Editing Objects

Glue COMPOUND

Break COMPOUND

Open COMPOUND temporarily

Join/Split Lines/Splines/etc

Scale Object

Align Objects

Move Point

Add Point

Delete Point

Move Object

Copy Object

Delete Object

Update Attributes of Object

Edit Attributes of Object

Flip Object Vertically or Horizontally

Rotate Object

Convert SPLINE to/from LINE or BOX to/from ARC-BOX

Add/Delete Arrows

Add Tangent or Normal to Curve

Measure Angle

Measure Length of Lines and Arcs, and Perimeters of Circles and Ellipses

Measure Area of Polygons and Ellipses

Glue selected objects and make them a COMPOUND object.

This is useful to move or copy some objects together at the same time. It is also possible to scale part of a figure by scaling a COMPOUND object after making part of the figure COMPOUND.

Clicking on an object with mouse button 1 (`tag object') will tag the object. Clicking one corner of a rectangular region with mouse button 2 (`tag region') and then clicking mouse button 2 (`final corner') again at the opposite corner of the rectangular region will tag all objects inside the region. After tagging all objects to be glued into a COMPOUND object, clicking mouse button 3 (`compound tagged') will glue those objects and make them a COMPOUND object.

If an already tagged object is selected by mouse button 1 or mouse button 2, that object will be untagged. If you want to remove all tags, change the mode temporarily to any other mode (e.g. "move object") except BREAK COMPOUND.

The COMPOUND object may be separated into component objects by BREAK COMPOUND.

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Break a COMPOUND object into separate component objects.

Clicking a COMPOUND object with mouse button 1 (`break compound') will break the COMPOUND into separate component objects. Clicking with mouse button 2 (`break and tag') will also achieve the same effect, but it will tag those component objects for re-gluing with GLUE COMPOUND again.

If you want to edit component objects without breaking the COMPOUND object, you may open the COMPOUND object temporarily using OPEN COMPOUND.

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Open a compound object temporarily for editing the component objects.

Clicking a COMPOUND object with mouse button 1 (`open compound') will open the COMPOUND object, and then the component objects may be edited. All other objects which were not in the COMPOUND object will become invisible temporarily, but they will reappear after all COMPOUND objects are closed.

If mouse button 2 (`open, keep visible') is clicked on the COMPOUND, the other objects not in the COMPOUND object will become shades of gray, making it easy to align objects inside the compound with those outside.

A popup panel with two buttons to close the COMPOUND objects (Close This Compound and Close All Compounds) will appear when a COMPOUND object is opened, and the open COMPOUND may be closed again using those buttons. Clicking Close This Compound will close the COMPOUND object last opened, and clicking Close All Compounds will close all nested, opened COMPOUND objects.

If you want to break a COMPOUND object into component objects, use BREAK COMPOUND.

If the File/Save is attempted while a compound is open, xfig will ask if you want to save only the open COMPOUND object (Save Part) or the whole figure (Save All).

Note: If you open a COMPOUND object, delete an object in that COMPOUND object, close the COMPOUND object and Undo the delete operation, the object you deleted will reappear but it will outside of the COMPOUND object. Conversely, if you delete an object from the canvas, open a compound then undo the delete of the original object, it will now be part of the open compound. In this way you may add or remove selected objects from a COMPOUND.

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Join or split lines

With this feature you may join lines or splines together or split a line or spline into two objects. Also, you may close an open line (make it a polygon) or spline (closed spline) or open a box, polygon or closed spline.

To join two lines or two splines together click mouse button 1 (`Join lines/splines') to select the first endpoint and again (`Choose next point') to select the second endpoint to be joined. If the endpoints are on the same line or spline, it will make a closed object.

To split a line or spline into two separate objects or to convert a box or polygon to a line, or to open a closed spline, click mouse button 2 (`Spline line/spline') between two the points on the line/spline etc.

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Scale object

Clicking any corner of BOX, ARC-BOX, or COMPOUND object with mouse button 1 (`scale box') and dragging the mouse will start scaling the object proportionally to its horizontal/vertical ratio. Clicking any edge of that object with mouse button 1 (`scale box') will start scaling the object only in one dimension (width or height). The scaling operation is finished by clicking mouse button 1 (`new position') again.

Clicking on an object with mouse button 2 (`scale about center') will scale the object proportionally about its center. The scaling operation is finished by clicking mouse button 2 (`new position') again.

In any case, The scaling operation may be canceled by clicking mouse button 3 (`cancel').

