The Toolbox - Shape Category

In the second part of my tutorial regarding the CorelDRAW toolbox, I would like to epxlain the second category of tools which functionality is to draw shaped-objects. Tools which fall in this category are used to draw a shaped-object like a square, triangle or a circle, or any form of shape which is essentially not a simple line. I'd like to call them 'shape-category tools' to distinguish them to the previous category. Here they are:

1. Drawing a square object

There are two tools to draw a square object, one is rectangle tool and the other is 3-point rectangle tool. The first is used to draw a square object while the latter to draw a square with certain degree of object's obliqueness. To use rectangle tool:

• Click rectangle tool or press F6
• Press and hold your mouse button and move the pointer to shape a rectangular object
• To draw a square object, press and hold ctrl button and do the second step
• To draw a rectangular object from a center point, press and hold shift button then do the second step
• Otherwise, press shift+ctrl to create a square object from a center point  

 

Meanwhile to use 3-point rectangle tool:

• Click 3-point rectangle tool
• Press and hold your mouse-button then move your mouse-pointer randomly to determine the object's width, then release the left-click button. Move again your-mouse pointer to determine the object's length then give another click.

After creating the square object, you can modify its angles obliqueness. To do this, first highlight the property bar, then change the value of its four angles by pressing up button. The more value you give, the more convex the angle would be.

2. Drawing an eclipse object

To draw an oval object, you can use eclipse tool or 3-point eclipse tool. While eclipse tool is used to draw a simple oval object, the 3-point eclipse tool is used to draw a similar object with certain degree of obliqueness. To start drawing the object, do the following steps:

• Click eclipse tool or press F7 
• Press and hold your mouse-button, then move your pointer to shape the object
• To draw a circle object, press and hold Ctrl button and do the second step
• To draw an oval from a center point, press and hold shift button then do the second step 
• To draw a circle object from a center point, press and hold ctrl+shift then do the second step

Meanwhile, to start using 3-point eclipse tool:

• Click 3-point rectangle tool  
• Press and hold your mouse-button and move the pointer randomly to determine the circle's diameter
• If it is done, release your hold then move again the pointer to start shaping the object

After the eclipse object is shaped*, you can further modify it through the property bar. Do one among three tasks below to modify the object:

• Click eclipse icon to draw an oval/circle object
• Click pie icon and adjust object's value on property bar to cut some of its part
• Click arc icon and adjust object's value on property bar to change it into a curve line or "incomplete" circle

*Note: this modification can also be carried out beforehand.

3. Drawing a polygon object

The next tool in shape category is polygon tool which is useful to draw a polygon object. To begin using it:

• Click polygon tool or press Y
• Press and hold your mouse button and move the pointer randomly to shape the object
• Adjust how much side the polygon would have by changing its value on property bar 
• Otherwise, hold ctrl button to shape simmetrical polygon

4. Drawing a Star Object

To draw a star object, use star tool. The steps are as follows:

• Click star tool
• Press and hold your mouse button, and move the pointer randomly to start shaping the object
• Adjust the points or sides value on the property bar to determine the quantity of object's facet

You can also edit the star object's sharpness to change the sharpness of its corners.

5. Drawing a Complex Star

Almost similar to star object is complex star object, which shape is more elaborated than the first. To create complex star:  

• Click complex star tool  
• Press and hold your mouse button, and move the pointer randomly to start shaping the object
• Adjust the number of object's side and sharpness on property bar

         

6. Drawing object with Graph Paper

Graph paper is a tool in Corel Draw used to create a square object with a divider inside it, and which the drawing result would pretty much look like a table. To create graph paper object, do following steps:

• Click graph paper tool
• Determine the quanitity of column and row on property bar  
• Press and hold your mouse button, and start shaping graph paper object by moving the mouse pointer 

7. Drawing a Spiral Object

A spiral object can be drawn with spiral tool. To start shaping the object, do the following steps:

• Click spiral tool or press A
• Adjust the object's properties on property bar with consideration to tools functionality below:  
• Spiral revolutions tool, to determine the quantity of object's spool  
• Symmetrical spiral tool, to shape symmetrical spiral object 
• Logarithmic spiral tool, to shape incremental spiral object (the length between object's spool has gradual increase
• Spiral expansion factor bar, to determine the weight of gradual increase in object's diameter for   logarithmic spiral object

• If you're done adjsuting the object properties, press and hold your mouse button and move the mouse pointer to shape the spiral object         

 

8. Drawing Basic Shapes

What refers to basic shapes in Corel Draw are objects such as arrow, comic balloon, flowchart, banner and so on. You can shape them using basic shapes tool which consitutes five different main shapes.

