Working with Basic Shapes
 

Creating basic shapes is fairly simple once you know how with CorelDraw. In this tutorial we'll cover some of the basic things you can do with shapes.

First draw a rectangle.

To round the corners of the rectangle, drag one of the corner handles along the line of the rectangle.

To create arcs or pie shapes, draw an ellipse.

To create an arc, drag the handle around the outside of the ellipse.

To create a pie shape, drag the handle around the inside of the ellipse.

Use the shape tool to select multiple nodes in an object.

Create a Spiral object and select the nodes shown below by using the shape tool and holding down the shift key as you click on each of the nodes.

You can now edit the shape by dragging those nodes where ever you want.

Lets alter this shape into something else. Right click on one of the selected nodes and choose Break Apart.

You should have something similar to the screenshot below.

Deselect all the nodes by clicking anywhere on your canvas but not on the spiral object. Select the nodes of the inner line and hit delete.

Select the Shape Tool and holding down the SHIFT key, select the six nodes shown below.

We want to join these six nodes so that we have three continuous circles. There are a few ways to do this and we'll try two of them.

Right click on a selected node and choose Auto-Close.

As you can see, the circles are now closed however they look a little flat where the join occurred. This is because we had space in between the nodes before we joined them.

Now, you could just move the nodes closer together before you join them or you can use another option to join them.

Go to Edit>Undo until you are back to the disconnected selected nodes. Right click on a selected node and choose Join from the pop up menu.

That is a much smoother join.

There are good reasons to use both methods. If you want the extra space (line) between joins then use the Auto-Close option, else just use the Join option.

Have fun!

Copyright Vikki Olds, All Rights Reserved