Xara & Ellipses. Cant we all just get along?

**Christine Farrelly** · 08 January 2006, 09:05 AM

Double click on the node you want to edit to change it - you should then get the handles to drag - creating a polygon creates a shape made with straight lines rather than curves.

Christine

**tonylondon** · 08 January 2006, 10:14 AM

Mary Blue,

To add curved corners to a rectangle, do not convert to an editable shape. Just select the rectangle tool and use the facilities that appear on the rectangle tool infobar along the top of the window.

To do anything else, you'll need to convert to editable shapes. This is like crossing the Rubicon - once you do this, the rectangle info bar facilities will no longer be available. To add a curve to a straight line, drag anywhere on the line and handles will appear. You can then drag the handles Xara does not have a facility to add filleted corners though I have a procedure somewhere for doing it manually...

The quick shape tool is similar

Tony

**tonylondon** · 08 January 2006, 11:06 AM

Here it is

**ivan louette** · 08 January 2006, 11:26 AM

That's a very ingenious trick, Tony !

Should be added in the tips on the XaraXone.

kindly,
ivan

**SCync** · 08 January 2006, 06:16 PM

I like that Tony, very cool technique. I second ivan's suggestion.

**Ron Duke** · 08 January 2006, 08:28 PM

Great tip Tony!
thanks,
ron

**Hwy101** · 08 January 2006, 08:39 PM

Kudos Tony!
(what I LOVE about this Forum: Everyone Shares!)

Thanks for Posting and Sharing Tony!

**Egg Bramhill** · 08 January 2006, 08:42 PM

Hello Tony, you haven't been around for ages. Welcome back.

Here's another similar method to achieve the same result.

Egg

**BONES** · 09 January 2006, 02:24 AM

Originally Posted by MaryBlue

I cant seem to edit any rectangles or change corners to curves.

You will not see any bezier handles on a straight line. To get beziers you need to change the line to a curve. The easiest way is to move the cursor over it until it changes shape and then just nudge the line and it will automatically become a curve. Double-clicking only converts a point from a sharp corner to a smooth curve [breaking or unbreaking the bezier handles]. There are also buttons on the Line Editor toolbar to change points, etc. It would be nice if you could CTL+Drag on a point to convert it to a bezier curve as you can do in most of the other software I use.

**sallybode** · 09 January 2006, 02:54 AM

On the subject of why should elipses and circles have to be converted to editable shapes before you can edit them: there are instances when you don't want them to be altered when editing text on them, if converted, then dragging your text can sometimes change the shape of the elipse or circle when you don't intend on it.