CorelDRAW X5 The Official Guide part 22 pps

Specifying Units, Origin, and Tick Divisions for Your Rulers In the fields below Nudge options, you’ll find all the controls for what appears, and where, on the rulers displayed on your

The upper limit for nudge distance is 600 inches, which is fair enough, because, for example, nudging a shape 600 inches to move it is more easily accomplished by simply entering the intended position in the property bar’s X and Y fields (then you pressENTERto apply the move)

Nudge distance can be set on-the-fly within the workspace, and Super and Micro Nudge scale apply to the new nudge distance With nothing selected, set a new value

in the Nudge Distance box.

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There’s an easy way to remember some modifier keys In many applications, CTRL

means “constrain,” “to limit”—while SHIFT often means “to add to” or “to extend.” So super-nudging can be thought of as an extension to normal nudge distances (you hold SHIFT while pressing arrow keys), and micro-nudging is a constrained version of normal nudging (you hold CTRL ).

Specifying Units, Origin, and Tick Divisions for Your Rulers

In the fields below Nudge options, you’ll find all the controls for what appears, and where,

on the rulers displayed on your drawing page Here’s how each option controls ruler

appearance:

● Units Units are measurement values Choose a Horizontal unit measure to specify unit measures for all drawing units in your document To specify different units of measure for vertical ruler and drawing units, click to deselect the Same Units For Horizontal And Vertical Rulers option, shown in Figure 7-4

● Origin Although you can manually set the origin as described in the previous section, you can also perform precise origin definition using this field The origin point can be set anywhere from –50 to 50 yards, in precise increments as small as 0.001 inch

● Tick Divisions Tick divisions are the evenly spaced numeric labels seen bracketing

the smaller increments displayed by your ruler—for example, if you are using inches

as the unit, the tick divisions are 1, 2, 3, and so on Tick divisions are automatically set according to the unit of measure selected For example, standard measure displays

a default of eight divisions per tick, and metric measure displays ten divisions Desktop publishing and printing units such as didots, picas, points, and ciceros display using

six divisions per tick The option to Show Fractions is also available and set by

default while a unit measure is selected The top of Figure 7-5 shows two divisions

per tick; below it is the standard eight subdivisions; and at bottom, with the Show

Fractions check box unchecked in the Rulers area of Options, decimals are now

shown for ticks

To set the Spacing and Frequency of your ruler, see “Setting Grid Properties” later

in this chapter.

Editing Drawing Scales

Scale drawing is used when the dimensions involved in drawing actual sizes are either too

large or too small to be practical For example, a world atlas at 1-to-1 (1:1) scale would be

hard to carry around, and almost as hard to print You can set up a drawing scale by first

setting the units; click the Units drop-down on the property bar Then click the Edit Scale

button in the Rulers page of the Options dialog (CTRL+Jis the shortcut) In the Drawing

Scale dialog, you can quickly apply a scale ratio, or set your own custom scale By setting

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FIGURE 7-5 Choose tick divisions and whether fractions or decimals display on rulers

2 tick divisions

8 tick divisions

Decimal labels for divisions instead of fractions

1 foot to equal a mile (5,280 feet), it’s then simple to draw accurate maps and directions around town

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The Typical Scales drop-down list includes a selection of the most commonly used drawing ratios ranging from 100:1 to 1:100, with the most common standard measure scales

included When selecting ratios, the first number represents the object Page Distance; the second number represents the real-world distance, labeled “World Distance.” Usually small

objects such as circuitry and clock parts are illustrated using ratios where the Page Distance

is larger than the World Distance Conversely, the best setup for a technical drawing of a skyscraper is to set Page Distance much smaller than World Distance

The moment you change either the Page Distance or the World Distance, the Typical

Scales selection in the drop-down list turns to Custom Page Distance is the measured

distance on your document page, while World Distance refers to the distance represented by your ruler and drawing units in your document Settings can be made independently of each other and to different units of measure to a range between 1,000,000 and 0.00001 inches in increments of 0.1 inch

Calibrating Ruler Display

You buy a Lamborghini Gallardo (about $200,000); you pull into a gas station, and you want

to put Regular in the tank? No Similarly, you can’t expect precision when you use CorelDRAW

on an uncalibrated monitor CorelDRAW provides a very simple way to ensure what you see

on your monitor screen matches real-world measurements Occasionally, your display might

not show perfectly square pixels, and as a result, your 5-inch line in a very important

drawing might measure 4.88" when you print it To calibrate the rulers in CorelDRAW to

match your screen, to match real-world output, you’ll need a plastic foot-long ruler (clear is

better than solid, about $1 at a stationery store), about 30 seconds, and the following steps:

1. In a new document create a 5"-wide square With the Rectangle tool, holdCTRL (constrains proportions to 1:1), and then drag while watching the size fields on the

property bar If you’re close but not precisely 5", type 5.0 into either field with the

Lock Proportions icon clicked (see following illustration), and then pressENTER.

