User Guide

Canvas 12 User Guide
Perpendicular: Lets you set a reference line perpendicular to a line or the side of an object.
After selecting this option, move the mouse to position the reference line, then click to set it.
Begin drawing and the object will snap to the reference line.
Tangent: Lets you set a reference line tangent to a circle, an oval, or an arc. After selecting
this option, move the mouse to position the reference line, then click to set it. Begin drawing
and the object will snap to the reference line.
Included: Snaps an object’s start and end points to the outline of an object or to a line. For
example, you can use this option to snap the bounding box of a circle to the inside of a
rectangle.
Center: Snaps the first point you draw to the center of an object or a line.
Vanishing Point: Snaps the first point of an object to the document’s vanishing point. If
you draw with the Line tool, the line will snap to the vanishing point and run to the location of
the pointer when you begin dragging.
You can draw perspective lines with the Vanishing Point option, and make the lines into
alignment guides with the Object | Make Guide command.
There is one global vanishing point in a document. The vanishing point is used by the commands in
the Effects | Perspective submenu as well as the Snap | Vanishing Point command. The default
vanishing point is at ruler coordinates 0,0. You can use the Effects | Perspective | Vanishing Point
command to apply perspective to selected objects and establish the vanishing point. Using the 1 Side
and 2 Sides commands will also affect the location of the document’s vanishing point.
Drawing by numbers
Several drawing tools give you the option of entering dimensions to draw objects precisely. This
method can be easier than dragging the mouse and watching data in the Properties bar to draw
objects to precise dimensions.
You can enter dimensions in the Properties bar when you use the Oval, Arc, Rectangle, Rounded
Rectangle, Line, Annotations, Multigon, Concentric Circles, and Spiral tools. You can enter the X/Y
coordinates, width, height, or other values, and then click Create in the Properties bar to draw the
object. With these tools, you can still drag the mouse to draw interactively.
You can also enter values in the Properties bar for some Path tools.
You can also establish precise dimensions and locations for any object in a document with
the Data tab in the Object Specs palette.
294