Contour Tool

The Contour tool is used to:

• Interactively create new contour effects around objects.
• Adjust the center of the final contour relatively to the object, creating a shifted contour.
• Create and edit the local width nodes of a variable width contour profile.

To create a new contour effect around an object:

• Select the Contour tool.
• Click on the object outline and start dragging to set the contour width.
• A contour effect with default options is added to the object.
• The contour options can be adjusted later in the Contour panel.

The contour shapes can be moved relative to the original objects at a user selected offset:

• Select the Contour tool.
• The current contour center is shown as a round handle.
• Drag the contour center using the mouse, to create a contour offset.
• The contour offset node is shown as an other round handle, connecting to the original object center with a line.

To interactively adjust the width of the contour effect and create local width variations:

• Select the Contour tool.
• The original object outline will show nodes at the current width locations.
• Drag the contour next to a node to adjust the width.
• The variable contour width editing is similar to the variable stroke width profile editing.
• If the current width is uniform, hold Command (Mac) or Control (Windows) key and start dragging from a location on the original object shape, to create a new local width.
• If the contour effect already uses a variable width profile, dragging from any location of the original shape may create a new local width.
• Adjust the local widths by dragging the ha handles at the end of the lines indicating the width at a location.
• Adjust the width node location along the original outline shape, by dragging the node at the start of the line indicating a local width.