About the Contour Editor Tool Modes

When you select the Contour Editor tool, its properties and options appear in the Tool Properties view.

Lasso and Marquee Modes

When selecting artwork, you can use the Lasso mode to make a freehand selection or the Marquee mode to make a rectangular selection.

TIP You can press and hold the Alt key to temporarily switch from the selected mode to the other.

Allows you to enable or disable snapping for this tool and all other animation and drawing tools that support snapping, as well as to select which types of snapping are enabled.

If you double-click or long-click on this button, it will open a pop-up menu in which you can toggle different snapping modes. You can also click on this button to toggle it off, which will disable all snapping modes, and click on it again and toggle it on to re-enable the snapping modes which were previously enabled.

Snapping

Allows you to enable or disable snapping for this tool and all other animation and drawing tools that support snapping, as well as to select which types of snapping are enabled.

If you double-click or long-click on this button, it will open a pop-up menu in which you can toggle different snapping modes. You can also click on this button to toggle it off, which will disable all snapping modes, and click on it again and toggle it on to re-enable the snapping modes which were previously enabled.

This tool supports the following snapping modes:

  • Snap to Contour: When enabled, moving the control point in a contour near another contour will snap that control point against that contour. This will lock the point and the contour together, and moving the control point will deform the contour.

    This option can be especially useful if you need to makes the edges of two shapes snap together, like so:

    You can also use this option to make a control point snap against another control point, allowing you to join lines together.

    NOTE When a control point is snapped against a contour or another control point in your drawing, the Contour Editor will manipulate them together. However, even if you make a point in one drawing stroke snap against another drawing stroke, they will remain separate drawing strokes unless they are flattened together, and you will still be able to manipulate them individually with the Select tool.
  • Snap to Alignment Guides: When enabled, when moving the selection or one of its control points, it will snap against nearby alignment guides—see About Alignment Guides.

  • 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.

Tip Style

If you select and remove part of a pencil line, this option allows you to choose which kind of line tip the removed segment should leave behind:

  • Tip Style: Round: Leaves rounded tips at the extremities of the deleted line segment.

  • Tip Style: Flat: Leaves flat tips at the extremities of the deleted line segment.