9

278 Chapter 5: Creating Geometry
Examples of stars
Procedure
To create a star:
1.
GototheCreatepanela
nd choose
Shapes.
2. Click Star.
3. Drag and release the m ouse button to define
the first st ar radius.
4. Move the mouse and then click to define the
second st ar radius.
Inter face
Rendering and Interpolation rollouts
All spline-based sha
pes share these p arameters.
See Splines ( page 1–266) for explanations of these
parameters.
Parameters rollout
Once you have created a star, you can make
changes using the following parameters:
Radius 1—Specifies the radius of the inner vertices
(the valley) of the star.
Radius 2—Specifies the radius of the outer vertices
(the p oints) of the star.
Point s—Specifies the number of points on the st ar.
Range=3 to 100.
A star has twice as many vertices as the specified
number of points. Half the vertices lie on one
radius, forming points, and the remaining ver t ices
lie on the other radius, forming valleys.
Distor tion—Rotates the outer vertices (the points)
about the center of the star. This produces a
sawtooth affect.
Fillet R adius 1—Rounds the inner vertices (the
valleys) of the star.
Fillet R adius 2—Rounds the outer vertices (the
points) of the star.
Text Spline
Create panel > Shapes > Splines > O bject Type rollout
>Text
Create menu > Shapes > Text
UseTexttocreatesplinesintheshapeoftext.
ThetextcanuseanyWindowsfontinstalledon
your system, or a Type 1 PostScript font installed
in the directory pointed to by the Fonts path on
the Configure System Paths dialog (page 3–810).
Because fonts are loaded only at first use, changing
the font path later in the program has no effect.
The program must be restarted before the new
path is used, if the font manager has b een used by
the program.