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2. Using the Zoom tool property bar options, set your view magnification to 100 percent

3. Using your physical $1 ruler, measure the object you created on your screen If both CorelDRAW’s rulers and your physical ruler agree it’s a 5" square, your ruler display

is accurate If the measurements don’t match, CorelDRAW’s toolbox Options dialog

has the fix

4. Open the Options dialog (CTRL+J)

5. Click to expand the tree directory under Workspace | Toolbox, and then click Zoom | Hand Tools This displays the Zoom, Hand options on the right of the dialog First, click to select the Zoom Relative To 1:1 option

6. Click Calibrate Rulers to display the ruler calibration reference rulers and Resolution options, shown in Figure 7-6 Notice the vertical and horizontal ruler bars that intersect

at the center of your screen This represents your current ruler drawing units

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7. Using your ruler, measure both the vertical and horizontal rulers on your screen to see that they match If they don’t match, increase or decrease the Horizontal and/or Vertical options using the spin boxes until the onscreen rulers match your $1 ruler See Figure 7-6

8. Click OK to close the calibration dialog, and then click OK again to close the Options dialog Your rulers are now calibrated

Introducing the Indispensable CorelDRAW Grids

A page grid is a customizable, by default nonprinting, overlay that extends beyond the printable page onto the pasteboard area at all viewing resolutions and viewing qualities It’s not only an excellent visual reference for scaling and aligning objects vertically and

FIGURE 7-6 Clicking Calibrate Rulers displays reference rulers and Resolution options

horizontally, but it also can be used in combination with CorelDRAW’s Snap To Grid

option To make the grid visible, right-click with the Pick tool over an empty area of the

page, and then choose View | Grid from the pop-up menu To modify the Grid, right-click

over either ruler or the ruler origin, and then choose Grid Setup

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Setting Grid Properties

You’re going to have a variety of designing needs, which will certainly call for different

appearances of grids, which is why they’re customizable Changing grid-line frequency and

spacing is often needed You can use options in the Grid page of the Options dialog to tailor

your grid just the way you need it to appear To open this page, as shown next, choose View|

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Show grid

Grid Setup (right-click)

Setup | Grid And Ruler Setup from the command menus, or right-click your ruler and choose Grid Setup

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Use the Object Manager to set all grid properties, including visible, printable, and/

or editable states Grids are controlled by the Grid layer properties, which is a layer on the master page To open the Object Manager, choose Window Dockers Object Manager (see Chapter 9).

The Grid page’s Grid Lines Per Inch and Inches Apart options for units might look similar, but there’s an important distinction The Grid Lines Per Inch (“frequency”) option

gives you control over the grid appearance according to the number of lines that appear

within a given distance The Inches Apart (called “spacing” in CorelDRAW version X4)

option controls the physical space between the grid lines based on distance Both are set

according to the current drawing units choice, and you choose frequency or spacing;

choosing both would be impossible You can also set the horizontal and vertical spacing independently of one another, which is very useful when you have an object such as a tall fluted glass that you want to put etching on You’d use more horizontal than vertical grid lines, and your design would turn out flawlessly

When illustrating or drawing based on a specific unit of measure—such as inches—

formatting your grid to match the ruler unit of measure is a smart thing to do For example, if rulers are set to display inches using a Tick Division of 8 per inch, setting the grid to a Grid Lines Per Inch value of 8 vertical and 8 horizontal lines per inch causes grid lines to appear every eighth of an inch while using a Drawing Scale ratio of 1:1 (actual size).

Display Grid as Lines or Dots

Also on the Grid page of the Options dialog, you control how your grid appears—either as

lines or as dots By default, new documents are set to the Show Grid As Lines option However,

a design, for example, of a checkerboard might make the grid fairly invisible and as a

consequence useless; you’d opt for the display of Show Grid As Dots Conversely, you’re

going to lose a solar system or two if dots are chosen for grids when you’re drawing an

astronomy chart (use lines)!

