How to create symmetrical hand-drawn shapes?

Started by Jennifer, December 12, 2016, 05:50:26 PM

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Jennifer

Is there any way to create hand-drawn shapes using, for example, the pencil tool, and ensure that they are symmetrical about, say, the Y axis?

I want to draw a template for a new top for a glass Christmas Tree candy dish. I have a pretty good shape, but it is not symmetrical. The left side was a better fit than the right. My solution was to erase the right side (delete those segments) leaving an open shape, duplicate the shape, flip it on the Y axis, then join the two halves.

This worked perfectly, but now I want to make some adjustments. It's very tedious to repeat that process.

Is there any way to define a shape so that the right side is automatically a mirror image copy of the left side?

Thanks
Using Visio 2019, part of Office 365 on Windows 10

vojo

- free draw Christmas dish as best you can
- draw a line, say vertical
- Select both and center
- Developer==>operations ==> fragment
- erase the half you don't want
- if you want to fill the half, make sure geometry section in shapesheet has fill = true
- copy and flip have
- move so both halves touch(along vertical line)
- group or developer==> operations==> union

With this approach, you can show depth by
- copy new shape (group or op result)
- shrink X, Y by say 20%
- Center and middle

Of course, you could use gradients if more of a bowl shape (shadows increase with depth)


wapperdude

An alternative, semi-automatic approach, basically requires creating a 2nd geometry section that mirrors the 1st.  This is a manual process, as it requires duplicating the 1st section (Paul Herber's tools might automate this).  Then, assuming Y-axis symmetry, multiply all of the X-cell related entries by -1.  Once this tedious part is completed, the shape editing will track. 

Caveat:  adding nodes will introduce new rows in Geometry1 section.  This will require re-edit of Geo2 in shapesheet.  But, if all that's being done is tweaking node position, should be fine.

See attached for simple example. 

Wapperdude
Visio 2019 Pro

Jennifer

Quote from: vojo on December 12, 2016, 06:22:26 PM
- free draw Christmas dish as best you can
- draw a line, say vertical
- Select both and center
- Developer==>operations ==> fragment
- erase the half you don't want
- if you want to fill the half, make sure geometry section in shapesheet has fill = true
- copy and flip have
- move so both halves touch(along vertical line)
- group or developer==> operations==> union
This is essentially the approach I used. You have a few improvements that I will incorporate if I have to do it again.

Is there a reason you chose "Union" over "Join"? When I did it, I used Join and it seemed to work.

I've never been really clear on the differences between Join, Union, and Combine. Is there a good short summary somewhere?

Using Visio 2019, part of Office 365 on Windows 10

Jennifer

Quote from: wapperdude on December 12, 2016, 07:07:56 PM
An alternative, semi-automatic approach, basically requires creating a 2nd geometry section that mirrors the 1st.  This is a manual process, as it requires duplicating the 1st section (Paul Herber's tools might automate this).  Then, assuming Y-axis symmetry, multiply all of the X-cell related entries by -1.  Once this tedious part is completed, the shape editing will track. 

Caveat:  adding nodes will introduce new rows in Geometry1 section.  This will require re-edit of Geo2 in shapesheet.  But, if all that's being done is tweaking node position, should be fine.

See attached for simple example. 

Wapperdude
This looks like the solution I was looking for. I'll see if I can get it to work.

It seems like it ought to be possible to write a macro to do the tedious part of replicating each of the pieces. If I get some time, maybe I'll take a crack at that.

Thanks
Using Visio 2019, part of Office 365 on Windows 10

vojo

All due respect, 2nd geometry wont work

if first geometry went "east" by 30mm....2nd geometry will need to go "west" by 30mm

if first geometry goes "east, south, east, south"   2nd would need to go "west, south, west, south"

If curves involved, that much more uglier, especially if you try to flip the order of rows in 2nd geometry

Copying geometries will just give a dupe overtop of original geometry

Bottom line, 2nd geometry will take a lot of polishing to work