Apply and change drawing properties

Learn how to apply and change drawing properties, work with patterns, line and arrow styles in FrameMaker.

An object’s drawing properties include the fill pattern, pen pattern, line width, line ends, color, and whether the line is solid or dashed. You change drawing properties from drop-down lists on the Tools panel.

You can change drawing properties before you draw an object, or you can select objects that you’ve already drawn and then change their properties. After you change a property, it becomes the current property—that is, it will be applied to any object you draw. For example, if you choose a line width of 1 point, this is applied to all newly drawn objects until you choose another line width or exit FrameMaker.

You can make objects look alike by applying one object’s properties to another object.

You can also change the colors in the Color drop-down list and customize the following choices that appear on the Tools panel:

The new line width settings remain until you change them. The other new settings remain until you change them or exit FrameMaker.

None of the changes described here are applied automatically to existing objects. However, you can apply the new settings to both new and existing objects.

Note: Dashed line pattern and polylines may appear solid on screen and in print if the lines are especially thick and contain acute angles or have round or projecting caps. To make the lines print correctly, change the Line Ends Options setting to Butt, use a smaller line width, or redraw the object using separate lines.

Apply a fill pattern or pen pattern to a selected object

Choose the pattern from the Fill Pattern drop-down list Fill Patterndrop-downlist or Pen Pattern drop-down list PenPatterndrop-downlist. You can fill any objects except lines, text lines, and equations.

Figure 1. A. Pen pattern B. Fill pattern
Applyingafillpatternorpenpatterntoaselectedobject

The eight gray fill and pen patterns have the following percentages: 100, 90, 70, 50, 30, 10, 3, and 0 (no ink, typically white).

Tip: To make an object transparent (so objects in back of it show through), choose a fill pattern of None. If you don’t want the object to have a border, choose a pen pattern of None. To see the border of an object that uses both a pen and a fill pattern of None, choose View > Borders.

Choose a line width for a line or an object’s border

Choose a width from the Set Line Widths drop-down list SetLineWidthsdrop-downlist. You can change the line width of any object except text lines.

Change the ends of an arc, a line, a polyline, or a freehand curve

Choose the line end from the Set Line End Style drop-down list SetLineEndStyledrop-downlist. You can use no arrowhead or place an arrowhead at the beginning, at the end, or at both ends.

Make a line or object’s borders solid or dashed

Choose a solid or dashed style from the Set Dashed Line Pattern drop-down list SetDashedLinePatterndrop-downlist.

Inspect an object’s drawing properties or apply them to other objects

  1. Select the object that has the properties you want to inspect or copy.

  2. Hold down Shift and choose Graphics > Pick Up Object Properties. The properties of the selected object become the current properties on the Tools panel. Any object you draw picks up those properties.

  3. To apply the properties to existing objects, select the objects you want to change. In the Tools panel, click the current drawing properties you want to apply to the selected objects.

Change line width settings

  1. From the Set Line Width drop-down list on the Tools panel.

  2. Do one of the following:

    • To change the line widths, drag the slider.

    • To change the line widths, click Set and enter the new line widths. You can enter the values in any order. When you click Set, the line widths are sorted from smallest to largest. The widths that appear in the drop-down list don’t change.

    • To revert to the line widths you had when you started FrameMaker, click Get Defaults.

Change the line end style

  1. Select Set from the Set Line End Style drop-down list on the Tools panel.

  2. Select a line end style and click Set.

    The Cap Style sets the line end style as shown in the following illustration:

Figure 2. A. Butt B. Round C. Projecting
Changingthelineendstyle

Change the dashed line style

  1. Select Set from the Set Dashed Line Pattern drop-down list on the Tools panel.

  2. Click one of the patterns and click Set.

You can also create custom dashed line pattern.

Tip: To create a dotted line that uses round dots, use a dashed line pattern of short dashes with a round line cap.

Change the arrow style

You can choose from among several preset arrow styles. Arrow styles are determined by their base angle, tip angle, and length.

Figure 3. A. Base angle B. Tip angle C. Length
Changingthearrowstyle

None of the changes described here are applied automatically to existing objects. However, you can apply the new arrow style to both new and existing objects.

  1. Select Set from the Set Line End Style drop-down list on the Tools panel.

  2. Do one of the following:

    • Click a preset arrow style and click Set.

    • Fill in a custom base angle, tip angle, length, and style, and then click Set. You can use the following values for the custom options.

      Option

      Values

      Base Angle

      Between 10 and 175 degrees (and at least 5 degrees greater than the tip angle)

      Tip Angle

      Between 5 and 85 degrees

      Length

      Between 0 and 255 points

      Style

      Filled Filledarrowstyle

      Hollow Hollowarrowstyle

      Stick Stickarrowstyle

    FrameMaker ignores the Base Angle option when you use Stick style. The length you specify applies to objects that have a line width of 1 point. When you use a thicker line width, the arrowhead is longer.

    The following table contains sample custom arrows and their settings.

    Arrow

    Base Angle

    Tip Angle

    Length

    Sample customarrowwithbaseangleof70degrees,tipangleof30degrees,andlength10points

    70 degrees

    30 degrees

    10 points

    Sample customarrowwithbaseangleof80degrees,tipangleof30degrees,andlength10points

    80 degrees

    30 degrees

    10 points

    Sample customarrowwithbaseangleof70degrees,tipangleof15degrees,andlength10points

    70 degrees

    15 degrees

    10 points

    Sample customarrowwithbaseangleof70degrees,tipangleof30degrees,andlength5points

    70 degrees

    30 degrees

    5 points

    Sample customarrowwithbaseangleof120degrees,tipangleof30degrees,andlength5points

    120 degrees

    30 degrees

    5 points