Subtracting Shapes

[steps]

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

[Odat]

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.

[handrawn]

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]

[gwpriester]

Odat - There is another smoothness slider on the Shape Editor Tool Infobar. See attached.

Gary

[steps]

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.

[Odat]

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.

[steps]

Cool ! Thanks, I'll definitely be using this on some of my projects with using plotter type cutters.