Wednesday, December 16, 2015

guides - Changing isometric drawing's constraint angles in Illustrator


I'm doing some isometric drawing in Illustrator, and moving my objects around on 0°, 30° and 60° constrained angles. I keep having to go to preferences (Control + K) to change the constrain angle depending on how and where I'm moving something around. Is there a quicker way to handle this?



Answer



If you're looking for something internal, why not use Smart Guides and adjust the Preferences to show Construction Guides at 30° angles? This will give you a "snap" at the 30° angles. While not the same as constraining, I often find the smart Guides snapping sufficient.


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The only thing perhaps easier than adjusting preferences is using the Protractor Panel which is part of Astute Graphics VectorScribe plug in. However, this is not a free solution. VectorScribe is a paid plug in. I mention it because this is a solution. VectorScribe is a collection of many features. The most simple of all these features is the Protractor Panel. I don't know that I could recommend VectorScribe for the Protractor Panel alone. The cost of VectorScribe may not be worth it for only that feature. However, if you look at all the features which are part of VectorScribe the cost is easily justifiable.



One of the functions of the Protractor Panel is to give you essentially a shortcut to the constrain angles via buttons.


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You can click the angle under the text "Constrain Angle" to get a pop up enabling you to enter any angle. Clicking any of these buttons or entering a value in the pop up simply sets Illustrator's constrain angle to that degree.


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