Spline Polyline

Click the Home | Draw | Line | Spline Polyline command to draw a spline polyline. A spline polyline is a smooth, flowing polyline with no sharp or distinct angles. You can choose a line style, line color, opacity, width, and arrowhead style for the spline polyline display.

Spline Polyline Properties

Spline polylines contain line properties. You can change these properties in the Property Manager.

Drawing a Spline Polyline

To draw a spline polyline:

  1. Click the Draw | Spline Polyline command to enter drawing mode and begin drawing a spline polyline.

  2. Move the cross-hair pointer over the location for the start of the spline polyline and click the left mouse button.

  3. Move the pointer to the next position along the line and click again. Generate the spline polyline by clicking on the anchor points during the polygon creation. The anchor points identify a change in the spline polyline's shape and direction. Notice that the spline polyline shape is visible and that you can change its curvature by moving the mouse.

  4. Continue clicking on the anchor points until you click the final point, then press the ENTER key. Alternatively double-click the left mouse button to set the final point and complete the spline polyline. The new spline polyline is drawn.

  5. Press the ESC key, click the Spline Polyline command, or click another command to exit drawing mode.

Spline Polyline
This shows a Spline Polyline drawn through three points.

 

Drawing Tips

  • Click points on the page to draw a spline polyline, or click and hold the left mouse button and drag the pointer to draw a continuous stream of points. When drawing a stream of points the plot window auto-scrolls to keep the cursor in the plot window.

  • If the CTRL key is pressed while clicking points, the points are constrained to 45-degree angles.

  • Click the right mouse button to remove the last drawn point. Repeated clicking of the right mouse button removes all points in reverse order.

  • Double-click the left mouse button or press the ENTER key to close the spline polyline.

  • Press the ESC key to cancel drawing the spline polyline before ending the line.

  • Click the Insert | Reshape command to change the spline polyline's shape.

  • Edit the spline polyline properties in the Property Manager.

  • Change the properties for a group of selected spline polylines in the Property Manager.

  • Use the File | Options command to set the default line properties for the spline polyline.

  • Drawing mode is persistent for each individual plot document. You can switch to other documents or applications, and spline polyline drawing mode will still be enabled when you return to the plot document. Other plot documents may have a different draw tool or the select tool enabled.

See Also

Spline Polygon

Polyline

Polygon

Line Properties

Insert Tab Commands

Home Tab Commands