Applying Preset Strokes

Using presets can help you save time and ensure graphic consistency.

Using the Presets Palette

The Presets palette contains preset strokes and attributes that you can apply to objects and the current stroke. Use the Presets palette to apply strokes to objects and save strokes in files that you can later load into the palette.

To Open the Presets Palette:

Do one of the following:

• Click the Strokes icon in the Toolbox. Click the Tear Off icon, or drag the pop up palette away to see the full palette.
• Choose Window | Palettes | Presets.

A number of icons are located at the top of the Pen tab, which you click to access the available stroke types. The circular icon with a diagonal line represents “no stroke”. For dashes and arrows, click on their respective tabs in the palette. See Types of Strokes.

Deleting Strokes and Stroke Attributes

You can remove default and custom presets from the Presets palette. When you delete a preset, Canvas X Draw permanently removes it from the palette, unless you save it to disk and load it again. See Saving and Loading Strokes Settings.

To Remove a Preset from the Presets Palette:

Select the stroke type or stroke attribute and drag it to the trash can icon. The trash can appears only when the Presets palette is floating, or docked on the Docking bar or Docking pane.

To Remove All Preset Strokes or Stroke Attributes:

1. Select the stroke type or stroke attribute in the Presets palette.
2. Open the palette menu and choose Clear Palette Presets.

If you delete all arrowheads from the palette, dimension objects will not have arrows.

Saving and Loading Strokes Settings

You can save preset strokes, arrows, and dashes in files on disk, and load the presets into the Presets palette. You can use these strokes files to customize the Presets palette for particular projects or types of documents, and to exchange custom settings with other Canvas X Draw users.

Commands for saving and loading strokes files are in the Presets palette menu. The menu icon appears only when the Presets palette is separated from the Toolbox.

To Save Strokes in a File:

Use the following procedure to save the presets from one stroke type or stroke attribute in the Presets palette to a file on disk.

1. Open the Presets palette.
2. Click the Pen tab and select the stroke type. Or click on the Arrow or Dash tab for a stroke attribute.
3. Open the palette menu and select Save Presets. The menu command will reflect the selected stroke type or stroke attribute.
4. In the dialog box, enter a name for the file, select a location on a disk, and click Save.

To Load Strokes from a File:

Use the following procedure to load stroke types or stroke attributes that are stored in a file. When you load a file, you can either replace the strokes that are presently in the Presets palette or simply append the stroke types or stroke attributes to the current ones.

1. Open the Presets palette.
2. Click the Pen tab and select the stroke type. Or click on the Arrow or Dash tab for a stroke attribute.
3. Open the palette menu and select Load Presets. The menu command will reflect the selected stroke type or stroke attribute.
4. In the dialog box, navigate to the file and click Open.

To Apply Preset Strokes to Objects:

Use the following general procedure to apply a preset stroke to one or more objects.

1. Select the objects for which you want to change strokes.
2. Click the Strokes icon in the Toolbox to open the Presets palette. The Pen tab will be selected automatically.
3. Select the stroke type.
4. Choose a stroke in the preset strokes list. If necessary, use the scroll bar or window resize button to view additional strokes. Canvas X Draw applies the stroke you choose to selected objects.

To Make a Preset Stroke the Current Stroke:

Select a preset stroke as the current stroke to apply to new objects you create.

1. Deselect all objects in the current document. To deselect all objects, press Esc a few times.
2. Click the Strokes icon in the Toolbox to open the Presets palette. The Pen tab will be selected automatically.
3. Select the stroke type.
4. Choose a stroke in the preset strokes list. Use the scroll bar to view additional strokes. The Strokes icon in the Toolbox shows the current stroke.

Using Standard Pen Strokes

The most common type of stroke is a standard pen stroke, a solid line of uniform width. This type of stroke is used for many situations, such as technical illustrations, flowcharts, callout lines, etc.

