Drawing Freehand Polylines

Use the Freehand tool to draw a freehand polyline in a manner similar to drawing with a pen. Once the object is drawn, it can be reshaped (see Reshaping Objects with the Freehand Tool).

 

Mode	Description
Freehand Edit	Reshapes the singularly-selected polyline, polygon, rectangle, circle, or arc; for more information, see Reshaping Objects with the Freehand Tool
Freehand Preferences	Sets the smoothing level when drawing a curve. Increasing the degree of smoothing decreases the vertices, and therefore it is easier to reshape the curve. Decreasing the degree of smoothing increases the vertices which produces a more accurate representation of the curve. Select Off to draw the curve without using the smoothing feature.

 

To draw a freehand polyline:

1.	Click the Freehand tool from the Basic palette.

2.	Click the Freehand Preferences mode button.

The Freehand Tool Preferences dialog box opens.

3.	Select the smoothing level when drawing a curve.

4.

Click OK.

5.	Click in the drawing to set the polyline start point. Drag the mouse to create the desired freehand polyline shape.

6.	Click again when the object is complete.

The number and placement of polyline vertices is determined by the object shape and specified degree of curve smoothing. For example, an object consisting of a series of arcs and curves created with a low degree of curve smoothing contains more vertices than a series of lines created with a high degree of curve smoothing.

Markers can be added with the Attributes palette (see Marker Attributes).

By default, the Freehand tool applies a fill of “None.” Change the fill type before sweeping a freehand polyline, if rendering of the sweep volume is desired.

Reshaping Objects with the Freehand Tool

A polyline, polygon, rectangle, circle, or arc can be reshaped using the Freehand Edit mode of the Freehand tool. The direction of the curve drawn determines the new object shape. An edited object is converted to a polyline after editing is complete.

 

To reshape objects using the Freehand tool:

1.	Select a valid 2D object.

2.	Click the Freehand tool from the Basic palette.

3.	Click Freehand Edit mode from the Tool bar.

4.	Click to draw the new curve, editing the valid 2D object using the following curve direction guidelines:

 

Action	Guidelines
Change existing curve
Connect two points with new curve
Create closure with new curve
Add a new curve to an existing curve
Extend existing curve
Retain partial curve

5.	Click again to finish drawing the freehand polyline edit. The valid 2D object is edited and converted to a polyline.