Quickly switching between modes when drawing a poly line

[Danielle C]

Did a search, couldn't find anything on this.

 

I come from a CAD background where I could quickly draw a polyline containing lines and arcs by pressing "a" or "p" to switch back and forth as I was drawing, OR after the fact by hovering over the mid point of a line and selecting the convert to arc option in the pop up menu.

 

Is there anything like that in Vectorworks?  It's unbelievably fast and accurate.  I feel crippled right now trying to draft. 

[PVA - Admin]

The Polyline tool does this, you can either manually toggle the modes with the U key with the tool active, or what I prefer is leaving that mode alone but when I want an arc rather than a straight segment, click while moving the cursor and the bezier vertex mode will automatically be activated and drawn as the next segment until your next click. 

If you want to alter what type of edge/vertex you have on an existing polygon or polyline, you can either double click it or use the Reshape tool, which in the mode bar gives you options for adding, removing or converting the vertex type.

[Marissa Farrell]

5 minutes ago, JimW said:

when I want an arc rather than a straight segment, click while moving the cursor and the bezier vertex mode will automatically be activated and drawn as the next segment until your next click. 

 

I didn't know this!!!

[Kevin McAllister]

21 minutes ago, JimW said:

The Polyline tool does this, you can either manually toggle the modes with the U key with the tool active, or what I prefer is leaving that mode alone but when I want an arc rather than a straight segment, click while moving the cursor and the bezier vertex mode will automatically be activated and drawn as the next segment until your next click. 

If you want to alter what type of edge/vertex you have on an existing polygon or polyline, you can either double click it or use the Reshape tool, which in the mode bar gives you options for adding, removing or converting the vertex type.

14 minutes ago, MarissaF said:

 

I didn't know this!!!

 

Good advice Jim! I work the same way, drawing the shape first using a combination of click-click and click-drag, and then going back to do refinements by double clicking on the shape.

KM