By default, the width of pen strokes is measured in points, (one point is 1/72 inch). Pen stroke widths from 1 to 16 points appear in the Pen tab of the Presets palette. To change the unit of measurement for the pen stroke, see To Change the Display Unit of the Pen Stroke Width.

To Change the Current Pen Stroke Width:

1. Deselect all objects.
2. Open the Presets palette and click on the Pen tab.
3. Select the standard stroke type.
4. Select the pen stroke width from the presets list.

To Change the Pen Stroke Width of Specific Objects:

Select one or more objects, then select a new pen stroke from the presets list for standard strokes.

To Change the Display Unit of the Pen Stroke Width:

1. Open the Attributes palette and click on the Pen tab.
2. In the Weight section, click the drop-down arrow and select a unit of measurement. This unit of measurement will also appear on the Pen tab of the Presets palette.

To Change the Ink of a Pen Stroke:

The color of a pen stroke comes from the object’s pen ink. The pen ink can be any of the available ink types; i.e., gradient, pattern, symbol, color, hatch, or texture.

1. Select one or more objects whose pen ink you want to change.
2. Click the Pen Ink icon in the Toolbox. The Presets palette pops open with the Ink tab selected. Drag this palette away from the Toolbox to keep the Presets palette open as you work.
3. Select an ink type on the Ink tab, such as color, gradient, hatch, symbol, pattern, or texture. (See Inks: Colors and Patterns.)

‘Invisible’ Inks

A pen ink is one or more colors that Canvas X Draw uses to apply color to pen strokes. The pen ink can be set to “no ink,” or to a color that blends into the background, which renders a pen stroke invisible.

In some situations, you might want to set an object’s pen ink to “no ink,” rather than remove the object’s stroke. This can be useful to temporarily hide the stroke without removing the dash, arrow, and other stroke settings, for example.

To Set an Object’s Pen Ink to “No Ink”:

This procedure removes the pen ink and makes the stroke invisible.

1. Select the object and click the Pen Ink icon to open the Presets palette with the Ink tab selected.
2. Click on the no ink icon. 

Adding Preset Arrows to Pen Strokes

You can add arrowheads to pen, parallel, and neon strokes. You can apply strokes with arrows to lines and open paths, such as those created with the Curve tool. Arrowheads can appear at one or both endpoints of a path.

You can also create custom arrowheads that you can add to the preset arrowheads. (See Creating Custom Arrowheads.)

On the Arrow tab, next to each arrow, the following indicators will be displayed:

• A black "S" indicates that the size of the arrow is scaling to the stroke weight.
• A blue "S" indicates that the size of the arrow is scaling to the stroke weight and the color of the arrow is adopting the pen ink.
• A black "C" indicates that the color of the arrow is adopting the pen ink.

These options are defined on the Arrow tab of the Attributes palette.

To Add Arrows to Strokes:

Use the following procedure to apply arrows to objects or the current stroke:

1. Depending on how you want arrows to apply, do one of the following:
   • To add an arrow to the current stroke: Deselect all objects.
   • To add arrows to specific objects’ strokes: Select the objects.
2. Click the Arrow icons in the Toolbox to open the popup Presets palette showing the different arrowheads available.

The Arrow icons in the Toolbox let you choose between starting, ending, and double-sided arrowheads.

• To select a starting or ending arrowhead: Click either side of the icon. The left or right arrow icon will be highlighted.

• To select a double-sided arrowhead: Click the round button in the middle. Both the left and right arrow icons are highlighted. The arrows in the scroll list preview the selected arrowhead.

  	Starting arrow
  	Ending arrow
  	Double-sided

To Apply Different Arrowheads to Each End of a Stroke:

1. Select object to which you want to apply arrowheads.
2. Apply the first arrowhead by clicking on either the left or right Arrow icon in the Toolbox and selecting an arrowhead.
3. Then, Shift-click the other Arrow icon and select a different arrowhead. Now, both ends of the stroke should have different arrows.

