Spline Continued

You can create open or closed splines. When the Outline inspector is activated (it is always activated when new objects are created), you can control whether the outlined spline is open or closed with the Open Path and Close Path buttons in the Attributes inspector. When the Outline inspector is not activated, the spline is closed and filled with the color that appears in the Plain Fill color well in the Attributes inspector (please refer to the descriptions of the Attributes and Outline inspectors in Chapter 4).

You can also use menu commands from the Splines/Lines submenu of the Object menu to affect spline curves:

Tense causes the control handles of each object handle to contract, causing the curves of the object to become less curved. This will affect the entire object unless only one object handle is selected. Then, it will only affect the object handle that is selected. To select an object handle, just click on it. Tense moves the control handles closer to their associated object handle.

Loosen causes the control handles of each object handle to loosen or become more curved. This command will affect the entire object, unless only one object handle is selected. Then, it will only affect the selected handle. Loosen moves the control handles away from their associated object handle.

Collapse causes the control handles of each object handle to contract completely until the object becomes a poly line object. The control handles are still there and can be dragged out to create a curve again. This will affect the entire object unless only one object handle is selected. Then, it will only affect the handle that is selected.

Animate sets all control handles in an object into an automatic Loosen cycle until the mouse is clicked. If one handle is selected it will only affect that handle.

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Chapter 3: Creating and Editing

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Created by Stone Design's Create on 4/26/2003