It is not possible to scale TEXT objects directly with this function. To scale TEXT objects, use EDIT OBJECT or UPDATE and change the size of the text (see TEXT SIZE). However, if a COMPOUND object that includes TEXT objects is scaled, the TEXT objects will also be scaled if the Rigid flag is not set.

You may use also MOVE POINT if you want to scale an object such as a BOX without keeping its horizontal/vertical ratio.

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Align objects

How objects are aligned is set by VERTICAL ALIGN and HORIZONTAL ALIGN.

Clicking on a COMPOUND object with mouse button 1 (`align compound') will align objects within the COMPOUND object. Clicking mouse button 2 (`align canvas') anywhere on the canvas will align all objects to the canvas.

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Move a point of an object

Select the point to be moved by clicking the point with mouse button 1 (`move point'), and finish the move by click mouse button 1 (`new position') again after moving mouse to the new point. If you want to restrict the move to horizontal or vertical, use mouse button 2 (`horiz/vert move') instead of mouse button 1. The operation may be canceled by clicking mouse button 3 (`cancel') in either case.

This may not be used for TEXT objects. For BOX, ARC-BOX, and COMPOUND objects, not only the selected point but the edges connected to the point will be moved. The object created by REGULAR POLYGON is an ordinary POLYGON object, and only the selected point will be moved.

Points may also be added or deleted. If you want to move entire object, use MOVE instead.

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Add a new point to a POLYLINE, POLYGON, or SPLINE object

Clicking mouse button 1 (`break/add here') between two points of an object will add a new point at that location, and the point will move following mouse cursor. The operation is finished by clicking mouse button 1 (`place new point') again.

It is not possible to add a point to BOX or ARC-BOX objects. The object created by REGULAR POLYGON is an ordinary POLYGON object, and it is possible to add new points anywhere in it.

Points may also be moved or deleted.

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Delete point from POLYLINE, POLYGON, or SPLINE object

Clicking a point to be deleted with mouse button 1 (`delete point') will delete the point, and the points on either side of the point will connected directly.

It is not possible to delete points from a BOX or ARC-BOX object. The object created by REGULAR POLYGON is ordinary POLYGON object, and it is possible to delete points from it.

Points may also be moved or added.

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Move object

Select the object to be moved by clicking the object with mouse button 1 (`move object'), and finish the move operation by clicking mouse button 1 (`place object') again at the new position. If you want to restrict the movement to horizontal or vertical, use mouse button 2 (`horiz/vert move') instead of mouse button 1. The operation may be canceled by clicking mouse button 3 (`cancel') in either case.

If you want to move several objects at one time, you may put them into a COMPOUND object using GLUE COMPOUND.

By setting SMART-LINKS MODE, it is possible to move the endpoints of lines which touch the object as you move the object itself. Additionally, endpoints of lines which fall inside a COMPOUND object will also be moved. The SMART-LINKS feature only works with POLYLINES (not splines) touching a BOX, ARC-BOX, or COMPOUND.

Objects may also be copied or deleted. If you want to move a point of the object, use MOVE POINT instead.

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Copy object

Select the object to be copied by clicking the object with mouse button 1 (`copy object'), and finish the copy operation by clicking mouse button 1 (`place object') again at the position to place the copy. If you want to restrict the movement to horizontal or vertical, use mouse button 2 (`horiz/vert copy') instead of mouse button 1. The operation may be canceled by clicking mouse button 3 (`cancel') in either case.

If you want to copy several objects at the same time, you may put them a COMPOUND object using GLUE COMPOUND.

By setting SMART-LINKS MODE, it is possible to copy the lines which touch the object as you move the object itself. This only works with POLYLINES (not splines) touching a BOX or ARC-BOX.

It is also possible to make many copies in this mode, using ARRAY PLACEMENT. To do this, first set the number of copies to be created by setting NUMBER OF X COPIES and NUMBER OF Y COPIES. Then select the object to be copied by clicking the object with mouse button 1 (`copy object') or 2 (`constrained copy'), and specify the direction and distance to place the copies by clicking mouse button 2 (`array placement') after moving the mouse. Normally, objects will be placed on the array of NUMBER OF X COPIES and NUMBER OF Y COPIES, but when either of them is set 0 or 1, copies of specified number will be generated and they can be placed obliquely. For example, if the number of X copies is 3 and the number of Y copies is 0 or 1, the copied objects will be placed along the X direction at the same Y position as the original object.

