3 Ways to Draw a Straight Line
There isn’t a wrong way to draw a line in Concepts. Pick one that goes with your flow.
Concepts lets you design in many ways, from freehand sketching to more structured drawing. Check out three ways to draw a straight line, and why each one might work best for your project.
1. Set your pen to 100% smoothing and draw instant straight lines.
Whether you add a little or a lot of smoothing to your brush, you'll get instantly smoother results. When you increase the smoothing to 100%, every stroke turns into a perfect, directional line that follows the tip of your stylus or finger.
Tap the squiggle icon on the inner ring of the tool wheel and slide the preset slider all the way to 100%.
• Draw immediate straight lines that follow the direction of your stylus.
• If you've already drawn a line without smoothing and want to apply it afterward, select the line and straighten it with the slider.
• Open the Precision menu and tap Measure for a ruler that measures live as you draw. If you set a scale to your drawing (Settings > Drawing Scale), the scale will apply to the ruler.
2. Tap an editable line onto the canvas from the Object Library.
Objects are a fast way to build structures and design layouts. Tap or drag a line object onto the canvas and edit or position it with natural gestures.
To find the Line object, tap the Import menu to expand the object library and tap “More” to open the Object Market. Tap the Basic Shapes library (free with Essentials or Subscription) to activate it on your canvas. Then tap or drag a line onto your canvas. The line will appear selected and ready to edit.
• Pinch or expand your fingers to lengthen or shorten the line.
• Toggle between Scale and Stretch in the Selection menu at the bottom of the screen to change or keep the line weight.
• Rotate the line with two fingers, or lock rotation by turning it to Off in the Selection menu. Tap+hold the angle value in the status bar to rotate it an exact number of degrees.
• Change the line's brush type just by tapping a new tool. Change its weight by resizing the tool. Change its color by opening the color wheel and tapping a new color.
3. Use the Line guide to trace lines or edit with handles.
The Line guide is helpful for projects that need precision sketching. Use it for outlining plans, applying custom measurements, and designing products that require exact angles and lengths.
To find the Line guide, tap the Precision menu and open the Guide options. Tap the Line guide to activate it. Trace the guide by drawing anywhere on the canvas.
• Leave the guide as an infinite line, or double-tap the crosshairs to contain it to the length between the handles.
• Rotate just one side of the guide by tapping on a handle and moving it. Rotate more freely by rotating two fingers on the screen. Or lock rotation by turning it to Off in the Selection menu.
• Tap+hold the angle value in the status bar to rotate the guide an exact number of degrees.
• Tap Measure to apply live measurements to your line while drawing.
• Tap+hold the measurement tag to customize your line length.
• Tap a measurement tag to stick it to the screen.
Questions? Please email us at support@concepts.app or head in-app to Help > Ask Us Anything. We're happy to chat.
By Erica Christensen
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