Kinds of shapes
| Shape | Made by | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Line | Line, Rectangle (four lines), many commands | Straight segment between two points. |
| Bézier curve | Bézier tool, SVG import, commands | A cubic curve with two handles. |
| Arc | Arc tool, Beveling, commands | Part of a circle. |
| Circle / oval | Circle and Oval tools | A full circle or ellipse. |
| Dot | Dot tool | A small filled circle, 0.9 mm across by default. |
| Text | Text tool, Dimension labels | Drawn from the letters' outlines, so it prints and cuts exactly. |
| Stitch hole | Stitching tool | The shape of the iron's blade, linked in stitching order. |
| Template object | Convert to template, template library, SVG import | One shape made of many lines and curves; its closed parts are drawn filled. |
Line types (the palette)
Every shape has a line type: one of 40 entries that set its colour, thickness and dash pattern. The Line types section of the side panel shows them as swatches.
- Click a swatch: new shapes use that line type (it becomes the current type).
- Ctrl+click a swatch: hide or show every shape of that type. Hidden shapes can't be picked or edited and can be left out of exports.
- Ctrl+Alt+click a shape on the canvas: make its line type the current one.
- Right-click a swatch: Show this line type, Select all shapes of this type, Unselect this type, Unselect the others, Edit line type….
- The pencil next to Current edits the current line type.
Edit line type dialog: Colour on the black background, Colour on the white background (colour picker or #RRGGBB), Thickness (screen pixels), Pattern (solid, dashed, dotted, dash-dot, dash-dot-dot), and Hide when printing (the type is never printed). Reset to default restores the entry. Applying changes every shape of that type.
The palette is kept in your browser, not in project files; shapes keep a copy of their colour, so a file looks the same elsewhere.
The palette is shared by every PatinaCAD tab in this browser: change a line type in one tab and your other open tabs show the change straight away, without reloading. In each open drawing the shapes of that type change with it, just as in the tab where you edited it; Undo in a tab puts that drawing's shapes back to their old look (the line type itself stays changed).
Default line types worth knowing:
| # | Look | Used for |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | aqua, solid | Cut lines (the default) |
| 7 | orange, solid | Dimensions |
| 10 | red, solid | Library templates |
| 36 | white, dotted | Stitch holes |