Free Form Shape -- HOW TO Smooth Out My Curves?

Started by crosis, October 28, 2014, 11:40:26 AM

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crosis

I'm drawing a free form shape and am wondering if Visio has a way to clean up the shape; to automatically smooth out the curving parts.  My free form shape is quite bumpy looking when my intent was a much smoother curve.

Thanks

wapperdude

While Visio has drawing tools, and it's possible to make some interesting drawings, it was not intended to be a drawing program; at least, not like Illustrator, DrawPlus, CorelDraw, etc.  As such, it's tool set is limited.  I'm not aware of any "feature" that automatically smooths while drawing or after drawing has been made.  The common, tedious approach has been to select the line to be smoothed, use the pencil tool to select and delete nodes along the way.  Some nodes will have curve handles to adjust the curve.  But all of this is manual and after the fact.

Wapperdude
Visio 2019 Pro

crosis


wapperdude

Another Visio feature to keep in mind, using pencil tool, move cursor to a desired location along the line, hold down the <cntl> key and click left mouse button.  This will add a node.  If the line segment was drawn either with freeform or curve tool, the curve inflection nodes will have handles for altering the character of the curve.

This is handy for doing tracings.  Allows you to do quick, rough outline and then add nodes as desired to achieve desired level of accuracy.

Wapperdude
Visio 2019 Pro

vojo

perhaps playing with corner bend settings might help....will definitely soften things...not sure enough for what you want

wapperdude

@Vojo:  Brilliant!

I have totally missed this setting, at least, I think this is what you're referring to:
In V2007:  menu bar>tools>options>Advanced tab.  Under Freeform drawing there is a Smoothing slider which does impact the line as it is drawn.

So, I must correct earlier statement and it is possible to change the smoothness of the line as it is drawn.  But, once drawn, back to manual editing.

Wapperdude
Visio 2019 Pro

Yacine

Inspiring topic!
There are definitely many ways to smooth curves in Visio.
Here I tried to read out the geometry data of shapes and get smoother ones.
This is just an excercise which lacks many considerations.
It doesn't consider Nurbs, nor polylines.
And there are those ugly line jumps.

But it is fun to play with. Get inspired to improve it.

Cheers,
Yacine
Yacine

vojo

so there is that setting

and

format ==> line   ...I am still on 2003 so might be some other way in 2010/2013 to get to this panel
from here, you can set the bend radius of any "change in direction"     I forget the actual math (it used to be out on web
but you know MS, love to mess things up).   Something like 1-tan/4r or something like that

Anyway, play with radius as you need to (0mm to even 10 or 20mm)

Robert K S

#8
Is there any definitive tutorial out there on working with freeform lines and adjusting the control points or "corners" or whatever they're called?  Particularly, is there some way to add one or both handles to a control point, or insert a smooth bend point, or otherwise introduce curvature to a portion of a shape made up of straight line segments?  I am working on Visio 2007.  I understand that once a freeform line is created either the pencil tool or the freeform tool can be used to edit the line.  I understand that Ctrl+click can be used to add a control point, and that clicking on the control point and pressing the delete key on the keyboard can be used to delete the control point.  What I don't understand is the rhyme or reason behind what kind of control point gets created, and how to achieve creation of the particular type of control point that is desired.

There seem to be at least four types of control points:

Type 1. Sharp corner control points with two "handles".  These control points show up as small green diamonds that turn bright purple when selected.  Each diamond has two "handles" that appear as green circles (bright purple when selected) with black X's in them.  The handles' "affiliation" to their respective control points can be identified by a green dashed line that turns black during adjustment.  These control points present a smooth curve on both sides of the control point, but there is a discontinuity (i.e., a sharp corner) at the location of the control point.  These can only appear mid-curve (i.e., not at an endpoint).  Mousing over gives tooltip "Adjust Corner".
Type 2. Sharp corner control points with only one handle.  The non-handle side always renders as a straight line (rather than a curve) to the next corner control point.  These can appear mid-curve or at an endpoint.  Mousing over gives tooltip "Adjust Corner", or "Extend Shape" if an unselected endpoint.
Type 3. Sharp corner control points with no handles.  There are straight lines on both sides (or only one side if an endpoint) unless adjacent to a type 4 point.  These can also appear mid-curve or at an endpoint.  Mousing over gives tooltip "Adjust Corner", or "Extend Shape" if an unselected endpoint.
Type 4. Smooth control points.  These have no handles but they render the same as a handle, i.e., a green (or bright purple) circle with an X in the middle.  They are curved on both sides and the curve is always smoothly continuous at the location of the smooth control point.  Like type 1 control points, these can only appear mid-curve (i.e., not at an endpoint).  Mousing over gives tooltip "Bend Shape".

