Curve Tools...

  
 
   
Curve Tools
VinylMaster comes with a comprehensive suite of Curve (Path) Tools and Features and has 5 types of standard curves, as follows:
 
Freehand Curve:   Suited for quickly creating small curve sections and shapes
Polycurve:   Suited for creating complex curve objects
Polyline:   Suited for technical illustrations and straight line sections
Smoothline:   Suited for hand tracing existing artwork and developing ultra-smooth curve sections
Vector Brush:   Suited for creating curve effects
 
Curve Tools   Curve Menu

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VinylMaster's Curves are amongst the most powerful suite of Curves in any graphics program on the market today and are far superior to Bezier curves which are cumbersome to use and simply not up to the task.

Polycurves, Polylines and Smoothline are node editable as you create them and all VinylMaster curves come with a large selection of powerful node tools and features. Coupled with VinylMaster's large suite of effects and layout tools this means you can design and output an infinite range of professional decals, signs and posters etc. quickly and easily, outlined as follows:


• Working with Curves
• Powerful Node Editing
• Reduce Node Tools
• Smart Connector Tools
• Powerful Replace Section
• Pen Styles & End Caps

VinylMaster's Curves are easy to create using your mouse, as follows:
 
Freehand Curves
A Freehand Curve is a curve drawn with the mouse or a pen (freestyle) directly onto the drawing area and automatically cleaned up by the program once completed.		  
     
Polycurves
A Polycurve is a curve or line drawn section by section with the mouse or a pen directly onto the drawing area and either left as an Open or a Closed Curve upon completion.
     
Polylines
A Polyline is a straight-line drawn out section by section with the mouse or a pen directly onto the drawing area and either left as an Open or a Closed Curve upon completion.
     
Smooth Line
A Smooth Line creates the smoothest math- ematical curve between 2 points and is ideal for hand tracing around an image or an object where you wish to create the most accurate representation of that object or to develop the most pleasing curve possible.
     
Vector Brush
A Vector Brush is a curve effect drawn with the mouse or a pen (freestyle) directly onto the drawing area and automatically cleaned up by the program once completed.
       
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VinylMaster has a powerful Node Edit mode which allows you to select individual nodes and reposition them along with changing the shape of the curve in three unique ways by Right-clicking on the node which toggles it from a Smooth section, a Rounded section and a Sharp section, as shown on the right.

Plus VinylMaster's curves also come with Slider Nodes which finely adjust the smooth-ness of the Curve section.

The combination of these on-screen controls plus VinylMaster's specialist Node tools provide you with superior curve editing and fine curve control.

Right-click Corner Nodes
 
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Node Reduction Tools
Often curve objects will contain additional nodes that do not contribute to the curves overall shape i.e. there are additional and unnecessary nodes which can be removed without any actual or significant influence on the shape of the object.

These nodes can also have a negative impact when applying effects and/or when cutting the curve out.

To Reduce Nodes VinylMaster provides you with two options:
 
1. Reduce Nodes across the whole Curve Object, or;
2. Reduce Nodes by Curve Section i.e. only part of a Curve Object.
 

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Connector Tools
VinylMaster comes with 3 Interactive Curve Connector tools, as follows:
 
1. Smooth Line Connector
2. Tangential Connector
3. Straight Line Connector

These connectors are interactive - meaning they lock onto the first curve and as you move the mouse cursor they seek out and lock onto the next part of the curve section - so you can visualize precisely how the finished curve will appear before you commit to creating it... it's quite ingenious!

Connectors save a lot of time by helping you to more rapidly develop complex curve structures and objects.

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Working with Artwork
Often you will be provided with artwork that has been scanned and poorly traced, or the artwork you've Vectorized (Traced) was of such poor quality that you'll need to tidy up the resulting curves using the Node Edit tool.

Replace Section
The Replace Curve Section tool is ideal for cleaning up poor quality Artwork by replacing rough curve sections.

It does this by finding and then creating the smoothest path between the points you have nominated along the curve and instantly turning rough Artwork into perfectly smooth Artwork.


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VinylMaster allows you to apply a pen, pen style and pen color to curves and text along with setting the pen's corner styles, z order, rescaling properties and an option to convert the pen to curves so that the pen style itself can be cut out

As shown in the examples above.

  
End Caps
In addition to pen style (line style) you can also fit an end cap (arrows and feathers) from the large selection of end caps in VinylMaster to any open curves or lines.

As shown in the 4 examples above.
 
     

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Corner Style
By setting the Pen's Corner Style you can quite dramatically change the look of an object with a pen style.
 

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Loaded with  Tools & Features

  

Above is merely an outline of VinylMaster's tools with literally hundreds of tools like these at your disposal that will provide you with a serious advantage when it comes to designing, creating and outputting truly eye-popping signage no matter what industry you specialize in!

To see our detailed Feature List and a side-by-side Comparison of all versions of VinylMaster click: