Cycle Brush

Cycle Brush

Related Information

Brushes Palette

Use Brush

Brush Scratch Pad

Brush Fit

Path Tool

Bezier Tool

Cycle Brush

The Cycle Brush Method repeats the Brush Stroke Path along the full length of the master path. Controls are provided to seamlessly match the end of the Brush Stroke Path with the start of the next in the sequence.

Exact configuration of the Brush palette shown here to the left will vary with choice of Brush Method (the top popup menu). Your Brush Palette may look different if you are inspecting a different kind of Brush.

The Cycle Brush Method repeats the Brush Stroke Path along the full length of the master path. It is similar to an Interval or Sequence brush but this method is designed to seamlessly match the end of the Brush Stroke Path with the start of the next in the sequence.

These elements are found on the Inspect tab of the Brushes palette which is accessed from the Tools main menu, about one third down from the top. These brush design elements (surrounding the brush preview area) appear when working with a Cycle brush.

The Cycle Brush Method repeats a defined portion of the Brush Stroke Path along the full length of the master path. The sub-portion of the Brush Stroke Path is defined to have matching end (start and finish) orthogonal (or "y") values. This matching property ensures continuity (no breaks) as the repetitions are drawn along the master path. In some cases the originating Brush Stroke Path will be designed to also have matching slope at the start and finish; support is provided for this additional constraint.

There are two key controls for a Cycle Brush, they are the indicators along the bottom of the design preview area. They have a vertical line that extends up to the Brush Stroke Path. They control (and indicate) the limits (start and finish) for the Cycle brush (the sub-portion of the defining Brush Stroke Path). The left one is always the light blue, the right one is either blue or red. The left one is positioned independently, simply slide it along to the desired starting point for the repeating cycle. The right one traverses up to the y-value of the left indicator, then it extends to the left back to a matching y-value on the Brush Stroke path, this becomes the end of the cycle as used in the brush.

If the right indicator is blue that means the finishing in the same direction as the start, so the brush path on the master path will be smooth and continuous. If the indicator shows in red that means the finishing direction is not the same as the start, in this case the drawn path will be continuous but there will be a peak or break in slope between cycles.

The blue indicator on the left edge of the inspection preview adjusts the brush's amplitude. There is no support for a master transform for the Cycle Brush Method, but this adjuster provides a small range of amplitude adjustment for the brush. The numerical value for the amplitude factor is shown just above the preview, on the left.

Sync Cycle (checkbox above the preview, on the right) will adjust the scaling along the master path to cause an exact even integral number of cycles to exactly fit along the length of the master path. This is useful in many cases, especially if the master path closes on itself. For example the "flower-petal-circle" seen below needs the full cycles at the start and finish to match exactly for proper appearance.

The start and finish indicators have numerical inspection and input. The values are shown just below the design preview area, start on the left and finish on the right. The values are defined as percentage of the straight line length of the Brush Stroke Path.

A Cycle brush will likely use a Brush Stroke Path that is itself a cyclical function. EazyDraw's Math tools palette has provides several well defined cyclical functions. These functions support multiple cycles, but in their natural form the cyclical curve is traced along a straight "x" axis. A Cycle brush with a cyclical Brush Stroke Path allows the curve to trace along a curved or otherwise more complex master path.

In the theme of "one drawing is worth a thousand words", it is much easier to understand this brush method from the visual examples below than from the intricate written explanations above.