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When I subtract lines and shapes from an object I get a really large amount of vector points in the result. I thought that I had this figured out by adjusting the freehand slider to say 50 or higher. But this doesn't seem to be working now. Is there something I can do to keep the vector points to a minimum on things like subtracted lines in my projects? Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks,
Steps
I think the freehand slider only applies to shapes that you draw with the freehand tool, so it wouldn't have any effect on a subtracted shape.
However, the shape editor tool has a smoothing slider on it as well. If you use that tool and drag-select all of the nodes in your shape, you can use the smoothing slider to remove some points. That might get you a bit closer to what you want.
I think the smoothing of the lines (whichever way you do it) is limited by the complexity of your shape. If it has a lot of curves and bends it it then it will need more line segments (i.e. nodes) to represent faithfully. I'm not much of an artist so I don't know if there are any clever tricks to drawing things like that with fewer points.
If you simply wish to hide the nodes then one trick you can try:
select the one shape only and then group it [ctrl-g] - you can then ungroup to reveal the nodes again [ctrl-u]
Odat - There is another smoothness slider on the Shape Editor Tool Infobar. See attached.
Gary
How do you get that smoothing slider to become active? I've tried many different types of shapes, and I can't get anything to activate it. I would like to be able to take my finished design and optimize it somewhat.
You have to select the nodes in your shape that you want to smooth. Just Drag-Select a box around them and the slider should become active.
Cool ! Thanks, I'll definitely be using this on some of my projects with using plotter type cutters.