Section 6: Open Line Tools

Once any of these drawing tools is selected, your cursor will be displayed as a cross like this:

The Line tool is a drawing tool for creating straight or diagonal single point-to-point lines. Once this tool is selected, you may left-click to drop the starting point and drag your mouse to the desired end point. You may then again left-click to drop the end point of your line.

Holding down the [Shift] key while drawing will force the line to be limited to a straight vertical, horizontal, or 45-degree increment from the start point.

An example of a drawn line is found below:

The Polyline tool is for creating straight multiple connecting lines. Once this tool is selected, you may left-click to drop the starting point and drag your mouse to the next desired point. Continue to left-click to drop additional points as desired. Upon reaching your desired end point, double click your left mouse button to release and stop drawing.

Hitting the Escape [Esc] key on your keyboard will delete the most recent point placed. Repeating this action will continue to delete previous points in succession.

Holding down the [Shift] key while drawing will force the line to be limited to a vertical, horizontal, or 45-degree increment from the previous point.

An example of a drawn polyline is found below:

The Spline tool is for creating curved multiple connecting lines. Once this tool is selected, you may left-click to drop the starting point and drag your mouse to the next desired point. Continue to left-click to drop additional points as desired. Upon reaching your desired end point, double click your left mouse button to release and stop drawing.

Hitting the Escape [Esc] key on your keyboard will delete the most recent point placed. Repeating this action will continue to delete previous points in succession.

An example of a drawn spline is found below:

The Arc tool is for creating perfectly arced lines. By left-clicking and dragging your mouse, the tool will initially draw a circle, as shown below:

Moving your mouse around will make your circle larger or smaller. Once you have reached the optimal size of your circle, you may left-click to stop the sizing process and begin selecting to draw as much or as little of the circle as desired in an arc shape. Once you have your desired arc, left-click again to finalize your arc.

An example of a finalized arc is found below: