Is it possible, is there a trick?

[DavidCousins]

I love the spine drawing in vcarve. Both the straight line and curved line functions.

Still I'm looking, wondering, if there is a magic key while drawing a spine. A key that I can press to magically make the next point a corner point.

How many times, I'm tracing a smooth outline, when I need a corner. Then back to the smooth curves I'd go.

Is there such a magic key?

What do you guys do to solve this dilemma?
Dave

[TReischl]

That would be a good one! I have the same problem in Corel X3, all I can do is go back and tell it that the point is a cusp and move the arrows until it is lined up.

Would be MUCH nicer your way.

Yup

[darde]

In corel I just put in about 3 or four points very close together by zooming in on the area that I want to look sharp. It will look like a sharp point or be close enough for the cuts that I do.

[Tony Mac]

Dave,

No magic button. The way I work is to sketch the smooth curves and then use the Node Editing tools to convert the curves to lines or change a node from smooth (blue) to a discontinuity (black) and pull the handles around to match the desired shape.

It's worth noting that the Node Editing keyboard shortcuts really do help when doing this type of work, and worth taking a few minutes to review and try to remember.

See - Help > Help Contents > Keyboard Shortcuts

I hope this helps,

Tony

[Paco]

That's interesting... I mostly trace and draw with polyline tool then smooth afterward. The only time I use spline freehand drawing is when I don't see any corner on what I need to trace.

Still, while drawing with spline, it could be of a better workflow if there would be a key to draw a non-smooth point/node and corner it right away...

[maxmachine]

I find it easier to create (in corel) straight line segments over a bit map, then go back and convert to curves those sement that need it. It is faster than most other methods (at least for me).

I find that any simple logo will take from1/2 hr to 1 hr to get it right, assuming I can find a close font for any text items.

Mark