can anyone help me with the graphic editing tools please?

[Andrew Ritchie]

which version of Signlab are you using?

[jennywho]

version 6.1

[Andrew Ritchie]

Drawing a arc will be tricky with the freehand pencil tool.
Try using your shapes to achieve other shapes i.e. draw a circle and weld a rectangle through the centre to leave a half cirle/arc.

Another way is to weld a rectangle, double click the shape and you should have a hairline rectangle with a circle node in each corner, move the cursor in between two of the nodes on the hair line and the cursor should change to a hand. Grab the line by clicking and holding the left mouse button and drag the line in the direction you want to make the arc.

Hope this makes some sense to you.

Andy 😎

[Peter Normington]

It may help if you use arc edit or node edit, jenny
In arc edit left click to creat a node, move the cursor to the next position, left click and hold, then you will be able to create an arc by moving the cursor, In node edit or freehand if you select a node and right click and hold, you can choose arc, tangent or right angle nodes, and create an arc etc.

Hope this helps. By the way, your avitar is a double of my niece!
Peter

[alan flynn]

hello jenny

if you go to arrange, go down to convert to, then click to polyarc, you can get great curves,
if you want to then go back to the other control points, just go back to convert to, and re click on polygon, and it will give you the old type of control points,
hope this is of help,
i am off know to look at rooneys foot, i will let you know the results tomorrow

[Rod Young]

quote jennywho:

I am starting to get into making shapes in signlab and I’m using the (pencil) graphics edit tools. i notice i can make shapes with this but I can’t seem to get a good arc with it. (i have yet to figure out how to make an arc with it at all) I have read the help section, and the signlab user guide is awful. is there anywhere on the net that has video’s of people making complex shapes like you can with the pen tool in illustrator or photoshop? or is there anyone that can explain to me in simple terms how to use it?

thanks…i’m really a newby.

There’s method to the madness, Jenny. What you need are the SignLab tutorial videos, which are available online through CADlink InfoSource.

1. Go to the cadlink.com web site.
2. Along the top menu, InfoSource >> Tutorials.
3. Along left menu, click Tutorials >> SignLab.

For starters, watch the Tracing with PrismScan video to get a feel for node editing.

Then be aware that there are hotkeys to help you work with the nodes quickly. Here is a selection used with polygon editing (Node Edit):

(A) Add node – Create node at current cursor location.
(R) Remove – Delete the selected node.
(L) Locate origin – Set grid origin to selected node.
(G) Grid dimensions – Set the grid size as the distance between the selected node and the grid origin.
(S) Snap to intersection – Move selected node to the nearest grid intersection.
(H) Snap to horizontal grid line – Move node to the nearest horizontal grid line.
(V) Snap to vertical grid line – Move node to the nearest vertical grid line.
(J) Join – Join two nodes with a connecting line.
(B) Break – Break contour at selected node.
[F3] – Select all nodes.
[ALT + F3] – Inverse selects all nodes.
(U) Alternate Select – Select every other node of currently selected nodes.

There is also a SignLab University training CD that you should ask your CADlink Sale Representative about. It contains older training videos, but there are a lot of them.

Jenny, if you don’t mind taking it offline, I would like to hear what the upgrade path of your software is. Perhaps you could toss me a personal message with your dongle number? And for your user guide, can you look at the inside front page and tell me the manual name and date that is listed there?

Cheers,

Rod

[jennywho]

quote Peter Normington:

It may help if you use arc edit or node edit, jenny
In arc edit left click to creat a node, move the cursor to the next position, left click and hold, then you will be able to create an arc by moving the cursor, In node edit or freehand if you select a node and right click and hold, you can choose arc, tangent or right angle nodes, and create an arc etc.

thanks peter!! this is what i was looking for!

also in the node edit or freehand tool, when i right click and hold i get a menu. i am not able to make an arc straight out like the arc edit…is this correct?

