User Guide

Chapter 2: Creating and Enhancing Technical Illustrations

move the viewpoint up and left of the lens center; e.g., to set the viewpoint 1 ruler unit left of the lens

center, enter - 1 (X) and 0 (Y). If you move the lens, the viewpoint changes.

Using Symbols

You can use symbols to enhance your illustrations. You can open the Symbol Library palette, and drag and drop

symbols onto your illustration, you can use Symbol pen strokes to draw a line or shape using symbols, or you can

use a symbol fill ink.

Using the Symbol Library palette

The Symbol Library palette comes stocked with a range of symbols you can use in your Canvas documents, or you

can create your own symbols and add them to the Symbol Library. You can create symbols from any vector, text,

group, or paint object. If you change the symbol in the palette, all the copies in the document will also change. For

example, if you add a logo to the Symbol Library, and the logo is updated, you can simply replace the logo in the

Symbol Library, and all instances of the logo in your document are updated.

To open the Symbol Library palette:

Choose Window | Palettes | Symbol Library.

To place symbols:

1. Select the symbol in the Symbol Library palette.

2. Move the cursor into the layout area. The cursor changes to a place pointer.

3. Do one of the following:

To place the symbol at its original size, click in the layout area where you want to place the upper left

corner of the symbol.

To scale the symbol while you place it, drag the pointer to set the bounding box size. Canvas scales the

symbol to fit the bounding box.

To constrain the proportions as you drag the point to set the bounding box, press Shift while scaling.

To create a symbol:

1. Create a vector object, group of vector objects, or composite object in Canvas.

2. Select Object | Export As Symbol.

3. In the Browse For Folder dialog box, select a location for the symbol, and click OK.

4. In the Name Symbol dialog box, do one of the following:

If you want Canvas to automatically name the symbol for you, select the Automatic Naming check box,

and enter a Prefix and Keyword.

If you want to create a name for the symbol yourself, deselect the Automatic Naming check box, and

type the name in the Name field.

5. Click OK.