Freehand Line (Draw Menu)

This command draws a freehand line. Like a polyline, a freehand line is entered as an open series of connected lines. After entering all lines, the application calculates a "freehand" curve that runs through all entered points.

The start point of a freehand line can be entered by clicking the mouse anywhere within the drawing.

After entering the start point, several points can be entered, one after another. The freehand line begins at the start point and runs through all the subsequently-entered points. These points can be entered by clicking the mouse at any point in the drawing for each point.

Once all desired points have been entered (at least one), press the right mouse button to finish the command. If the Workflow Manager is active and appears, choose Finish Command in it.

A freehand line can consist of up to 2,000 segments. If this limit is reached during entry, further points can not be entered. A freehand line is stored internally as a curve. It can be modified with the same commands as curves. The curve is assigned to the active layer. It also contains a reference to the current pen.

When choosing the Change Parameters (+ESC) command, a dialog appears where parameters for the generation of freehand lines can be entered. These parameters are used for all subsequently drawn freehand lines. The parameters consist of an precision and a waviness. The precision determines the average length of the lines that are produced to build the freehand line, the waviness determines how much each of these lines may diverge from the reference line. Previously drawn freehand lines are not affected by changing the current precision. The precision of existing freehand lines cannot be changed.

A quick reminder: All point entries can be undone step by step using Previous Point (ESC) or by pressing the ESC key. This enables incorrect entries to easily be corrected without having to enter all points again.