A big a complex chunk of functionality I’ve been putting off for a while is free-form path drawing. It’s a standard tool in practically all vector design software, but requires a lot of tools and supporting functionality to work well, and it’s a challenge to fit into the more rigid structure of a parametric design system. For this reason I never go around to adding any free form drawing in Patternodes or Vectoraster, even if this was often requested.
However, I’m happy to report that I’ve now implemented at least basic free path drawing functionality in Paragraphic: There’s a new path pen tool you can use to draw new paths or add points to existing ones, and a new path point selection tool you can use to select and modify existing path points.
As all this new functionality of needs to live in the generative parametric context of Paragraphic this is all wrapped up in a new type of Free-form layer generator node, that has all the information about the path control points and offers the tools to edit them. This means that the paths you draw then work just like any other element that can be repeated and modified by following layer nodes. This also mean that the panel for this free form path generator node is where you’ll have access to the controls for editing selected control points.
On the topic of editing selected control points you can do this visually by selecting and dragging in the main view. However, you can also use the value fields in the inspector panel to the right to exactly set positions, and edit curve spline handles of one or more selected curve points. I have some ideas for more advanced control point editing tools here for later. But already you can for example set the exact length of multiple control point handles or adjust their angle separately, something I’ve missed being able to do it more traditional illustration software.
While the example above shows a simple example of drawing custom shapes to use in designs directly the free form path editing also opens up a lot of interesting possibilities for future functionality when the paths can be used in turn as input, for example to repeat or transform other elements along.
Changes and improvements
UI/UX
- New UI panel for selected path points that let you change handle types and set position and handle lengths/angles.
Tools
- New free-form path Pen tool that lets you add new free-form path layers or add points to existing paths.
- New path points editing tool that lets you select, move and edit free-form path layer points.
- The align and distribute toolbar buttons can also be used to align or distribute selected path control points.
Generation
- New free-form path layers that let you draw vector shapes and edit their control points with precision tools.