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hen3ry
Inspiring
July 6, 2017
Answered

Drawing a series of connected straight lines by length and direction, how?

  • July 6, 2017
  • 3 replies
  • 6994 views

AI CC 2017.1.0

I'm looking for a way of drawing a series of connected straight line segments, each with a bearing (compass direction) in degrees and a length.  In some cases, these will form a closed irregular polygon (correct term?).  In other cases, there is no closure.

People familiar with real-estate documents will recognize this as drawing representations of U.S. legal descriptions of properties and boundaries.  Yep.

I tried the obvious method: use the Line Segment ("/") tool repeatedly. For the bearing in legalese "South 44 degrees 29 minutes east" first I discard the minutes. South is 270°, so I calculate (270 - 44) and enter the result as the angle.  My scale is 1mm = 100 ft, so I enter "3.2mm" as the length.  (Setting the default "general" units to mm helps this along.)  

I'm still working out how to specify the endpoint of segment 'n' as the beginning of segment 'n+1'. Eyeballing is slow and inaccurate. I haven't figured out how to tell the Line Segment tool to use the last-defined path end, or the current sold handle as the starting point for the next segment.  (Is there a way? Suggestions welcome!)

Is there a better way to drawing a series of connected straight line segments?

Is there a way to distinguish one segment from another?   It is REALLY easy to get lost, especially when successive segments are very similar. ("Did I just draw segment 10 or segment 11?")  It is no fun starting over.   A visible dimension, or a slant length?  (Window-->Info gives only horizontal and vertical size.)  A plug-in?

Double extra credit if this can be accomplished by some form of scripting.  I can hack JS to do this if  someone will get me started. (My JS experience is solely with DW.)

I've got a small number of these to do, about 30 of them, from 5 to 20 segments each.  I'd like to find a way to use AI to do the work. Clearly if I did this every day, I'd switch to a specialized land-management app.

TIA

Henry

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer hen3ry

    https://forums.adobe.com/people/Barbara+Ash  schrieb

    As far as the first line disappearing when you create a new line, you need to deselect the first line before creating another line.

    I've never experienced that behaviour before. In your version of Illustrator, do you really have to deselect a segment drawn with the Line Segment tool to prevent it from getting deleted when you draw another line segment with the same tool?

    We are actually talking about using the Line Segment tool, aren't we?


    KG and BA:

    This method seems to be working for me now:  "Get" the Line Segment Tool from the palette, place the cross cursor at the start location, enter angle + length, and hit "OK" to draw S1.    At this point the cross cursor is still visible, i.e. still have the Line Segment Tool.   Click the cursor on the endpoint of S1, enter angle + length... etc.   This is exactly the behavior I would expect.  "Sticky" tool selection enabling "chained" function.

    This didn't work before.  Why?  I don't know.    I can't reproduce my prior results, but if memory serves, the cursor was reverting to a select arrow after drawing the first segment.  Is there something I'm totally missing about tool selection?   If so... well ... D'oh! Sorry to bother you all about this.

    Thanks,

    Henry

    3 replies

    Kurt Gold
    Community Expert
    Kurt GoldCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    July 7, 2017

    Not sure if I understand correctly, but to me it sounds as if your main issue is to find a method to accurately hit end points of path segments with the Line Segment tool.

    Have you already tried to turn on Smart Guides (see View menu) in order to get visual feedback and precise snapping when the Line Segment tool is hovering over the anchor points?

    H
    hen3ryAuthor
    Inspiring
    July 8, 2017

    KG:

    Thanks for your suggestion.   I enabled Smart Guides, and adjusted its preference settings for all cues but Construction Guides "on".

    Using the Line Segment tool, I drew two distinct, similar-length line segments with about 20° difference in inclination.  (That's fairly typical of the actual data.) I selected one of the segments and attempted to place its endpoint on an endpoint of the other.  I watched for cues from Smart Guides.  I get nothing.  

