Extend and Trim

Extend and Trim

Related Information

Combine Menu

Pin Angle

Knife

The Extend and Trim submenus provide a method to automatically set the start or end of a line, path or curve exactly at a the intersection with a neighboring graphic.

A convenience short cut for these actions ia a Double click on the end of a selected graphic, different modifier keys may be needed.

These menus are found on the Tools main menu, Combine submenu.

Extend will lengthen a line, path or curve. The extended length will terminate exactly at the first intersecting graphic encountered along the virtual extended path. In the case of a curve, the extended length follows a line tangent to the curve at the end of the curve.

The extension can be applied to the start or end of the line, path or curve

Trim will shorten a line, path, or curve. The new shorter length will terminate exactly at the first intersecting graphic encountered on the line, path or curve. For Trimming, the actual curve is used rather than the tangent at the corresponding end.

Trimming can apply at the start or end of the line path or curve. In the case of a Bezier path or curve, only the first or last segment is considered for the Trim action; if an intersection is present but is present in one of the interior segments - there will be no trim action.

The intersecting graphic will be any graphic with a path. The intersecting graphic can be closed or open. The Trim - or - Extend graphic must not be closed, the action applies only at an end.

A line can be extended with a simple double click on the desired end point handle of the line. It must be selected before the double click. Cmd-Double Click the end of a line to trim it back to an intersecting graphic.

Curves and Paths are trimmed with a Cmd-Double Click to an end (when selected), just as in the case of a line. Since Curves and Paths are Closed with a double click to an end, Option Double CLick is used as the short cut to Extend Curves and Paths.

Double click on the end of an open curve or path will automatically close the graphic. Therefore the Command Key or the Option key are needed for the Extend or Trim interpretation of the double click. Option Double Click (exactly on the end handle of a selected graphic) extends the path. Command Double CLick trims the path.

If there is nothing present to intersect the extended or trimmed path, the default "beep" is issued and nothing is changed.

The Extend command interacts with the viewable portion of the drawing. Only graphics that are visible on the screen are sensed and considered for the extend intersection. This means that results may vary and are controlled by the current zoom and visible portion of the drawing.

Pinning a line's angle is another technique for the same result. If Vertex snapping is "on" and the angle of a line is pinned , interactive editing of the line end will snap exactly to the intersection of a graphic as the end approaches within the snap distance. The end result for both techniques will be the same. The interactive pinned method provides a bit more control, the double click method is quicker.

If the angle of a line is pinned, extended past an intersecting graphic. Then the Knife tool can be used to exactly trim both graphics at the intersection. This alternate process applies if both graphics need to be trimmed to form an new corner, perhaps for the Weld command.