Drawing preferences

Select Edit > Preferences (Windows) or Animate > Preferences (Macintosh) and select Drawing.

Lets you set options for the Pen tool. Select Show Pen Preview to display a preview line from the last clicked point to the current location of the pointer. Select Show Solid Points to display control points as small filled squares instead of unfilled squares. Select Show Precise Cursors to display a crosshair cursor instead of the Pen tool icon when using the Pen tool. This option lets you see the exact target of clicks more easily.

Determines how close the end of a line being drawn must be to an existing line segment before the end point snaps to the nearest point on the other line. This setting also controls horizontal and vertical line recognition—that is, how nearly horizontal or vertical a line must be drawn before Animate makes it exactly horizontal or vertical. When Snap To Objects is turned on, this setting controls how close objects must be to snap to one another.

Specifies the amount of smoothing applied to curved lines drawn with the Pencil tool when the drawing mode is set to Straighten or Smooth. (Smoother curves are easier to reshape, whereas rougher curves match the original line strokes more closely.)

note: To further smooth existing curved segments, use Modify > Shape > Smooth and Modify > Shape > Optimize.

Defines how nearly straight a line segment drawn with the Pencil tool must be before Animate recognizes it as a straight line and makes it perfectly straight. If Recognize Lines is off while you draw, straighten lines later by selecting one or more line segments and selecting Modify > Shape > Straighten.

Controls how precisely to draw circles, ovals, squares, rectangles, and 90° and 180° arcs for them to be recognized as geometric shapes and redrawn accurately. The options are Off, Strict, Normal, and Tolerant. Strict requires that the shape be drawn very close to straight; Tolerant specifies that the shape can be somewhat rough, and Animate redraws the shape. If Recognize Shapes is off while you draw, straighten lines later by selecting one or more shapes (for example, connected line segments) and selecting Modify > Shape > Straighten.

Specifies how close to an item the pointer must be before Animate recognizes the item.

Select Edit > Preferences (Windows) or Animate > Preferences (Macintosh).

• To select only objects and points that are completely enclosed by the selection marquee, deselect Contact-Sensitive Selection and Lasso tools. Points that lie within the selection area are still selected.

• To select objects or groups that are only partially enclosed by the selection marquee, select Contact-Sensitive Selection and Lasso tools.

  note: The Subselection tools use the same contact-sensitive setting.