How to do Object to Polygon, Stretch by x or y, Split object?

edited July 2012 in General
Hi Matthias,

I'm a new user of this tool. Thank you for the great piece of software. On top of being free and offering some very unique features, I also find it quite stable and intuitive to use.

There are a few things that I don't know how to accomplish easily in the current software. I was wondering if you could comment on the solutions for:

a) Box or Path to Polygon transformation.
b) Stretch edge(s) by x or y.
c) Split an object into 2 by drawing a cut line.

Thanks for your support.

-Ken

Comments

  • edited July 2012

    Hi Ken,

    thank you for your encouraging feedback :-)

    Regarding your questions:

    • you can convert paths or boxes to polygons with the "merge" operation. Select the path or box and choose "Edit/Selection/Merge Shapes". The result will be a polygon.
    • What do you mean by "stretch"? There is a "size" operation (in "Edit/Selection/Size Shapes") which will enlarge a shape by a given dimension. It can also apply a different enlargement in x and y direction.
    • Cutting is not supported directly yet, but you can subtract something from another object. This can be used to separate a shape into two parts: draw a thin path along the line you want to cut the shape, select the original shape and then select the path in addition by using "Shift" and a left mouse button click. Then choose "Edit/Selection/Subtraction" and the path will be subtracted from the original shape. If the path was cutting through the shape you will get two pieces which are separated.

    Hope that helps.

    Best regards,

    Matthias

  • edited November -1
    Hi Matthias,

    Thanks for the tip on "merge" operation to change path or box to polygon. It works great!.

    On the "stretch" item, I was looking a feature to do a "partial" by specifying an x or y displacement (in a dialog box) as opposing to using the cursor to drag the edge(s).

    Thanks for your help.
    -ken
  • edited November -1

    Hi Ken,

    right now there is no "dialog box" stretch feature, although that is a nice suggestion.

    But you could set a coarse grid which allows to drag a distance more precisely because dragging will be confined to distances which are a multiple of the grid.

    Best regards,

    Matthias

  • edited November -1
    On the same topic, I am using the latest version of KLayout, on MAC OS 10.7.
    When I use "size shape" command on a box, its size changes randomly. The result is not even close to what I requested. Is it a bug ? How should I proceed ?
  • edited November -1

    Hi Jean,

    Please see my notes on the other entry of yours.

    Matthias

  • edited November -1
    I have seen it and it was most helpful. Thank you.
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