Objects, Shapes and Connections

• Shapes
• Connections Shapes are area-filling objects (such as circles, rectangles, and triangles) with special properties. Visual Thought has over 80 predefined shapes, including standard geometric shapes, flowcharting, software design, circuit and logic shapes, and other miscellaneous shapes. Shapes are discussed in detail in this chapter.

  
  Connections are discussed in detail in the chapter entitled "Using Connections" on page 67.

  Connections are lines with special properties. Connections are lines that, when attached to objects, "rubberband" between the objects.

• Use a Palette that contains predefined shapes.
• Use the Shape tool in the Tool bar. Each method has its advantages.

• The drag-and-drop method from a Palette is most useful for creating single shapes of different types quickly. Palettes contain a wide range of shapes. Visual Thought includes a variety of predefined palettes. You can also create your own customized palettes.

  
  Editing shapes is discussed further in the chapter entitled "Editing Objects Using the Inspector" on page 81.

• Using the Shape tool allows you to create multiple shapes of the same type quickly. Once you create a shape, you can edit it using the Inspector.

For details on how to use palettes, see the chapter entitled "Drag-and-Drop Palettes" on page 135.



For a list of all predefined Visual Thought palettes, see the appendix entitled "Predefined Palettes" on page 231.

To create a shape using a Palette,

• Click on the desired shape in the Palette, and, while holding the mouse button down, drag the shape to the View window. Then release the mouse button. This is known as the drag-and-drop method.

• Simply click once in a View to create a shape of the default size and type.

  
  The size of the last shape created by the Shape tool becomes the new default size.

• Click-and-drag in a View to create a shape of a specific size. The Shape tool then remembers the size of the last shape it created as the new default size.
• Ctrl-Shift-click on any instance of a desired shape in a View or Palette to change the type of shape produced by the Shape tool. You can create multiple shapes of the same type very efficiently using the Shape tool.

• Switch to the Shape tool by clicking on the Shape tool icon (or pressing 4).
• Click in a View window four times to create a total of four circles.

• Change to the Select tool.
• Click on one of the circles to select it.
• In the Inspector panel selector, click on the Shape button (Ctrl-2).

• In the Shape subpanel that appears, click on a star shape. The selected circle in the View window changes to a star.

  
  See the Guided Tour slide titled Creating & Deleting Shapes for more information. The Guided Tour is one of the Visual Thought examples.

• Select all the shapes (Ctrl-A).
• Return to the Inspector Shape panel and click on a triangle. You have changed all of the shapes to triangles.

Selecting objects is discussed in the chapter entitled "Selecting Objects" on page 63.

• Select the shape (or shapes).
• Press the Delete or Backspace keys (or choose EditClear).