Creating and Changing Shapes

Drawing and Changing Shapes

In VectorStyler, objects are created by drawing a shape, using the current fill and stroke style. The current fill and stroke styles are picked from the previous selection, or can be set from the color and stroke panels. When drawing open shapes, only the current stroke style is used. When creating closed shapes, both the current stroke and and fill style are selected on the new object.

The shape of an object is an attribute of the object that can be freely edited, changed, replaced or styled at any time in the process of creating the artwork. This includes replacing the object shape with another shape, creating and applying shape presets and styles, and referencing and reusing shapes from other objects. It is also possible to assign shapes to a group of objects or a layer, creating a clipping shape for that group or layer. Shapes of an object, group or a layer can also be asigned from a style or preset and can be freely edited.

It is possible to draw inside any existing object, by double clicking on the object to isolate it. The newly drawn shapes will be clipped by their parent object shape. This is also possible for objects that do not yet have a clipped content.

Images consisting of pixels can be obtained by photography or from stock image services, can be imported as image objects, and then converted to vector objects using the Image Trace panel. Image file formats contain photographs, or renderings of artworks, by storing colors of individual pixels. VectorStyler provides image to vector conversion to create vector objects from images.

When drawing parametric shapes with the shape tools, it is possible to create new shapes by providing the numeric values of the shape parameters. To do this, click with a shape drawing tool on the canvas. A modal view with the shape options is opened. Confirm the new shape parameters by clicking Ok. The shape is created relative to the clicked location, depending on the current transform pivot point selected in the Transform panel.

The place of drawing can be selected from the Select Drawing menu, or by clicking on the button in the context panel.

The following sections describe how to draw and change shapes of various types, and new, VectorStyler specific workflows, to use shapes.

  • Drawing Curves - Create basic lines, curves and complex paths.
  • Painting with Brushes - Tools to create various vector brush paints that remain editable.
  • Combining Shapes - Create new shapes by combining existing shapes using various shape composition operations, including intersection, union or exclusion.
  • Path Sketching - Sketch editable paths interactively, by combining free form curves and lines at intersection points.
  • Bucket Fill - Create shapes using the bucket fill tool.
  • Shape Builder - Create and edit shapes using the shape builder tool.
  • Shape Paint - Create and edit dynamic shape paint groups.
  • Image Trace - Describes how to convert images to vector objects and how to use the Image Trace panel.
  • Editing Paths - Edit paths and free form curves using the node editor tool.
  • The Path Panel - Use the path panel to combine shapes or change properties of selected path nodes and curves.
  • The Shape Panel - Edit properties of the shapes of selected objects. Create and reuse shape styles and presets.
  • Editing Corners - Interactively edit corner sizes of shapes, and select corner shapes of the edited shape. Create, edit and reuse custom corner shape types.
  • Splitting Shapes - Split object or group shapes into a grid or other regions.
  • Rectangles - Drawing and editing rectangular shapes.
  • Circles and Ellipses - Drawing and editing circles and ellipses.
  • Polygons - Drawing and editing equal sided polygons.
  • Stars - Drawing and editing star shapes.
  • Square Stars - Drawing and editing square star shapes.
  • Gear Shapes - Drawing and editing gear shapes.
  • Symmetrigon Shapes - Drawing and editing symmetric shapes.
  • Spiral Shapes - Drawing and editing spiral shapes.
  • Polygonal Spiral Shapes - Drawing and editing polygonal spiral shapes.
  • Grid Shapes - Drawing and editing grid shapes.
  • Line Grid Shapes - Drawing and editing line grid shapes.
  • Wave Grid Shapes - Drawing and editing wave grid shapes.
  • Zigzag Grid Shapes - Drawing and editing zigzag grid shapes.
  • Concentric Shapes - Drawing and editing concentric shapes.
  • Super Ellipses - Drawing and editing super ellipses.
  • Super Shapes - Drawing and editing super shapes.