The Toolbox - Dimension Category

Dimension category consists of tools which are especially useful to gauge the lenght of an object and to display it to the monitor. This can be achieved by creating a gauge line scattered in and around the object depend on which side of object you want to gauge.

Drawing Dimension Line
To be able to gauge a certain length of an object, first you have to draw the dimension line. Please do the following steps to begin:

1. Create a random object to be gauged 

 

2. Look for freehand icon and hold it for a moment using mouse button to display dimension tool among others

3. Choose dimension tool   

4. Six kinds of dimension tools should emerge at property bar. Each one carry separate functionality as follows: 

• Auto dimension tool , to gauge an object both horizontally and vertically

• Vertical dimension tool , to gauge an object vertically
• Horizontal dimension tool , to gauge an object horizontally
• Slanted dimension tool , to gauge an object with a tilted dimension line
• Callout tool , to draw callout object
• Angular dimension tool , to gauge obliqueness degree of certain object's corner

5. Choose horizontal or vertical dimension tool to gauge the object we previously created.

6. Determine spesific gap you wish to gauge between two separate points of object by determining the starting point and endpoint of dimensione line using mouse. 

7. Then "move" the dimension line either ups or down to display the length between two points.

Below is an example of object gauged using 2 dimension lines:

Callout Tool
You can add information to object you create using callout tool. That is, by drawing a 'marker-line' alongside the object and then type spesific information regarding the object. Notice the following steps for more detailed explanation:

1. Create an object

 

2. Click callout tool , give one click on certain spot and move your mouse-pointer to another spot

3. Give a second click to start another branch of line and again move the pointer to another spot. For example: to the right of object

4. Type the information you want to add. For example: trapezoid

The Toolbox - Connector Category

Different than "shape or curve category" tools, connectors are not functioned to draw objects. Instead, they are used to make a connection among two objects. If you connect one object to another using a connector, then wherever you move one of the object, the connector would still attached to both objects. To start using connector, first you have to look for freehand icon, and click and hold the icon to display the connector tool among many other tools:

Next, click on connector tool and look above at property bar. There are two kinds of connector tools that will pop-up at the center of it:

The first is angled connector button and the second is straight connector, both of which have slight different traits:

1. Straight Connector Tool
Straight connector tool is used to connect two objects with straight line. To start using it:

• Create two objects which will be connected, in this case I drew star and polygon objects

 

• Click straight-connector button on property bar
• Press and hold your mouse pointer at one side of first object and spread it to another one of the second object
  
  
  
   

2. Angled Connector Tool
In the same way we create straight connector, we can also connect two objects using angled connector:

• First, create two objects which will be connected, in this case (again) I drew star and polygon objects

 

• Click angled-connector button on property bar
• Press and hold your mouse button at one side of first object and spread it to another side of the second object

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