Rectangle Tool Properties

When you select the Rectangle tool, its properties and options appear in the Tool Properties view. There are a few less options available when working on a bitmap layer.

NOTETo learn how to use the Rectangle tool, see About Shape Tools.

Shape Tool Properties View - Rectangle

Icon	Tool Name	Description
	Previewing the Stroke	The Preview area lets you see a preview of the stroke your drawing tool will make.
	Size	Defines the width of the pencil line used to draw the rectangle.
	Shape	You can adjust the start, end, and join style of a pencil line. Start: Lets you select the style of the start tip, which is the first tip you drew. You can choose between Round or Flat style. End: Lets you select the style of the end tip, which is the last tip you drew. You can choose between Round or Flat style. Join: Lets you select the joint style. The joints are where the line curves abruptly. You could also define the Join style as the corner style. You can choose between Round, Mitre and Bevel style.
	Presets	Harmony provides a variety of presets and also lets you create and save your own. It is a good idea to create and save pencils with precise sizes and parameters when you draw and design for efficiency and consistency. All tools using pencil lines share the same preset list. Therefore, the Polyline, Line, Rectangle, Ellipse, and Pencil tools share the same preset list.
	New Brush	Creates a new preset based on the current brush properties.
	Delete Brush	Deletes the currently selected preset.
	Rename Brush	Deletes the currently selected preset.
	Import Brushes	Allows you to import brush presets exported from Harmony.
	Export Brushes	Allows you to export your brush presets into an .xml file.
	Small Thumbnail, Large Thumbnail, and Stroke View	Allows you to display the presets as small square thumbnails, large square thumbnails or a list of stroke preview.
	Draw Behind	When enabled, your brush strokes will appear behind the existing artwork. Note that they will appear over your artwork while drawing your stroke, until you release the brush.
	Automatic Filling	Use the Automatic Filling option to automatically fill your shape with the selected colour as you draw. By default, the Shape tool creates the outline of an empty shape that you can later fill using the Paint tool. This option is unavailable for the line tool.
	Snap to Contour	Snaps your selection or point to any line you position it on. As soon as you move it close enough to another line, your point or selection will snap to it.
	Snap and Align	Snaps the selected anchor point to any existing line while displaying temporary rulers as a guide that you can also snap your anchor point to.
	Snap to Grid	Snaps your selection following the currently enabled grid.
	Automatically Create Colour Art	As you draw in the Line Art layer, the Automatically Create Colour Art option instantly creates the corresponding strokes in the Colour Art layer.
	Auto-Flatten Mode	By default, when drawing on a vector layer, each new stroke is created as a separate drawing object, which can be edited independently from other parts of the artwork. When enabled, the Auto-Flatten option automatically merges strokes into existing artwork. NOTE Using the Select tool, you can use select and remove a segment of flattened pencil lines. Overlapping pencil lines drawn with the Auto-Flatten mode are essentially cut into segments by the overlap and can be treated as individual lines.
	Use Stored Colour Gradient	The Use Stored Colour Gradient option can be used when painting with a gradient colour to always position the gradient in the same way it was stored, making it consistent across brush strokes. You can store a gradient by selecting a zone painted with a gradient with the Select tool, then clicking on Store Colour Gradient in the Tool Properties view.
	Draw Square	Enable this option to draw perfect square (ratio 1:1) without holding any keyboard shortcuts. As an alternative, you can hold down the Shift key.

Pencil Properties Dialog

The Rectangle tool draws the same type of line as the Pencil tool. Hence, you can configure the Rectangle tool's lines using the Pencil Properties dialog, which you can open by clicking on the arrow button right of the stroke display area in the Tool Properties view.

Size and Smoothness Tab

The Size and Smoothness tab allows you to select your pencil's size, its smoothing parameters as well as the shape of its tips and corners.

Tool Name	Description
Maximum Size	Defines the maximum size of the pencil line. If the tool is used with a pressure sensitive pen tablet, the width of the stroke will vary between its maximum size and minimum size depending on the amount of pressure used. If used with a mouse, the width of the stroke will always be its maximum size.
Minimum Size	Defines the minimum size of your stroke as a percentage of the maximum size. If you do not have pressure sensitivity from a pen table, the minimum size value will be ignored.
Smoothing	Defines the number of control points added to the centre line. The fewer the control points the smoother (but less faithful) the line.
Contour Smoothing	Defines the number of points on the contour share of your stroke. This will smooth out the bumps and waves on tour contour shape of your brush strokes.
Shape	You can adjust the start, end, and join style of a pencil line. Start: Lets you select the style of the start tip, which is the first tip you drew. You can choose between Round or Flat style. End: Lets you select the style of the end tip, which is the last tip you drew. You can choose between Round or Flat style. Join: Lets you select the joint style. The joints are where the line curves abruptly. You could also define the Join style as the corner style. You can choose between Round, Mitre and Bevel style.

Texture Tab

In the Pencil Properties view, the Texture tab allows you to select a pencil texture from the currently selected pencil texture palette to use with the Pencil tool. You can also add, remove or rename textures, save the current pencil texture palette as the default one, or import the pencil texture palette into your scene.

The pencil texture palette used in the Texture tab of the Pencil Properties dialog is the one selected in the Colour view. You can select a pencil texture palette by selecting it from the pencil texture palette list in the Colour view—see Colour View.

Icon	Tool Name	Description
	Use as Default Pencil Texture Palette	Sets the currently selected pencil texture palette as the default pencil texture palette in your user preferences. The default pencil texture palette is added to every scene you create in Harmony. The palette is copied in your preferences, so it will be added to your new scenes in the exact state it is when you make it the default pencil texture palette.
	Reload Default Texture Palette	Imports the default pencil texture palette as a new pencil texture palette into your scene's palette list, and selects it as the current pencil texture palette.
	New Texture	Allows you to import an image file into a new pencil texture swatch in the current pencil texture palette. The pencil texture's effect on your pencil line will be based on the image's transparency channel, and will follow your pencil lines on its horizontal axis.
	Delete Texture	Deletes a pencil texture swatch from the current pencil texture palette.
	Rename Texture	Renames the selected pencil texture swatch in the current pencil texture palette.
	Pencil Texture List	Displays the pencil textures in the current pencil texture palette and allows you to select one to use with the Pencil tool.
	Pencil Texture Palette	Displays the name of the currently selectedpencil texture palette, for reference. To select a different pencil texture palette, you must select it in the Colour view—see Colour View.