Do the following steps to begin:

• Press and hold basic shapes button so as to make appear the basic shapes sub-menu:

• Choose one among five shapes, for example click arrow shapes button
• Click perfect shapes button on property bar to pop-up its sub-menu:
  
  
  

• Choose one among many icons, for example click "interrupted-right" arrow icon  
• Press and hold your mouse button, and move the pointer to certain direction to begin shaping the object
  

Below are basic shapes available in X4 version:

•  Basic shapes which contain 'free-form' objects:

 

•  Arrow shapes which contains various kinds of arrow-shaped objects:

 

• Flowchart shapes which contains many form of objects used to make a flowchart diagram
   
  
  
  
  
  

• Banner shapes which contains five different kinds of banner objects
  
  
  

• Callout shapes , a group of "comic balloon" objects

The Toolbox - Curve Category

Hi again.

This time I'll explain more detail about the toolbox. As I stated before, toolbox serves as a means to create, manage and modify objects. Toolbox can be said as a main component that can be utilized to create designs. On toolbox there are various kinds of tools which can be categorized according to their unique functionality. They are, for example, curve-category tools, shape-category tools, dimension-category tools and so on. I will start with curve-category tools.

CURVE CATEGORY
Curve-category tools consists of tools to draw line and curve. You can also use Artistic Media tool to create a spray object, arabic-style line, or brush line.

1. Freehand Tool
Freehand tool is used to draw a free-line, or to shape object without boundaries (read: rules). The steps to use freehand tool are as follows:
a. Click on Freehand tool or press F5

b. Then do the following steps:

• To draw a straight line, click on any random point then move your mouse-pointer to another random point, and give another click.  
• To draw a free line, press and hold your mouse button at the starting point and move your mouse-pointer to wherever you like to shape the line.

• Meanwhile to close a free line, left-click on one tipping-point (node) of a free line and move your mouse to another tipping-point (node) and give another click.

2.Draw with Bezier
A little bit different with Freehand tool, Bezier is a tool to make both straigth and curve line. This tool also has its unique characteristic in which you must determine the next tipping-point to draw a line instead of drawing the line from the beginning..To use bezier tool do the following steps:

• Click Bezier tool

• To draw straight line, left-click on one random point then left-click on another random point to create a line. If you give subsequent left-click on another random point, the line will continues. To end the drawing process, simply click pick tool on the toolbox or press Enter.
• To draw a curve line, left-click on first random point then press and hold your mouse-button immediately at the second/other random point. The next step is to move your mouse-pointer to the opposite direction to where you want the curve line take shape and give another click.

• You can also draw a combination of straight and curve line.

3. Draw with Artistic Media
Artistic Media is a tool which distinctly unique compared to other tools on curve category in which it provides you with many interesting effects, and allows you to draw more than a common line. It produces a line with artistic flavor rather than a simple one. To use artistic media, do the following steps:

• Press and hold artistic media tool or press I.
• Move the brush freely to draw an object:

• There are five tipes of artistic media tool you can utilize. To switch between them, highlight the property bar and choose one of the tools below:
  
  
  
  
  
  

  • preset tool, to draw a ribbon-like closed-line
  • brush tool, to draw a brush line with various color and shape
  • sprayer tool, to draw a sprayed objects
  •   calligraphic tool, to draw an arabic-style or caligraphic letter
  •   pressure tool, do draw a trapezoid-like closed line

• Finally, you can adjust the shape and size of an artistic object on the property bar, by changing its value or simply choosing another variance:

Below are some example of artistic media variances:

 

 

4. Pen
Pen's utillity is akin to that of Bezier. The difference is that pen will provides you with a "visible" line as you move your mouse pointer acrross the worksheet. To use pen, do the following steps:

• Click pen tool   
• To draw a straight line, click on one random point then move your mouse-pointer to another random point and give another click. 
• To draw a curve line, click on one random point and move your mouse pointer to the second random point. While at the second random point, give another press and hold your mouse  button simultaneously, then begin shaping the curve line

To end the drawing process, press Enter.

5. Polyline
Polyline is very similar to Pen tool, at first you may find no difference between the two. Yet the difference will emerge when you draw a curve line. To use polyline tool, do the following steps:

• Click polyline tool  
• To draw a straight line, click on one random point and move your mouse pointer to another random point then give another click. 
• To draw a curve line, press and hold your mouse button then move the mouse pointer as freely as you want and try to shape a curve line.
• You can also combine between straight and free line.
• To end the drawing process, press Enter.

IMO, there is a downside of polyline tool compared to pen tool in which you can't undo the drawing process by pressing Ctrl + Z.

6. 3-Point Curve
3-Point Curve is a tool used to draw a curve line with 3-steps drawing process. To use 3-point curve:

• Click 3-Point Curve tool  
• To start drawing an object, press and hold your mouse-button at one random point and move the mouse pointer to another random point then release the mouse-button (these two points/coordinates act as the basis of the curve line). Next step is to move your mouse-pointer to the direction where you want the curve line take shape and give another click.
• Finish