I have been able to empirically derive the following rules:
Rule 1a. When creating a closed shape using the freeform tool, the shape always consists solely of type 4 control points (i.e., smooth, no handles) except for the beginning/end point which is a type 1 control point (sharp, two handles).  Perhaps there is a way to perfectly draw a curve such that it consists only of type 4 points, but I haven't been able to do it.  One thing is for sure: no matter how sharp a corner is desired midway through the draw, it is impossible to create such a sharp corner (i.e., create a control point of any of types 1-3) anywhere in the middle of the shape, except by drawing the shape in two or more parts (i.e., by lifting the mouse button at a desired sharp point, and then extending the shape by clicking on the sharp-point end and continuing to draw).
Rule 1b. When creating a curve using the freeform tool (i.e., an "open" shape), the curve always consists solely of type 4 control points (i.e., smooth, no handles) except for type 2 control points (sharp, one handle) at the beginning and end points.  Again, it is impossible to create such a sharp corner anywhere in the middle of the curve, except by drawing the curve in two or more parts.
Rule 2a. When moving a type 1 control point in a closed or open shape (i.e., by first clicking on the control point after selecting the shape, and then dragging it), its associated handles do not move along with it.
Rule 2b. When moving a type 2 control point at an endpoint of an open shape that has only two corner control points (i.e., the curve was not created by drawing it in two or more parts), its associated handle not only moves along with it, but the distance between the type 2 control point and its handle changes in proportion to the amount that the type 2 control point is moved.  Furthermore, the handle of the other control point is also adjusted in a the similar fashion, and the entire shape is rotated and resized.
Rule 2c. When moving a type 2 control point at an endpoint of an open shape that has more than two corner control points (i.e., the curve was created by drawing it in two or more parts), its associated handle does not move along with it, just like in rule 2a.
Rule 3a. Inserting a control point (i.e., by Ctrl+clicking) between two type 4 points or between a type 4 point and a type 2 point (i.e., anywhere on a newly created freeform shape or curve) always creates a type 1 point.  This is also true when the control point is created between a type 4 point and a type 1 point, or two type 1 points.
Rule 3b. Inserting a control point between a type 3 point or the non-handle side of a type 2 point and a type 4 point always creates both a type 3 point at the insertion location and a new type 4 point between the insertion location and the original type 3 or type 2 point, while also moving the original type 4 point further away from the insertion location.
Rule 3c. Inserting a control point between two type 3 points always creates a type 3 point.  A corollary to these rules is that there does not appear to be a way to precisely insert at type 4 control point (i.e., by Ctrl+clicking).
Rule 4a. Trying to delete a handle on the side of a control point that faces a type 4 (smooth) control point has no effect.
Rule 4b. Deleting a handle on the side of a type 1 or type 2 control point that faces an adjacent type 1 or type 2 control point ALSO deletes the facing handle of the adjacent control point AND creates a type 4 control point between the aforementioned two control points.  It does not appear to be possible to restore a deleted handle, other than by undo.
Rule 4c. Deleting all handles of a type 1 or type 2 control point leaves it as a type 3 control point.  The segment between two type 3 points is always straight and cannot be adjusted as a curve.  As a corollary of this, in combination with the impossibility of restoring a deleted handle and of rule 3c, once a curve or portion thereof has been reduced to type 3 points (handleless corners), its smooth curvature cannot be restored.
Rule 5a. Deleting a type 3 point between two type 4 points, or between a type 4 point and another type 3 point, has the effect of deleting one of the type 4 points (or the sole adjacent type 4 point) and inserting a new type 3 point at a point closer to the location of the automatically deleted type 4 point.  In other words, one of the type 4 points (or the sole adjacent type 4 point) effectively gets "converted" to a type 3 point.  This seems pretty weird and I just can't make sense of the logic behind it at all.
Rule 5b. Deleting a type 2 (i.e., single-handle) control point between a non-handle side (i.e., between a type 2 or type 3 adjacent point with no handle on the side of the deleted point) and a handle (i.e., a type 1 or type 2 adjacent point with a handle on the side of the deleted point) effectively moves the handle of the deleted point to the control point on the non-handle side.  I'm still trying to figure out the complete contours of this rule.
Rule 5c. Deleting a type 2 (i.e., single-handle) control point between a type 4 point and a handle effectively deletes the type 4 point and creates a new type 2 point at a location closer to the deleted type 4 point that has a handle at the same location as the deleted type 2 point.  In other words, the type 4 point effectively gets "converted" to a type 2 point.

Am I wrong about any of this?  Is there some way to add one or both handles to a control point, or insert a type 4 point, or otherwise restore curvature to a portion of a shape made up of straight line segments?