Drawing line with rounded corners?

[scriptster]

Another one of my "is it possible with Xara X" questions:

how can I draw a continuous line that has rounded corners (see the picture attached). This is something really easily done in Visio and I am missing this capability in Xara. I just can't find how to do it short of creating a bunch of rectangles, round their corners and then chop them up.
Anyone has a better idea about the rounded corners?

Thanks for any idea or comment!

Cheers,

D~

[Big Frank]

Unfortunately that's one of the things I have always wished Xara, in its various guises, has been able to do, but that, along with decent wrapping of text around an object, has never been seen as a priority.

[-=Drifter=-]

Hmmmm, I was just playing with this. You have forced me to get to know better a tool that I hardly ever use, the Pen Tool. With this tool it is quite easy to do what you would like, it just takes a little practice. Make two points to make the starting line, then the third point on the side you will be going to. Before letting go of the mouse button, push or pull that new node and you will see your curve take form.

[pauland]

It's a bit fiddly, but you can do it this way using the shape editor tool..

[scriptster]

Thank you for your replies, guys.

I should try the proposed approaches. The only problem I still see is that the lines will look hand-drawn, and I want them to look perfect because the rounded corner lines are going to be used in technical drawings/diagrams. So I am looking for something that is rounded by the program itself with an eye on the consistency in the radii etc. I guess, if this feature is missing, this would be the first one I would propose to add in the future releases.

Does Xara have an official feature wish list?

Thanks again.

[Egg Bramhill]

Another way.

Set the grid to 30 pix.

Show Grid

Snap to grid.

Using the shape editor tool set to line and smooth joins :-

Draw your shape as the top version.

Now drag select over every 2 nodes you want rounded.

Hit the "Make Curve C" (highlighted) for each curve you require.

[David O'Neil]

...The only problem I still see is that the lines will look hand-drawn, and I want them to look perfect because the rounded corner lines are going to be used in technical drawings/diagrams...

Paul's method, with an addendum, will give you what you want. It isn't as good as Visio's approach, but it is still quite doable.

Create a circle with the radius you desire, and use that as a template. Make that circle have a transparent center, and give it a thin outside thickness. Place the circle tangent to both lines. Then select the original line, and using the shape editor tool, create the new nodes, delete the center node, and drag the center of the new connecting line until it overlaps the arc of the circle.

Then drag the circle to the next intersection, and repeat. It will look machine-done in the end.

David

ps - when moving the circle, you can use the 'Alt' key and the arrow keys, to move the circle in very small increments, which makes final placement of the circle pretty easy.