Object Description | Symmetric Shapes

#
Editing Control Points

To move, delete or add
, open or close
, or to convert segments from one form (line, gap, cubic Bézier) to another, first |
| the path, and then either click on the edit path icon or select Edit->Path->Edit Path (`Ctrl-I`). (Note that you should not have any other
selected.) The path will then be displayed in draft format. The currently selected control point and the currently selected segment will appear in red. The other control points will be orange.

A
object can have its underlying path edited in the same way as a normal
, but in edit mode you will also see the text (without anti-aliasing).

Use one of the following methods to select a control point:

- Click on the control point. (If two or more points coincide with the location of the mouse, the point with the lowest
  will be selected.) Remember that if the
  lock is on, mouse clicks will be translated to the nearest tick mark, so even if the pointer is positioned over a control point, the nearest tick mark may be outside the control point. In which case the required control point won't be selected, and you will either select a neighbouring point or exit edit mode.

- Press `F6` until the required control point is selected. (You will need to use this method if two or more control points are in the same location and you don't want the one with the lowest index. You will also need to use this method if the grid lock is on and the control point's bounding box doesn't lie on a tick mark.)

Use one of the following methods to move a control point:

- Use the mouse to drag the point to its new location.
- Use the edit path
  (`F3`) and select Co-ordinates... (`F7`). Enter the new co-ordinates in the dialog box. (You will need to use this method if two or more control points are in the same location and you don't want to move the one with the lowest
  . You will also need to use this method if the
  lock is on and the control point's bounding box doesn't lie on a tick mark or if you want to move the point by an interval that is not a multiple of the gap between tick marks.)
- Use the edit path
  and select Snap To Grid to move the control point to the nearest tick mark.

To exit edit mode either deselect the edit path tool (`Ctrl-I`) or click on the
somewhere outside of the control points. Note that you can not edit a
if it belongs to a
; you must first |
|.

Whilst a path is in edit mode, you can use the edit path
which provides functions to select or edit control points or the segments that they define. The following functions are available:

Next Control (`F6`)
  Select the next
  . This is an alternative to using the mouse to select the point.

Previous Control (`Shift-F6`)
  Select the previous control point.

Delete Point (`Delete`)
  Delete the currently selected control point. (This function is not available for control points that govern the curvature of Bézier segments.) If the control point is the first or last point in an open path it will delete the corresponding segment, otherwise it will replace two adjacent segments with a single segment. If the path is open and only has one segment, or if the path is closed and has two segments, deleting a control point will delete the path or the
  object.8.1

Add Point (`Insert`)
  Add a new control point in the middle of a segment (thus replacing a single segment with two segments). This will actually add three new points if the segment is a Bézier curve as it will also create the required curvature
  .

Convert To Line
  Convert a curve segment or a gap to a line segment.

Convert To Curve
  Convert a line segment or a gap to a curve segment. The curvature control points will be positioned so that the segment forms a straight line. These can then be moved as required.

Convert To Move
  Convert a line or curve segment to a gap.

Path Symmetry
  This submenu can be used to add symmetry to the selected
  . (See Symmetric Shapes for further details.)

Make Continuous
  If the currently selected segment is a Bézier segment, this function will move the curvature control point so that the gradient at the join is continuous. For example, in Figure 8.4 the path was originally an open line path with three line segments. The middle segment was selected and converted to a Bézier curve using the Convert To Curve function (Figure 8.4(a)). The Make Continuous function was then used to change the starting gradient of the Bézier segment to make a smooth join between the first two segments (Figure 8.4(b)). The Bézier curve's third control point, which governs the end curvature, was selected, and the Make Continuous function was again used to change the end gradient of the Bézier segment to make a smooth join between the last two segments (Figure 8.4(c)).

  | (a) |
  | (b) | (c) |
  Figure 8.4: Making the join between segments continuous: (a) the middle segment of an open line path has been converted into a Bézier curve; (b) the gradient at the start of the curve is now the same as the gradient at the end of the previous segment; (c) the gradient at the end of the curve is now the same as the gradient at the start of the next segment.

Open Path Menu
  Open a closed
  . There are two options available:

  Open Path->Remove Last Segment
    Opens the path, removing the last segment (Figure 8.5(b)).

  Open Path->Keep Last Segment
    Opens the path, but keeps the last segment (Figure 8.5(b)).

  | (a) | (b) | (c) |
  Figure 8.5: Opening a path: (a) the original closed path; (b) the path in (a) was opened, removing the final segment; (c) the path in (a) was open, keeping the last segment.

Close Path Menu
  Close an open path. There are three options available:

  Close Path->Close With Line
    Close the path with a line between the last and first control points of the original path (Figure 8.6(a)).

  Close Path->Close With Curve
    Close the path with a Bézier curve between the last and first control points such that the curve is continuous at the join between the first and last segments of the original path (Figure 8.6(b)).

  Close Path->Merge Ends
    Close the path, merging the last control point of the original path with the first control point (Figure 8.6(c)).

  | (a) |
  | (b) | (c) | (d) |
  Figure 8.6: Closing a path: (a) the original path; (b) the path in (a) was closed with a line; (c) the path in (a) was closed with a curve continuous at the join between adjacent segments; (d) the path in (a) was closed, merging the end points

Co-ordinates... (`F7`)
  This menu item will display a dialog box in which you can set the
  x and y values (instead of dragging the point to the required location).

Snap To Grid
  Move the currently selected control point to the nearest tick mark.

Break path
  Break the path into two separate paths at the end of the currently selected segment (not at the currently selected control point). If the object is a text-path, the new text-paths will both have the same text (that is, the text is not broken between them).

See also:

- Reversing a Path's Direction
- Merging Paths
- Path Union
- Exclusive Or Function
- Path Intersection
- Path Subtraction
- Converting to a Path
- Line Colour
- Fill Colour
- Line Style
- Step-by-Step Example: Lettuce on Toast
- Step-by-Step Example: Bus
- Step-by-Step Example: A House With No Mouse

#### Footnotes

... object.8.1
  The text will also be lost.

Object Description | Symmetric Shapes