Line Drawing

There are 4 command buttons on the toolbar used to draw Straight Objects, Curved Lines, Circles and other Shapes. Each command button is followed by a button that changes the action (and Icon) on the command button.

Some commands display controls on the Status Line to change line width, color or other attributes of the object.

• Straight Objects are created by Left-Dragging on the layout. If Draw Straight Objects is Sticky, Shift-Left-Drag will use the End-Point of the previous line as the starting point.
  • Creates a Straight Line of specified color and width.
  • Creates a Dimension Line of various sizes.
  • Creates Benchwork using different types and orientation of lumber.
  • Creates a Table Edge
  
  
• Curved Lines are created in the same manner as curved tracks.
  • Select the start of the curve and drag in the direction of the curve.
  • Select one end of the curve and drag to the center.
  • Select the center of the curve and drag to one end.
  • Drag from one end of the curve to the other to form the chord of the curve.
  Next drag on the Red arrows to adjust the curve.
  
• Circles and Filled Circles are created by selecting either the center position or a point on the edge of the circle and dragging to specify the radius.
  • Select a point on the edge of the circle and drag to the center.
  • Select the center and drag to set the radius.
  
  
• Shapes are drawn by:
  • Boxes and Filled Boxes are created by selecting one corner and dragging the opposite corner. A Box is composed of four lines which may be individually deleted.
  • Poly Lines and Polygons are created by Left-Dragging, and a corner is placed when you release the Left mouse button. The Poly shape is finished by pressing the Space key or by selecting another operation.

The Status Bar contains:

• Straight Line, Curved Line, Circle, Box or Poly Line: the Line Width and Color. The Line Width is specified in pixels for the current Drawing Scale. If you Zoom In or Out the lines will be drawn wider or narrower.
• Filled Circles or Polygons: the Color.
• Dimension Line: the size (Tiny, Small, Medium or Large)
• Benchwork: type and size of the lumber (regular rectangular, L-Girder or T-Girder) and orientation.

Note: on 256 color displays the button color may not be the same as the color on the layout due to differences in the way colors are rendered on buttons.

If you hold down the Control key while creating or modifying lines and shapes then the cursor will be attracted to other objects.

Benchwork Notes:

• Lumber is drawn using the Dressed size which is 0.25" smaller than the indicated size: 1"x2" actually measures 0.75"x1.75". The drawn height of Girders is 0.5" smaller.
• Girders can be drawn in a variety of orientations: normal, inverted or rotated. L-Girders can be drawn with the flange to the Left or Right.
• When using metric units, a 1"x2" is labeled 50mm x 25mm

Objects can be changed by the Modify Command:

• The End-Points of a Line, Dimension Line, Table Edge or Benchwork can be dragged to new positions. A Box is treated as 4 Lines.
• An Curved Line is modified in same manner as modifying a curved track.
• Selecting a corner of a Poly Line, Filled Box or Polygon moves that corner to a new position, and if moved close to a neighboring corner will merge the two corners and delete the edge between them. Selecting an edge will create a corner that can be dragged to a new position.

The Describe command can be used to change the color and width of the Lines and Shapes.

The Group command can be used to group Lines and Shapes to form Structures or to add them to Turnouts.

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