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The Constrain 45 Button: Constrain Angles

When on, wire and polygon vertices are constrained to form angles of multiples of 45 degrees. By default, a ``smart'' path generator is employed, which will construct a valid path to the pointer location from the previous point during wire or polygon construction. This will often add two vertices: a 45 degree extension, followed by a Manhattan extension, in order to connect the points. If the Ctrl key is held while the new point is defined, the ``smart'' feature is disabled, and only one new vertex is added. If the Shift key is held, then the 45 degree constraint is removed entirely.

When active, rotation angles available in the spin command, and translation angles in the Stretch command, and the vertex editors for polygons and wires, are constrained to multiples of 45 degrees. However, pressing the Shift key will remove the constraint in these commands while the key is held. If the Constrain 45 button is not active, holding Shift will impose the 45 degree angle constraint. Thus, the Shift key inverts the effective state of the Constrain 45 button in these commands


next up previous contents index
Next: The Show Context Button: Up: The Attributes Menu: Set Previous: The Freeze Display Button:   Contents   Index
Stephen R. Whiteley 2006-10-23