    Is Smart Guides truly enabled?   I drew a small rectangle, selected one of the line segments, and attempted to align one of its endpoints to one of the vertexes of the rectangle.  I get horizontal and vertical alignment cues and the text "intersection" appears when the endpoint falls on the target vertex.  So, yes.

    Thanks for reminding me about Smart Guides, which --now I recall-- can be very handy in some situations, but it seems that joining "similar" line segments doesn't provide it with enough data to work with.

    Thanks,

    Henry

    barbara_a7746676
    Community Expert
    barbara_a7746676Community Expert
    Community Expert
    July 8, 2017

    Smart guides can be extremely handy, but not always.

    With smart guides on, you should be getting a label like this, giving you the x and y position, when moving the end point of a line to the end point of another line.

    Rather than moving a line, if you have drawn a line and want to start the next line at the end point of that line you should see a label like this when your cursor is over the end point:

    barbara_a7746676
    Community Expert
    barbara_a7746676Community Expert
    Community Expert
    July 7, 2017

    Not familiar with that type of diagram. Can you show a couple of examples of what you're trying to create?

    H
    hen3ryAuthor
    Inspiring
    July 7, 2017

    BA:

    Thanks for your response.

    Here's a schematic map. (I've never posted a graphic before, so I hope this works.)

    North is at the top.   "X" represents the starting reference point, which –for convenience– I've placed at a major grid intersection.

    S1 – the first segment – goes from the starting point, 20 units East

    S2 – the second segment – goes from the end of S1, 10 units South

    S3 – the third segment–  goes from the end of S2, (I dunno) 24 units at 300°  (AI reference) (In legalese, 30° East of South).

    ... and so on. 

    Notes:

    • the segment labels don't exist in the original data; I've added them for this description.

    • the final shape may be closed (for a land plot) or open (for a boundary).

    • a real map wouldn't/couldn't be drawn on a standard grid, because real boundaries often don't fall on grid intersections, major or minor.
    • real segments would have fractional lengths.

    • I forgot what length I entered to draw S3 with the Line Segment tool, so I'm guessing.  I can't find a way to directly measure the length of this line after OK-dismissing the Line Segment dialog;  managing a 20-segment boundary would be MUCH easier if I get do some kind of get-info for the length of any single segment.

    Thanks,

    Henry

    barbara_a7746676
    Community Expert
    barbara_a7746676Community Expert
    Community Expert
    July 7, 2017

    Thanks. Still not sure I understand so will give some general suggestions.

    If you select just one end point with the Direct Selection tool, you will see the X and Y position of that point.

    When you draw a new line segment, you can select it with the black Selection tool. In the Transform panel, click on the Reference Point icon in the upper left of the panel to specify from which corner you want the measurements, and type in the same X and Y measurements as the point you are connecting to, the one you previously selected with the Direct Selection tool.

    To find out the length of a line, open the Document Info panel. In the flyout menu, select Object.

    I hope this helps.

    Ray Yorkshire
    Ray Yorkshire
    Participating Frequently
    July 7, 2017

    Regarding the line tool.

    Make sure  shape widgets are hidden-

    Draw a line with the line segment tool

    and click the icon  Hide Shape Widgets, at the top of screen

    Next , hover the mouse at the end you want to continue from , and click when you see anchor.

    the options box opens  enter what you need and OK.

    Etc

      H
      hen3ryAuthor
      Inspiring
      July 7, 2017

      RY:

      Thanks for your response.    Unfortunately, I can't get your method to work. When I click on the anchor to draw the second segment, I get a new Line Segment dialog, just as I should, but when I enter the new length and angle, then click "OK", the 1st segment disappears and the 2nd segment appears.   Maybe there's another step you assume but I don't.

      Is  "Hide Shape Widgets" part of the procedure for drawing _each_ segment, or just a set-up before drawing multiple segments?    If hovering at that point gives the tooltip "Show Shape Widgets", I think that indicates the set-up is correct and need not be worried about, correct?

      Thanks,

      Henry

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