Adding Dashes to Strokes

You can add a variety of preset dash sequences to pen and neon strokes. You can apply a stroke with dashes to most objects, including lines, open and closed Bézier curves, polygons, rectangles, ovals, and stars.

Parallel line strokes can also include dashes. However, you select dashes for parallel lines when you customize the stroke in the Parallel stroke manager in the Attributes palette. (See Customizing Parallel Line Strokes.)

A 'P' will be visible next to each dash sequence if the Proportional checkbox has been selected in the Attributes palette. You can customize a dash sequence on the Dash tab of the Attributes palette.

To Add Dashes to Pen and Neon Strokes:

1. Depending on how you want dashes to apply, do one of the following:
   • To apply dashes to the current stroke: Deselect all objects.
   • To apply dashes to an object that has a pen or neon stroke: Select the object.
2. Click the Strokes icon in the Toolbox to open the Presets palette. Select the Dash tab.
3. Choose the dash sequence that you want in the list of presets.

Removing Arrows, Dashes, and Strokes

You can remove a selected object’s stroke, or set the current stroke to “no stroke,” so you can create objects that have no stroke. An object that has no stroke has no visible outline. Objects drawn with the Line tool become invisible without a stroke; other objects are still visible if they have a visible fill ink.

You can also remove dashes and arrows from a stroke. Because arrows and dashes are attributes of strokes, you can remove them without removing the entire stroke.

Removing arrows, dashes, and strokes involves the same procedure as changing from one preset stroke to another.

To Remove Arrows or Dashes:

You can use the following procedure to remove arrows from pen, parallel, and neon strokes, and to remove dashes from pen and neon strokes. For details about removing dashes from parallel strokes, see Customizing Parallel Line Strokes.

1. Depending on how you want to remove arrows or dashes, do one of the following:
   • To remove stroke attributes from an object: Select the object.
   • To remove stroke attributes from the current stroke: Deselect all objects.
2. Click the Strokes icon in the Toolbox to open the Presets palette. Choose the Dash or Arrow tab, depending on the attribute you want to remove.
3. Choose no arrow on the Arrow tab to remove arrows from a stroke. Choose no dash on the Dash tab to remove dashes.

To Use “No Stroke” Settings:

Remove strokes entirely from objects, or use no stroke as the current setting for new objects.

1. Depending on how you want to remove strokes, do one of the following:
   • To remove the stroke from an object: Select the object.
   • To make “no stroke” the current setting: Deselect all objects.
2. Click the Strokes icon in the Toolbox and choose no stroke on the Pen tab.

Applying Tapered Ends to Standard and Neon Strokes

This option can be applied to standard pen strokes and neon strokes; however, it is best viewed when a pen setting is larger than 3.00 pt.

To Apply Tapered Ends to Strokes:

1. Depending on how you want to apply tapered ends, do one of the following:
   • To add tapered ends to an object: Select the object.
   • To add tapered ends to the current stroke: Deselect all objects.
2. Click on the Strokes icon in the Toolbox to open the Presets palette.
3. Click on the Pen tab and select either standard pen stroke or neon stroke.

4. Select a preset pen stroke and then click the Edit button to open the respective manager in the Attributes palette.

   	Use the Tapered End controls in the Standard Pen Stroke manager. Select from no taper, end-to-end taper, left taper, and right taper.
   	In the Neon Stroke manager, open the Corners menu and select Tapered. Both ends of the stroke will be tapered.

Using Symbol Strokes

Canvas X Draw offers a number of preset symbol strokes which you can use as is, or customize. Or you can create your own custom symbol strokes using any of the symbols in the symbol library or using your own symbols. See Customizing Strokes.

To Use a Symbol Stroke:

1. Click on the Strokes icon in the Toolbox to open the Presets palette.
2. Click on the Pen tab and click the symbol stroke icon.
3. Select a symbol stroke from the preset list.

See also:

• Types of Strokes
• Creating Custom Arrowheads
• Customizing Strokes