Best way to draw lines so the ends to not protrude

[Jennifer]

I am drawing some illustrations of the earth showing various latitude lines (equator, tropic of cancer, arctic circle, etc.).

If I make the lines as thick as I want them, Visio also thickens the ends so that they protrude beyond the edge of the circle representing earth. In some cases, the protrusion is visible on the drawing.

It is my understanding that there is no way to tell Visio to end the line exactly at the endpoint, so I assume that I need a way to mask the part that protrudes.

The problem is exacerbated by the fill shading. I am using one of the fill patterns to make the earth look brighter on the face toward the sun and darker on the other side. It looks better with the line set to "no line", but that makes the circle even smaller and the protrusions more noticeable.

My first thought was to create a thin ring using fragment from two concentric circles. One the same radius as the earth circle and the other just slightly larger. My thought was that it would fit over the earth circle and mask and protrusions. The problem is that is also masks anything else that protrudes that I want visible. It was also hard to keep track of the ring as it was very thin and no fill or border. I probably still have a couple of them lurking somewhere.

My next solution was to try using fragment or another operation to divide the lines at the circle edge. I could not find a way to make that work.

Then I got the idea to repeat this method, but using thin rectangles, rather than fat lines. I created a circle of the right diameter. I dragged a rectangle shape, made it very thin, turned off the line, and set the fill to black. I then placed several of these rectangle lines on the circle allowing them to extend way beyond the circle. I then selected the whole collection and used fragment. After I deleted the parts between and around the lines, I had a set of lines with curved edges that align perfectly with the original circle.

The main drawback is that I have to decide on the width before I do the fragment, because I can't change it later without screwing up the ends.

Is there a better way?

[wapperdude]

Not true about the line ends.  Go to menu bar > Line Weight (or arrows).  Select the more option at the bottom of the popup menu.  Click the option arrow for caps and select square.  This will truncate the line end.

Wapperdude

[Jennifer]

The square ends option does not solve the problem unless the line ends on a straight line at a right angle. My latitude lines end on the circumference of a circle, so even squared ends protrude.

I've attached an image showing the three possible line ends (round, square, extended) and my solution.

[wapperdude]

Hi Jennifer --

You've pretty much exhaused all of the possibiliites, and your fragmenting solution is the only one that will work.  But, there might be an alternative approach, which may be easier --  or not. 

Make one circle with solid black fill, and use it as a back ground.  Place your earth over it.  Make a narrow rectangle as before.  If you want to get clever, use the pencil tool to make the center of the rectange to bulge a little, like a football.  Copy this shape as much as desired.  Align & overlay as you did before and fragment.  Throw away all of the little pieces, keeping only the main earth segments.  Now the black background will show thru.  If desired, group the lot.  Not sure this is any easier -- just a thought.

Wapperdude