Clicking an object with mouse button 3 (`copy to cut buf') will copy the object to the xfig cut buffer. The object copied into the xfig cut buffer may be inserted into the figure on the canvas using Paste Objects. This allows you to copy part of a figure to another figure. Any object in the xfig cut buffer will be overwritten when the new object is copied into the xfig cut buffer. To copy multiple objects into the xfig cut buffer, you must first put them into a COMPOUND object using GLUE COMPOUND.

Objects may also be moved or deleted.

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Delete object

Clicking an object with mouse button 1 (`delete object') will remove the object. It is also possible to remove objects in a rectangular region by clicking mouse button 2 (`delete region') at one corner of the region and then again (`final corner') again at the opposite corner.

Clicking an object with mouse button 3 (`del to cut buf') will remove the object from the canvas and move it to the xfig cut buffer. The object moved into the xfig cut buffer may be inserted into the figure on the canvas using Paste Objects later. See also COPY.

If you want to delete all objects from the canvas to make a new figure, you may use New.

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Update object or attribute panel

Update the attributes (such as line width or colors) of object with the current settings in the Attribute Panel. Conversely, it is also possible to copy the attributes of an object to the attribute panel.

Clicking an object with mouse button 1 (`update object') will apply the current settings of the attribute buttons selected for UPDATE to the object. If a COMPOUND object is clicked with mouse button 1 (`update object'), the attributes of all the objects in the COMPOUND object will be updated.

Clicking an object (except a COMPOUND object) with mouse button 2 (`update settings') will copy the attributes of the object to the attribute buttons which are selected for UPDATE. This allows you to copy attributes from one object to another object.

In UPDATE mode, a small toggle button appears in the upper-right corner of each attribute button, and only the attribute buttons whose toggle button is set ON will be used for update. Clicking the toggle button at the upper-right corner of an attribute button will toggle the button ON/OFF. It is also possible to select, unselect, or toggle all attribute buttons, using Update Control buttons at the left side of the attribute panel.

The attributes of objects may also be modified using EDIT OBJECT. Some attributes can't be modified by UPDATE but may be modified by EDIT OBJECT.

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Edit object attributes

Clicking an object with mouse button 1 (`edit object') will popup the Edit Panel to edit the attributes. The items in the panel depend on the object being edited. See Edit Panel for more information.

Clicking a control point of a SPLINE object with mouse button 3 (`edit point') will popup EDIT POINT panel to modify the shape factor of the spline curve.

The attributes of objects may also be modified using UPDATE, but some attributes can't be modified with UPDATE.

If mouse button 2 (`edit Fig comments') is clicked on the canvas, the edit panel will popup to allow the user to change the comments associated with the whole figure:

If the Shift key is held down while mouse button 2 (`show comments') is clicked on an object, any comments in the object are displayed in a popup until the mouse button is released:

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Flip object vertically or horizontally

Clicking the object with mouse button 1 (`flip') will flip the object vertically/horizontally about that point. Clicking the object with mouse button 2 (`copy & flip') will make copy of the object flipped vertically/horizontally about that point, leaving original object as it was.

It is also possible to set the anchor point about which the object will be flipped, by clicking mouse button 3 (`set anchor') at the point. A crosshair (+) indicates the anchor point on the canvas. The anchor point may be removed by clicking mouse button 3 (`set anchor') again.

To rotate an object, use ROTATE.

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Rotate object

Clicking an object with mouse button 1 (`rotate object') will rotate the object to clockwise or counter-clockwise by the angle specified by ROTATION ANGLE about the point that is clicked.

It is also possible to make many copies in this mode, using COPY & ROTATE. Clicking object with mouse button 2 (`copy & rotate') may make many copies rotated by the angle specified by the ROTATION ANGLE. The number of copies to be created may be set by NUMBER OF COPIES.

As in FLIP VERTICALLY/HORIZONTALLY, it is possible to set the anchor point about which the object will be rotated, by clicking mouse button 3 (`set anchor').

BOX, ARC-BOX and PICTURE objects, and COMPOUND objects containing any of those objects may only be rotated by multiples of 90 degrees. To flip object vertically or horizontally, use FLIP VERTICALLY/HORIZONTALLY.

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Convert object type

Clicking an object with mouse button 1 (`spline <-> line') will perform a conversion thus:

polyline --> open approximated spline --> open interpolated spline --> polyline

polygon --> closed approximated spline --> closed interpolated spline --> polygon

box --> arc-box --> box

Clicking an object with mouse button 3 (`open <-> close') will perform a conversion thus:

polyline <-> polygon

open approximated spline <-> closed approximated spline

open interpolated spline <-> closed interpolated spline

Finer control is possible for spline curves. See EDIT POINT and About Spline Curves for more information.

