Corners Tool

Drawing Corners

Use the "Corner Tool" (shown above) which is found on the Tools Palette to draw a 90 arc of a circle or ellipse. If the palette is not visible open it by selecting "Tools" from the "View" item of the "Main Menu". The new corner is drawn on EazyDraw’s front window. The desired window must be brought to the front before clicking on the tool.

Corners are drawn by clicking the "Corner Tool Button" on the "Tools Palette". The "Rectangle Creation Cursor" reflects the tool selection when the mouse is over the front drawing window. The corner is drawn with a click and drag, the first click down defines one end of the arc the drag motion will create and define the other end of the arc.

Snapping actions will define the positions of the ends of the arc. Snapping to grids or vertices is supported. This allows convenient connection of two perpendicular lines with a well defined rounded corner.

The shift key is used to make the two dimensions of the corner equal so that the arc is and arc of a circle with equal radius at each end.

The arc can have varying radial values, similar to the Smooth, Shape and Round settings available on the Transform menu. The Smooth setting provides a normal arc of a circle or ellipse with a constant or linearly varying radius. Shape and Round provide a tighter corner that has more square characteristics. See the example on the left below. While creating one of these corner arcs, hold down the Apple-Command key to apply the Shaped corner and the Option Key to apply the Rounded shape.

The direction of the dragging motion will define the quadrant for the arc. The relative location for the first click and final drag position define the end points and the quadrant of orientation for the corner. During the creation motion the Control key will flip the arc to be an inverse corner shape, or corner of the opposite quadrant.

All corners are created with an orthogonal orientation that may be thought of as horizontal or vertical. After creation the orientation of the corner may be adjusted to any angle with the rotation handle that is shown with a light arc passing through the interactive editing handle.

A light blue (factory default color) interactive editing handle is provided for adjusting the shape of the corner. This handle provides a continuous adjustment from the Round shape through the Shaped to the Smoothed values. If the shift key is applied while adjusting the settings will lock to the three discrete values.

This graphic shape only provides arc sweeps of 90 degrees such as needed to form corners for orthogonal - perpendicular lines. The more generalized Arc and Pie tools are needed for arcs of continuously varying sweep angles.

A common use for this tool is to connect and form a corner for two orthogonal lines. Since the snapping focus for this shape is the ends of the arc, these will easily snap to and connect the ends of the lines.

If it is needed to provide a joining corner for two lines that are not horizontal and vertical, Guide line snapping may be used with a Corner graphic to easily connect two perpendicular lines. First simply add a corner graphic to the drawing, don't attempt to connect with initially creation of the corner. Then enable Guide Line snapping and orient the corner to be parallel to one of the lines. Then enable vertex snapping and connect the ends of the corner to the ends of the lines.