Path Tools
by Ben Avison

Path Tools is a utility which operates on Draw files to merge separate paths to form one path, with "move" segments where there were previously separate objects. Numerous options can be controlled, such as colour, line width, joins etc. The revers operation can also be performed; i.e. a single path can be split at each "move" segment, making each subpath a path in its own right. For example, text-to-path programs leave the dot on an "i" as part of the same path; using Path Tools it can now be coloured differently or have its shape changed.

Running the application installs an icon on the icon bar in the usual way. The icon bar menu has just two options, Info and Quit, which perform their usual functions.

Clicking Select over the icon bar icon opens the main window. At the top of the window are two radio icons allowing you to choose whether the subsequent action will be to join subpaths together into one path, or to split one path into subpaths. Below this is a switch icon labelled "Preserve other object types". If this is off, all objects except paths are removed from the output file; for example, this could be used to remove labels from drawings. The default state is on.

The rest of the window contains a set of icon pairs; to the left of each is a Draw file parameter, while to the right is an icon indicating how that parameter will be treated in the output file. The parameters are as follows: 'Closing', 'Line width', 'Line colour', 'Fill colour', 'Pattern', 'Join', 'Start cap', 'End cap', and 'Winding rule'. Clicking Menu over any of the icon pairs displays a menu allowing you to specify the way that parameter will be handled.

The 'Closing' parameter determines whether paths are open or closed. The menu offers three choices: 'Preserve', 'Open all' and 'Close all'. If 'Preserve' is chosen, all subpaths (when joining) or paths (when splitting) are left in their original state. If 'Open all' is chosen, all paths or subpaths are left open, while if 'Close all' is chosen, they are all left closed. This may be useful, for example, when using a text-to-path program. FontFX and DrawPlus leave all subpaths open, and when thick outlines are used the start and end caps of the open path can look messy. By closing all the paths, the join looks much neater.

The remaining parameters are only applicable when joining paths, and are greyed out if the 'Split paths' radio icon is selected. The first three of these, Line width, Line colour and Fill colour, have a three-option menu: 'Mean setting', 'As front' and 'Specified'. Choosing the 'Mean setting' option sets the colour of the resulting path to the mean of all the original paths. Choosing 'As front' sets the colour to that of the path at the top of the pile, while the 'Specified' option leads to a submenu or dialogue box allowing you to choose the colour or width in exactly the same way as you would when creating the object in Draw.

The 'Pattern', 'Join', 'Start cap', 'End cap' and 'Winding rule' menus only have the 'As front' and 'Specified' options, which work in exactly the same way as the options for the earlier parameters described above.

Having set all the parameters in the window as required, drag the Draw file to be transformed into the window or to the icon bar icon. A Save box will appear, initially with the default filename "Altered". Dragging the icon to a directory viewer will save the transformed file. For along file this may take a few seconds since the transformation is done at the time of saving, so the hourglass will appear.
