Creating parts in the Part Editor

If you are in the main view of a parts document window, there are several ways to begin the creation of a new part. Most obviously, you can click the New Part icon in the toolbar or choose New Part from the Objects menu. If you want to have control over where the new part is created (this is important when you are using a tracing image, for example), you can right-click anywhere in the parts view and choose New Part . You can also double-click anywhere in the parts view background. The location where you clicked or double-clicked will set the default location in the part editor.

On creating a new part, you will enter the part editor, which looks like this:

The big empty space in the middle of the window is your drawing surface. The part editing view may be in a different view scale from the main view of the document. By default the main view is at 100% scale and the part editing view is at 400%. The scale of the current view is controlled by the Scale popup menu on the righthand end of the toolbar. There are also menu items in the View menu for changing the view scale: Zoom In , Zoom Out , Actual Size , and Toggle Zoom . Most of these are standard and need no explanation. Toggle Zoom toggles the scale between 100% and the last scale you used in this view, other than 100%.

There is a pane in this view, shown here in its upper-right corner, that displays a part preview. In this part preview it displays the part you are editing at a 100% view. This makes it easier to edit something while zoomed in and see what it looks like at actual size. This view can be moved to whichever of the four corners of the part editing view that are most convenient just by dragging it there. (You don’t have to be too precise; it will snap to the nearest corner when dropped.) If you want to get it out of the way completely, you can drag it outside the window and it will tear the view off and put it in a floating panel. To re-dock a torn-off part preview in the part editing view, click the floating panel’s close box.

Above the drawing surface is a bar with an editing level control. This control shows you where you are currently working in the hierarchy of the document and can take you back to other levels. It is currently showing that you are editing a Part in a parts file named Percival. To return to the main view of the parts document, you would click the name of the parts document in the left-pointing button.

On the other end of this bar is a popup menu in which you can see the current type of the part being edited. You can use this popup to change the part type of the part you are creating.

On the left edge of the window is the part editing tool palette (not to be confused with the tool bar). Selecting tools in this palette gives you a variety of different ways to edit objects with the mouse in the drawing surface.

The selection and transform tool (S) allows you to select, move, scale, rotate and skew objects in the editor.

The reshaping tool (R) allows you to reshape paths , including selecting and operating on multiple points in the path at once, deleting points, adding points, and opening and closing paths.

The scrolling tool (H) allows you to scroll through the document by clicking and dragging in any direction. With the Command key held down, it allows you to zoom in or out. You can also hold down the space bar in most views to get this tool temporarily.

The bezier pen tool (B) allows you to create precise and economical paths by clicking to set sharp points and clicking and dragging to set curve points.

The freehand drawing tool (D) allows you to draw freehand paths quickly just by clicking and dragging. Sharp points can be specified by pausing while dragging.

The line tool (L) allows you to draw lines .

The rectangle tool (R) allows you to draw squares and rectangles .

The ellipse tool (O) allows you to draw circles and ellipses .

On the right hand side of the drawing surface is a panel called Properties. This section of the window displays and allows you to edit all of the graphical properties of the selected object, or set defaults for drawing if there is no current selection.

This section also has chapters on clipping paths with other paths , which is a very important part of drawing Comic Strip Factory parts, and working with graphical styles , which can be a huge timesaver for the artist.