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Add/delete arrow head

Clicking the end point of object with mouse button 1 (`add arrow') will add an arrow head to that end. Clicking an arrow head with mouse button 2 (`delete arrow') will remove the arrow head.

This operation is only valid for POLYLINE, OPEN SPLINE, or OPEN ARC objects.

The shape of the arrow head may be set by ARROW TYPE. The size of arrow head may be set by ARROW SIZE. It is also possible to automatically create arrow heads when creating new objects by setting ARROW MODE.

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Add Tangent or Normal to Curve

Clicking mouse button 1 near a curve of an arc or spline will create a 2cm line tangent to the curve, with the current line attributes such as thickness, color, etc. The line has three points, with the middle point touching the original curve.

Clicking mouse button 2 near a curve will create a 2cm line normal to the curve.

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Measure Angle

Clicking mouse button 1 on a vertex of a polyline or polygon will report (in the message window below the main menus) the angle between the two lines meeting at the vertex.

Clicking mouse button 1 on any three points in the canvas will report the angle between the two lines formed by the three points.

Clicking mouse button 2 on the vertex of a polyline or polygon will report the angle between the two lines meeting at the vertex, and save the angle in the current rotation angle setting in the attributes panel.

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Measure Length of Lines and Arcs, and Perimeters of Circles and Ellipses

Clicking mouse button 1 on any polyline, polygon, box, arc or circle/ellipse will report (in the message window below the main menus) the length of the lines forming the object, or the perimeter for a circle or ellipse.

Clicking mouse button 2 on such an object will add the length to a running sum and report the individual and accumulated lengths.

Clicking mouse button 3 will reset the accumulated length to 0.

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Measure Area of Polygons and Ellipses

Clicking mouse button 1 on any polyline, polygon, box or circle/ellipse will report (in the message window below the main menus) the area of the object.

Clicking mouse button 2 on such an object will add the area to a running sum and report the individual and accumulated areas.

Clicking mouse button 3 will reset the accumulated area to 0.

The area for polygons that have overlapping parts will not be calculated correctly. This should be fixed in a future version.
Will work correctly: Will NOT work correctly:

Selecting Objects

Most objects may also be selected by clicking on the line connecting corner markers, but it may have a different meaning in some editing modes. For example in the SCALE OBJECT mode, clicking on a corner marker will scale the object proportionally to its horizontal/vertical ratio, but clicking on a line connecting corner markers (edge of the rectangle) will scale the object only in that direction (i.e. horizontally or vertically).

If POINT POSITION is set to other than Any, objects which are not on the virtual grid may not be be selected.

When object corners or edges are coincident, clicking on the object may not select the desired object but the other object instead. In this case, the desired object may be selected with following operations:

1. Press (and hold) the SHIFT key and click on the object to be selected.
2. If the corner marker of the other object is highlighted, keep the SHIFT key down and click the object again.
3. When corner marker of the desired object is highlighted, release the SHIFT key and click the object again.

EDIT Panel

General

Comments

Every object may have comments associated with it for informational purposes. This is an ASCII text widget which may hold up to 50 lines of 200 characters each.
The whole figure may also have comments. To edit these, click mouse button 2 (`edit Fig comments') on the canvas after choosing the Edit mode.

Width

The width of the line. (see LINE WIDTH)

Pen Color

The color used to draw the outline of the object. (see PEN COLOR)

Fill Color

The color used to fill region inside the object. (see FILL COLOR)

Depth

The `depth' of the object. (see DEPTH)

Fill Style

The fill intensity (darkness) or fill pattern. The Fill Intensity is effective if Fill Style is Filled, and Fill Pattern is effective if Fill Style is Pattern. Fill Intensity is an integer value from 0 to 200; 0 for black, 100 for pure Fill Color, and 200 for white.
The Fill Pattern is an integer value from 0 to 21. (see FILL STYLE for the actual patterns)

Line Style

The line style. (see LINE STYLE)

Cap Style

The shape of the end-points of the line. (see CAP STYLE)

Join Style

The shape of the join point (corner) of lines. (see JOIN STYLE)

Arrows

Indicates whether the object has arrow heads at one or both ends. The shape and size of the arrow heads may be modified here. (see ARROW TYPE and ARROW SIZE)

Corner Radius

The radius of the corners for ARC-BOX objects. (see BOX CURVE)

Center, Radius, Points, etc.