Using Snap-To Commands

The Snapping feature helps you move a shape to an exact location when it’s close to grid

lines, guidelines, and other objects Think of snapping as magnetism: you hold a paper clip,

for example, close enough to a magnet, and eventually it snaps to the magnet In CorelDRAW

you use the Pick tool and Shape tool to get snapping The Snap To drop-down menu on the

property bar is your ticket to defining what snaps to what on your drawing page

Snapping is one quick route to precise manual aligning and distribution of table callouts,

symmetrical patterns, and just about any design that requires some regularity to placed shapes

And if you don’t need it, it’s easy to turn off

● Snap To Grid To have your drawing shapes snap and align to the document grid,

click the drop-down on the property bar, or press the shortcutCTRL+Yto toggle the feature on and off When objects snap to a grid, they snap to the grid lines, and you’ll feel an even stronger attraction when you move an object close to grid

intersection points.

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● Snap To Guidelines Guidelines are covered later in this chapter To cause your objects to snap to any type of guideline, choose this option from the drop-down list

● Snap To Objects To have objects snap to and align with other objects, choose Snap To Objects from the drop-down list; it’s faster to remember the shortcutALT+Z. When objects are set to snap to each other, they can use snap points on either the source (the magnet) or target (the object that’s attracted) object Snap points are set using options and modes in the Snap To Objects page of the Options dialog (see the later section, “Setting Snap Behavior”)

● Snap To Page When you want to draw an object that’s aligned perfectly to any edge of the drawing page, use this Snap To option Snap To Page is also great for snapping an existing object’s edge or corner to the edge of the page

● Dynamic Guides This feature in CorelDRAW X5 is akin to object snapping Press

ALT+SHIFT+D, or use the drop-down menu to toggle the dynamic guides on or off. This feature is covered in detail in the next section

Snapping To It

1. You have a web page to design, with six 1-inch squares (three across, two down), with a ½-inch space between them Don’t get out a pocket calculator, and don’t resort to colorful language—at their defaults, Snap To Grid and Snap To Objects make this task go like a charm Enable Snap To Grid and Snap To Objects from the Snap To drop-down list and make sure Grids are turned on

2. With the Rectangle tool, begin close to a grid intersection, and then drag down and

to the right until the property bar tells you either the height or width of the rectangle

is very close to 1" Release the mouse button when your cursor is over a grid intersection

3. Choose the Pick tool

4. Drag the rectangle over to the right until you see one vertical grid separating it from the original square, but don’t release the mouse button yet One space is on each side

of this line, and together they represent half an inch

5. Right-click while the left mouse button is still depressed, and then release both buttons to drop a copy What you’ve done is duplicate the original square to a new position This is an important, quick technique for duplicating shapes

6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 to build the array of evenly spaced squares, as shown in Figure 7-7 Notice that when an object’s edge is on, or even close to, the grid when Snap To is turned on, you’ll see a tiny blue label indicating the snap-to point You’re not limited

to shape edges as the origin of a snapping point; setting behavior for snapping origins

is covered later in this chapter

Snapping behavior isn’t limited to the grid In fact, you don’t even have to have the

grid turned on to snap objects to one another; pressALT+Zand then all your

objects are sticky.

Setting Snap Behavior

On the Snap To Objects page of the Options dialog, you can control snapping behavior in

precise detail when moving and drawing lines or objects You choose Tools | Options

(CTRL+J), click to expand the tree directory under Workspace, and then click Snap To

Objects

The Snapping Radius feature requires that you have a shape and a different object (or

guideline or grid intersection) to which it snaps Proximity to the “magnetic” snapping

object is important—you can’t have an object snap to a different object that is miles away

However, in the Snap To Objects page, you have control over the strength of the magnetism,

by setting the Snapping Radius pixel distance

To customize snapping behavior to suit the type of drawing you’re building, you enable

or disable the following features on the Options page:

● Snap To Objects On Clicking this check box toggles the Snap To Objects feature

on or off You can also do this from the Snap To drop-down list on the property bar

● Snapping Radius Use this to set snapping sensitivity, based on screen proximity

to snap points Experiment with what works best for you in a specific design situation;

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FIGURE 7-7 Duplicating and aligning objects makes accurate composition of a design a breeze