How to Insert and Customize Polygon Shapes

The Polygon tool is a powerful feature for creating perfect, symmetrical, multi-sided shapes like triangles, hexagons, and octagons, which can serve as foundations or decorative elements in your embroidery designs. This guide will walk you through selecting the tool, creating a shape, and the different methods for editing it.

Step 1: Selecting the Polygon Tool

All premade geometric shapes are conveniently located in the “Shapes” section of your main toolbar.

1. Navigate to the “Shapes” section. You may see the icon of the last shape you used.
2. Click on the Shapes icon to reveal the full list of available tools.
3. Select the Polygon shape from the menu. Your mouse cursor will change, indicating the tool is now active.

Step 2: Drawing Your Polygon

Once the tool is active, you can define its properties before you even draw it.

1. With the Polygon tool selected, look at the Tool Options Bar that appears at the top or side of your screen.
2. Set the initial properties for your shape:
   • Number of Sides: Enter a value to define how many sides your polygon will have (e.g., 3 for a triangle, 5 for a pentagon, 8 for an octagon).
   • Start Angle: Adjust this value to rotate the orientation of the polygon before you place it.
3. Click on the design canvas, hold the mouse button down, and drag to define the size and position of your polygon.
4. Release the mouse button to finalize the shape.

Useful Tip: After creating a polygon, the tool remains active, allowing you to quickly draw multiple polygons with the same settings. When you are finished, simply right-click on the canvas to deactivate the tool.

Step 3: Editing the Polygon Object

After creating a polygon, you can easily modify it using two different methods without losing its special properties.

Editing with the Tool Options Bar

If you want to change the number of sides or the rotation of an existing polygon:

1. Select the polygon you wish to edit using the main selection tool.
2. The Tool Options Bar will once again display the polygon’s properties.
3. You can now change the Number of Sides or Start Angle, and the selected shape will update in real-time.

Editing with Special Nodes

For quick visual adjustments, use the Node Editor.

1. Select the polygon and switch to the Node Editor tool.
2. You will see several special control nodes on the shape. These nodes are unique to polygon objects.
   • Angle Node: Click and drag this circular node to visually adjust the start angle (rotation) of the shape.
   • Size/Proportion Node: Click and drag this square node to change the overall size and proportion of the shape.
   • Center Node: Click and drag the node at the very center to re-position the entire polygon on the canvas.

![Image showing a selected polygon with its three special nodes labeled: Angle, Size, and Center]

Step 4: Converting the Polygon to Curves for Manual Editing

If you need to edit the individual points or sides of the polygon to create a more custom, asymmetrical shape, you must first convert it to curves.

1. Select the polygon you want to fully edit.
2. Right-click on the shape and choose “Convert to Curves” from the context menu.

Important Note: This action is permanent. Once a polygon is converted to curves, the special editing nodes and the ability to change the number of sides from the options bar will be gone. The shape will become a standard object with regular nodes at each corner that you can move individually.