Is there a way to draw paths with the pen tool, at specific (but irregular) angles?

Question

Question: With the pen tool, is there a way in Illustrator to set (or at least see) the angle between two consecutive lines as I'm drawing a shape, when the corners are not even degrees (90, 45, 30, etc)?

For example, I want to draw a line segment to a certain length, turn the corner by 91.6 degrees, draw the next line, make a 44.7 degree turn, and so on.

In the info palette, Illustrator shows me the distance and angle of my cursor from the last point drawn in real time as I'm drawing, which is very helpful. However, the angle shown is only relative to the artboard, meaning 0 degrees is always to the right, 90 up, 180 left, and 270 down), and not in relation to the angle of the last line I drew. The new dimension tools let me measure those angles after I've drawn them, but I can't fix one angle in a closed shape without ruining the two adjacent ones.

Why I'm asking:

My shop makes back-printed tabletop mats that have to be cut to fit the tabletops they're being made for. These tables are custom made, have complex shapes, and are all slightly different. I have to draw the cut paths for them in Illustrator to use with our milling/cutting plotter. I use a tape measure and a digital angle finder to measure, The angles are basically never angles I could constrain to. Replicating my measurements as a cut path is currently ultra tedious and error-prone, but easily solved if I could draw the angles I measured.

Jacob Bugge · Accepted Answer

But Ken,

If you are ready for a different approach right from the tabletop measurements, you can do it more easily and I believe more accurately by triangulation as follows, Smart Guides still being your friends:

0) Start by mesauring the original length along with the distance from the start of the original line to the end of the following line instead of the digitally established angle;

1) Create a circle with a diameter twice the length of the first added line and snap its centre to the end of the original line (540 pt shown in green), then Create a circle with a diameter twice the distance to the end of the first added line (754.79 pt shown in blue), then with the Line Segment Tool ClickDrag from the intersection of the two circles to the centre of the green circle/the end of the original line.

The distance for the blue circle is shown as the blue line in a copy of step 5) from the previous post.

In many cases you can increase the accuracy, sometimes significantly, by A) Choosing the order of corners established more freely, and B) Use large distances, and C) establish corners by choosing distances as close to perpendicular as possible, and D) check the shape by additional establishment of distances, thus basically using triangulation by distances; you can also E) use right angles when applicable and suitable.

Using the full tabletop in your other post as a sample, you can start with the top left and right corners to establish the bottom middle corner of the full tabletop in your other post, thereby staring with a large triangle, then use the top corners again to establish the inner corner, then use the inner corner along with each of the top corners to establish the middle corners in each side, and end with the lower left corner established by the inward corner and the left middle corners; and you can use the disrtance between the bottom middle corner and the lower left corner to check the position of the latter, and similarly the check the position of the middle right corner by its distance from the bottom middle corner.

As you can see, this way is far simpler, and I am sure the it is rather more accurate to measure the most suitable distances than the angles between adjacent lines/sides, further increased by additional distances (and/or right/known angles). Working with Illy, the large circles form no inconvenience.

This is the way I should choose any time, also in case everything was to be made in the workshop with manual cutting.

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Jacob Bugge · Answer

Ken,

The following is a way to proceed with what you have, but I should prefer the quite different approach described below.

Based on your description in your 108 degrees sample, presuming you have a first line of a certain length and direction (shown below at 360 pt and at 14.4 degrees), and you wish to add a second line at its end with a certain (other) length at a certain angle relative to it (shown in red below at 270 pt and eventually at 108 degrees anticlockwise), you can, Smart Guides being your friends:

1) With the Line Segment Tool, Clci the Artboard and insert the desired length and angle (270 pt and arbitrary angle set to 0 degrees here);

2) ClickDrag either end of the red line with the Selection Tool to snap to the end of the original line;

3) Switch to the Rotate Tool and Alt/OptionClick the coinciding end Anchor Points, then Rotate the red line to snap to the original;

4) Almost as in 2) ClickDrag the inner end of the red line to snap the end of the original line;

5) Almost as in 3) Switch to the Rotate Tool and Alt/OptionClick the coinciding end Anchor Points, then insert the desired rotation (-180 degrees).

This will be as accurate as you measurements.

You can continue in the same way till fully done, then join the lines.

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