Thursday 4 January 2018

Canvas - Draw your own shapes - Path and FreeHand Tools and Node Editing Overview

Ok this is going to be a sub series of posts initially.  Based on what I know and am finding out as I go along, this post is a basic overview - here is the plan:

1. This one , in three parts, about the Path (drawing straight lines) and Freehand (drawing freehand) Tools in Canvas. I do own a Graphics Tablet but it's upstairs, I've no stairlift yet and also, I've never used it, so all this is going to be on a laptop using the touch pad.

2. The Node Editing functions - these allow you to change the shape of a preinstalled pattern or one you've drawn with Path or Freehand Tools.

3. Using the Path Tool to make curved lines (you need to know about node editing to do this effectively, hence the order).

4. A quick and dirty way of getting your scanned in file to cut reasonably well using the Path tool and then a bit of node editing if the new line needs to be curved.

5. My current best effort on how to change the shape so that lines that joined up before, don't now. The example for this one is the pre installed NOEL word (Logo section in Canvas) where I wanted to work out how to stop the centre of the E falling out (it's in lower case...)  If I find a better way in Canvas I'll do another post but for now, this is the sum total of my knowledge!





So. Off we go - drawing straight lines and doing freehand drawing using the Path and Free Tools.

WHAT TOOLS ARE AVAILABLE TO DRAW MY OWN SHAPES IN CANVAS?

Two tools:
  • Path Tool - at it's most basic, this draws a straight line. You click the screen where you want it to start, move your cursor without holding down the mouse button and when you are where you want the line to be, click the screen again, and Canvas puts a straight cut line from one point to the other. You then have a SINGLE STRAIGHT CUT LINE. You can do more straight lines building on the first one to make a shape that makes a full outline without an end or beginning. Or you can have a series of straight lines. All depends what you want to do!

    You can ALSO keep your cursor on the start point and end points and create Contol Points to create and alter curved lines (but that will be another post after the Node Editing one because it helps if you know the Node Editing tools to use it effectively).
  • Freehand Tool - this draws a line like a pencil, the line goes wherever you take it (wibbly and unuseable in my case). Again you have a start point and an end point, but the USER mouse or touchpad movements are recorded from the Start and End Point. I strongly suspect that (a) it's supposed to be used with a graphics pen or package to be remotely useable and (b) a dodgy internet connection or if Canvas is running slowly is likely to result in unanticipated results. That said, there's a time and a place for it!
  • Finally you can also turn Path Tool lines from straight to curved using the Node Editing Tools and also change the direction the lines you have drawn using Path or Freehand using Node Editing Tools. But, that's coming later, we are starting with just those 2 basic tools.
But before we go onto the tools, let's consider what sort of things we can and can't do with Canvas and the Machine - to do with line thickness for cutting and drawing

CAN I DO REALLY THICK LINES? - FOR CUTTING AND DRAWING?

1. No, you can't change the basic line from a thin line to a thick brushstroke like you can in graphics packages like Paint or Inkscape. Why not? because this is NOT a graphics package, this is a piece of software primarily designed to help you place cut lines.  A graphics package can also produce 'art' type drawings with shading that you can print out. The Scan N Cut Canvas is NOT designed to do this. Mostly because the machine isn't designed to do this.

A cut line can only be as thick as the blade, and cut marks make HOLES. So, if you want a hole that looks like a brushmark, what you actually need is TWO lines, one for each side of the width of the line so that the centre (the brushmark width) hole falls out.

2. Ok but the machine can draw. Lines need to be able to be drawn thin or thick? Surely?

Yes. You are right. And, there's different ways to make a drawn line ON YOUR CHOSEN MEDIA (ie the output result) thicker than the basic cut line.

- You can use a thick nib pen (I'd advise bullet not chisel cos bullet is the same width all the way around so the turns the machine makes will make an even line. Try a chisel one if you want, but don't blame me if it breaks your machine or holder. If you want italics type writing, do it with inside and outside lines and use the fill function which I'm not covering here, will be in another post) in the Universal Pen Holder in the machine that will make a thicker line.  But for the machine's purposes of control, the machine doesn't care how thick your nib is, what your machine cares about is getting from start to end in the desired direction. So you ONLY need the standard 'thin' cut line, (set as a Draw line if appropriate) and it's the THICKNESS of the NIB of the pen the USER CHOOSES  that dictates how thick the line is drawn.

- You can do multiple lines, in close proximity that when drawn out, look like a single wide line using a thin or medium nib pen. Effectively the machine will draw one line, then another next to it (and so on depending on how many you set up) which will LOOK as though it was drawn by a wide nib pen. This is useful if either you don't own a wide nib pen or want a wider line than your stock of pens will allow. Unfortunately I can't remember where I saw this, but I'll find it and cover it in a post on Draw function in due course.

3. Finally it can fill shapes (see below) rather like you do when you do colouring in (adult colouring books obviously!) It can also do patterns to fill in a shape.

You can tell the machine to draw an outline, say of an italic font, and to FILL the insides of the outline - how it does this is to effectively 'colour' it in.

There's a variety of patterns you can use, diapered like with jacobean embroidery, crosshatching type thing etc. There's several sorts. All currently unexplored by me so that's all I know....

Assuming your machine has the latest software upgrade (of course it does, you read the whole series and instantly did this because you were so thrilled by the new functionalities it give!) then I know you can do this via SETTINGS WRENCH button in the machine itself. I've not tried to do it in Canvas yet. So, I'll cover that in later post when I find out and blog about what the Draw function does.

Note: If you are doing Pattern or Solid Fill -  remember this is for DRAWING only.

I strongly suggest you set the shape to DRAW ONLY line in Canvas so that you don't end up with the machine trying to colour in a shape with the cutting blade *shudders* I have no idea if that would be more damaging that merely a hot mess, but let's NOT do that! Let's make sure that if you want to fill in outlines, you save them as DRAW lines IF you can set fill in Canvas (not sure you can, and if you can't - this may well be why!!!!)


Ok. Back to the Path and Freehand Tools - sticking to making holes - ie cutting lines for this post.

WHERE TO FIND THESE TWO TOOLS - that create one's own lines or shapes

Usual starting point - log into Canvas and click New Project.

In the top line of icons immediately above the mat space - the Tool Bar -  you will see that with an empty New Project the 'live' icon is always the Select Tool, it's on the tool bar immediately below the Project Tab. This is ALWAYS the icon Canvas goes back to as default. So if you get lost and aren't sure which function you are using, just click on that one and then you can start over.

Select Tool - pink diagonal arrow

Path Tool - This is the zigzag to the right of the Select Tool with 3 dots.
Path Tool - for Straight Lines and Geometric Shapes and Curved Shapes
Hover over it and it will come up with Path Tool label.



Freehand Tool - this is the Pencil and squiggle to the right of the Path Tool (above).  It enables you to draw a line as though your mouse is a pencil on the screen.


I think that's quite enough information for one post. Next post is going to be how to use the Path Tool to make single straight lines and geometric shapes, both without any colour and with colour (they do different things depending on what action you use) HERE.




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