then specifying its height and clicking the page (right).

Smart drawing tool

The Smart drawing tool lets you use shape recognition to draw straight and curved lines. For more information, see Drawing by using shape recognition.

Using nodes and control handles

Some lines have nodes and control handles that you can manipulate to shape lines as you draw. For information about node types, see Using curve objects.

Hiding the bounding box

When drawing lines by using the curve tools, you can hide the bounding box that is displayed around the lines once they are drawn. The curve tools include the Freehand tool, the 2-point line tool, the Bézier tool, the Artistic media tool, the Pen tool, the B-Spline tool, the Polyline tool, and the 3-point curve tool.

You can hide the bounding box to make drawing artistic media strokes in quick succession more fluid.

To draw a line by using the Freehand tool

1 .	In the toolbox, click the Freehand tool .

You can constrain a line created with the Freehand tool to a predefined angle, called a constrain angle, by holding down Ctrl while you drag. This feature is useful for drawing straight vertical and horizontal lines. For information about changing the constrain angle, see To change the constrain angle.

You can erase a portion of a curved freehand line by holding down Shift and dragging backward over the line before releasing the mouse button.

To draw a line by using the Polyline tool

1 .	In the toolbox, click the Polyline tool .

You can close an open object by clicking the Close curve button on the property bar.

To draw an arc by using the Polyline tool

1 .	In the toolbox, click the Polyline tool .

You can hold down Ctrl in conjunction with Alt to constrain the arc to 15-degree increments or another predefined angle, called a constrain angle. For information about changing the constrain angle, see Constraining objects.

To draw a straight line by using the 2-point line tool

1 .	In the toolbox, click the 2-point line tool .

To draw a perpendicular line

1 .	In the toolbox, click the 2-point line tool .

2 .	On the property bar, click the Perpendicular 2-point line button.

This procedure cannot be used for drawing a line that is perpendicular to the baseline of a text object.

You can also drag from an existing curve to draw a perpendicular line.

Drawing perpendicular lines

To draw a tangent line

1 .	In the toolbox, click the 2-point line tool .

2 .	On the property bar, click the Tangential 2-point line button .

The Tangential 2-point line mode can be used for drawing the sides of the cylinder.

Drawing tangent lines

To draw a line by using the Bézier tool

1 .	In the toolbox, click the Bézier tool .

To draw a line by using the Pen tool

1 .	In the toolbox, click the Pen tool .

You can also
Preview a line while drawing	Enable the Preview mode button in the property bar. Click on the drawing page, and release the mouse button. Move the mouse, and click to finish the line.
Add a node to a line	Enable the Automatically add or delete nodes button on the property bar. Point to where in the line you want to add a node, and click when the pointer changes to the Add nodes state .
Delete a node from a line	Point to a node, and click when the pointer changes to the Delete nodes state .

To draw a B-spline

1 .	In the toolbox, click the B-spline tool .

You can also
Reshape the line by using control points	Select the line by using the Shape tool , and reposition the control points to reshape the line.
Float a control point	Select the line by using the Shape tool , click a clamped control point, and click the Make control point floating button on the property bar.
Clamp a control point	Select the line by using the Shape tool , click a floating control point, and click the Make control point clamped button on the property bar.
Add a control point	Select the line by using the Shape tool , and double-click along a control line.
Delete a control point	Select the line by using the Shape tool , and double-click the control point that you want to delete.
Select multiple control points	Select the line by using the Shape tool , and hold down Shift while you click on the control points that you want to select.

If you add to a B-spline by selecting the first or last control point, the clamped control point automatically changes to a floating control point as you draw the new portion of the line.

You can also add control points while you draw a B-spline by pressing Spacebar instead of clicking.

To draw a curve by using the 3-point curve tool

1 .	In the toolbox, click the 3-point curve tool .

To set options for the Freehand and Bézier tools

1 .	Click Tools Options.

Double-click the Freehand or Bézier tool to display the Freehand/Bézier page in the Options dialog box.

To hide the bounding box when using curve tools

2 .	Click the Bounding box button on the property bar.

When you hide the bounding box while working with one curve tool, the bounding box remains hidden for all curve tools. For example, if you hide the bounding box when using the Freehand tool, it remains hidden when you switch to the Bézier tool.

You can also hide the bounding box by clicking Tools Options, clicking Display in the Workspace list of categories, and then enabling the Hide bounding box for curve tools check box.

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