Using the Rectangle Tool

This tool allows you to create squares, rectangles, and rounded rectangles. To use the tool:

  1. Select the Rectangle tool in the Tools toolbar. It's grouped with the Ellipse, Symmetric Shapes, and Preset Shape tools.

  2. In the Materials palette, set your Foreground/Stroke and Background/Fill properties.

  3. In the Tool Options palette's Mode section, choose either Draw Rectangle or Draw Square .

  4. Set the remaining Tool Options:

  5. Show Nodes: mark this check box to display the objects nodes during creation.

  6. Create on Vector: mark this check box to place the object on the current vector layer. If no vector layer exists, this option will create a new one for the object.

  7. Horizontal Radius and Vertical Radius: sets the radii for the object's corners.

  8. Left, Top, Width, and Height: When the Show Nodes check box is marked, these settings allow you to determine the object's pixel coordinates. When Show Nodes is off, these settings become active when you choose Edit mode after drawing the object.

  9. Line Style options: set the type of line, it's stroke width, anti-alias setting, as well as Join and Miter Limit settings.

  1. Drag the cursor to draw the symmetric object.

  2. In the Tool Options palette, click Apply to complete the creation of the shape and deselect it.

  3. To edit the object (assuming you created it as a vector object), click the Edit button in the Tool Options palette's Mode section, and then click the object. Edit mode allows for a variety of ways to modify the object. For example, you can hold down Shift and drag one of the selected rectangle’s corner handles to maintain equal radii (X and Y will remain the same). . Note that you can also choose the Object Selection tool and modify the object in other ways (such as move, rotate, stretch, etc.).

Saving a Preset

Save an often-used set of Tool Options palette settings for subsequent use as follows:

  1. Set the Tool Options to the desired settings.

  2. Click the Presets drop-list, and then click the Save preset button . The Save Preset dialog appears.

  3. In the Preset Name field, enter a name for the preset.

  4. Optionally, you can click the Options button to enter more information about the preset, such as the Author, Copyright, and Description. You can also choose to exclude particular preset properties by clicking the associated button (a red "x" will appear over excluded properties).

  5. Click OK to save the preset and close the Save Preset dialog.

Loading a Preset

To load a preset, click the Presets drop-list and then click the desired preset from the list.

 

Resetting Tool Options to Default Values

To reset the Tool Options palette to the default values, click the Presets drop-list and then click the Reset to default button .

 

Related Topics

Using the Ellipse Tool

Using the Symmetric Shape Tool

Using the Preset Shape Tool

Drawing Lines with the Pen Tool

Drawing Bezier Curves with the Pen Tool

Drawing Freehand Curves with the Pen Tool

Editing Vector Object Properties

Aligning and Arranging Vector Objects

Resizing and Reshaping Vector Objects