[Rod Young]

quote jennywho:

quote Peter Normington:

It may help if you use arc edit or node edit, jenny
In arc edit left click to creat a node, move the cursor to the next position, left click and hold, then you will be able to create an arc by moving the cursor, In node edit or freehand if you select a node and right click and hold, you can choose arc, tangent or right angle nodes, and create an arc etc.

thanks peter!! this is what i was looking for!

also in the node edit or freehand tool, when i right click and hold i get a menu. i am not able to make an arc straight out like the arc edit…is this correct?

Correct. For example:

1. From the Stroke and Fill Tools Flyout, choose Node Edit.
2. Place a couple nodes, and they will be "corner" nodes by default.
3. Press and hold the right mouse button to access a palette menu.
4. Move the cursor over the upper-right item that looks like a filled in circle, and then release the mouse button.
5. This set the drawing mode to create "curve" nodes, which you’ll see when you click on the workspace a few more times.

Note that the third type of node is the "tangent" node, which is used to smooth the transition between corner and curve nodes.

Cheers,

Rod

[jennywho]

Hey Rod,

while i got you here, could you tell me how to get the grid back to boxes, rather than lines?

Thanks,

Jenny

[Rod Young]

quote jennywho:

Hey Rod,

while i got you here, could you tell me how to get the grid back to boxes, rather than lines?

Thanks,

Jenny

Hi Jenny,

I breeze through periodically to see how people are doing.

I believe that you want to toggle the Options menu >> Grid >> Show Grid as Lines option.

Cheers,

Rod

[jennywho]

quote Rod Young:

quote jennywho:

Hey Rod,

while i got you here, could you tell me how to get the grid back to boxes, rather than lines?

Thanks,

Jenny

Hi Jenny,

I breeze through periodically to see how people are doing.

I believe that you want to toggle the Options menu >> Grid >> Show Grid as Lines option.

Cheers,

Rod

it is only showing the grid as lines….i thought before i had an actual grid??

[Rod Young]

quote jennywho:

it is only showing the grid as lines….i thought before i had an actual grid??

Oh, were changing grid setting whilst node editing? If so, then do the following:

1. Go Options menu >> Reset Origin.
2. Then go Options menu >> SignLab Setup >> General Preferences.
3. Set the Grid Size back to what makes sense for you.

Rod

[jennywho]

nope, still showing up as lines. i get the cross hair for the middle, but the rest of the background grid is lines. sorry if i am being confusing. 😳

[Rod Young]

quote jennywho:

while i got you here, could you tell me how to get the grid back to boxes, rather than lines?

still showing up as lines. i get the cross hair for the middle, but the rest of the background grid is lines. sorry if i am being confusing.

Hmm. Let me make a couple attempts, and then if I still haven’t sussed it, then I’ll need you to back up and describe a bit more about what you have been doing.

Now, it could be that you are at a very "small" zoom level.

• Try pressing [F8] key to zoom to the Sign Blank, and then [F9] to zoom previous view.
• Or try toggling te View menu >> Show Grid option.

• I perhaps do not clearly understand what you mean by "cross hair for the middle."
• Maybe you are looking at guides?
• You can toggle guide visibility by going Options >> Guides >> Use Guides.

quote Peter Normington:

Hope this helps. By the way, your avitar is a double of my niece!
Peter

With the American flag, Jenny’s avatar makes me think of the USAngel, sidekick to the great American hero, the First American.

http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/u/usangel.htm

Rod

[jennywho]

quote Peter Normington:

Hope this helps. By the way, your avitar is a double of my niece!
Peter

With the American flag, Jenny’s avatar makes me think of the USAngel, sidekick to the great American hero, the First American.

http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/u/usangel.htm

Rod[/quote]

I always wanted to be a super hero!

It is really quite simple…i thought that the grid lines were a grid. not lines. i must have been imagining it! i go to Options>grid>show grid as lines…but there should be a "show grid as grid option" i don’t know! it must be the heat…it is really warm today!