These fields indicate the position and size of the object, and the coordinates of any points, in Fig units (1/1200 inch).
Note: For these entries, you may enter values followed by either "c" or "i" for centimeters or inches respectively.

TEXT object

Size

The size of the text, in points. (see TEXT SIZE)

Pen Color

The color of the text. (see PEN COLOR)

Depth

The `depth' of the object. (see DEPTH)

Angle

The angle of the text, in degrees. Angles > 0 are counterclockwise. (see TEXT/ELLIPSE ANGLE)

Justification

Indicates which part of the text is placed at the specified point. (see TEXT JUSTIFICATION)

Hidden Flag, Rigid Flag, and Special Flag

The state of those flags. (see TEXT FLAGS)

Origin

The position of the text.

Font

The font used for the text. The size of the font is displayed in the Size field. (see TEXT FONT)

Text

This field contains the text itself, and it is possible to edit the text here. Pressing Ctrl-Return in the text box will pop down the edit panel. It is also possible to edit text without popping up the Edit Panel; in TEXT mode, simply click any point of the text to be edit.

PICTURE object

Screen Capture

This is used to capture an image displayed on the screen. After clicking Screen Capture button, you can perform one of following actions:

1. click mouse button 1 on any window to capture the whole window
2. click mouse button 1 on the root window (background of the screen) to capture the whole screen
3. click mouse button 2 on one corner of a rectangle on the screen, drag the mouse to the other corner and click mouse button 2 again, to capture image in the rectangle
4. click mouse button 3 to cancel capture operation

During the capture operation, xfig unmaps all its windows from the screen. Those windows reappear on the screen when completing or cancelling the capture. The captured image will be displayed on the canvas in the picture object area. During the capture, the xfig window(s) will be hidden (unmapped). The captured image will be stored in a file such as figure1_828065129.pcx, which includes the current figure name and the time in seconds since 00:00:00 GMT, Jan 1, 1970. The file format will be PCX, and will be indicated in the picture type area.

You can't use this facility if visual of your display is TrueColor or it is deeper than 8 bits.

Edit Image

Clicking this button will invoke an external bitmap editor (the default is xv) to edit the image. Program that will be invoked can be checked on the Global Settings panel. Edit Image will invoke xv by default, but you can change it to invoke your favorite bitmap editor (xpaint or GIMP, for example) with the resource Fig.image_editor or command-line argument -image_editor.

Pen Color

This is effective only when the image file is XBM format and will be used to color the bits of the image.

Depth

The `depth' of the object. (see DEPTH)

Picture Filename

Specify the file name of the image file.

Type, Size, and Number of colors

Information such as file format or size of the image is displayed here. They may not be modified.

Reread

Clicking this button will cause xfig to re-read the image file. This may be necessary when the image file has been modified after the file has been read by xfig.

Browse

Clicking this button will popup a Browse Panel to select an image file to be imported. Click on an image file and press Apply to preview it, or double-click on it to choose it and close the browse panel. You may change directories in the same manner as in the file panels. The Filename Mask by default will show all image types that xfig can import.

First Corner, and Opposite Corner

The position of two corner points of the rectangular region where the image is pasted.

Orientation

x and y coordinates of the image will be swapped if Flipped about diag is selected here.

Rotation

The rotation angle of the image. It may not be modified here. (see ROTATE)

Cur H/W Ratio and Orig H/W Ratio

The current and original horizontal/vertical ratio of the image.

Change H/W Ratio

These buttons may be used to set horizontal/vertical ratio of the image.

Shrink to orig

revert to horizontal/vertical ratio without expanding the image.

Expand to orig

revert to horizontal/vertical ratio without shrinking the image.

Use original size

Clicking Use original size will set size of the image to the original size in the picture file.

Scale by %

Clicking Scale by % will scale the image by a percentage of the original size in the picture file.

EDIT POINT

Clicking Approximated, Angular, or Interpolated button will set the shape factor to a preset value. The shape factor may also be set to arbitrary values by moving the slider on the left side of the panel. The modified spline curve will be displayed interactively in either case.

The shape factor of a control point may also be modified without popping up the Edit Point panel by clicking the control point while pressing both of SHIFT key and CONTROL key. Clicking a control point with mouse button 1 (`More approx') will decrease the shape factor, and clicking a control point with mouse button 3 (`More interp') will increase the shape factor. Clicking a control point with mouse button 2 (`Cycle shape') will cycle through three preset values: Approximated, Angular, and Interpolated.