Page 162 - Xara Designer Pro X17

162 Drawing Lines and Shapes

All lines and shapes in Xara Designer Pro X are made from a sequence of curve and line
sections. Curves are sometimes called "Bézier" curves after the mathematician who first
described them.

Although this section describes the SHAPE TOOL, you
can also edit lines and shapes using the SELECTORTOOL
if you have the SHOW EDIT OBJECT handles button
selected on the SELECTORTOOL InfoBar.

The sections or segments of a line are marked by small black point handles. You can
drag, add and delete these handles to manipulate the shape of the line or outline.

Some objects such as quickshapes, rectangles, ellipses, and text have to be converted
into editable shapes before you can use the SHAPE TOOL on them. Select the "ARRANGE"
> "CONVERT TO EDITABLE SHAPE" menu ("Ctrl + Shift + S") to do this.

To draw a straight line segment
Using the SHAPE TOOL, start a straight line:

1. Click where you want to start the line. You can start a line at either end; you don’t
have to work left to right, or top-to-bottom. This creates a point handle, and is
displayed as a red square to indicate that it is the selected handle.
2. If necessary select the MAKE LINE button on the InfoBar ("L"). This ensures the next
click will draw a straight line segment.

Either click where you want the next point
handle to be, or click and drag, and then
release the mouse button when the line is
correct. This creates a line segment and
selects the new end point handle.