Figure 5. The Arc Properties dialogue
The Arc properties dialogue is where the initial properties to allow an arc to be displayed are entered.
Select Colour
Clicking the select colour button will display the colour requester with the current colour selected. Simply select any colour including custom colours and then click the "Ok" button. The swelected colour combined with the currently displayed transparency setting will then be shown in the box to the right of the button.
Transparency
Use the spin button to set the transparency of the seleted colour, settings between 100 and 255 are allowed 100 being very transparent and 255 being fully opaque. As the swetting is changed the displayed colour will change to show the colour to be used.
Thickness
The thickness spin button sets the thickness of the arc to be displayed. A setting of 1, the default, will display the arc 5 pixels wide on the main drawing canvas.
Fill And Outline
The default, Outline, will display the arc in outline form at a thickness set by the thickness setting. If Fill is selected the thickness setting is ignored and the arc is drawn filled.
Ok
Clicking the Ok button will show the selected settings in the edit area and start the Add Arc process.
Cancel
Clicking Cancel will cancel the Add Arc process.
Adding The Arc
After clicking Ok on the arc properties dialogue adding the arc is in four stages each controlled by the mouse.
Stage 1
Click a point on the drawing area through which the arc is to pass, this can be the end or start point of the arc as well.
Stage 2
After stage 1 a dashed circle is shown the circumference of which passes through the point selected in stage 1. This circle will change in size dependant upon the position of the mouse and shows all possible arcs which pass through the selected point for the radius as defined by how far away the current mouse position is from the first selected point. When you see the possibility of the arc you require click the mouse button again to move to stage 3.
Stage 3
The dashed circle continues to be displayed together with a straight line from the point clicked in stage 2 to the current mouse position. Move the mouse until the straight line is intersects the circle at the desired start position of the arc and click the mouse again to move to stage 4.
Stage 4
Moving the mouse on the drawing surface will now draw the arc in the selected colour at the selected thickness, or filled if selected from the selected startpoint to the current mouse position. Once the required arc is drawn click the mouse again to draw the arc on the icon. This will automatically save the arc to this icon and display its properties in the edit area.
This does not save the icon. If the icon is as desired or if you wish to carry on later click the "Icon" menu item and then click "Save". this will save the Icon as drawn on the drawing area for further editing later.