Fun with triangles
Let’s start small. With our Triangle Tool active, we can drag out and create a basic triangle shape.
Depending on the height and width of your shape, you can make an isosceles or equilateral triangle just by dragging.
If your design calls for a different sort of triangle, like a scalene, select your shape and drag the red handle to adjust the angle of the top point of the triangle.
The angle is visible and can be fine-tuned from the context toolbar.
By dragging the top point all the way over to the left-hand side of the bounding box, we have a right-angled triangle.
Adjusting a trapezoid
When you create a trapezoid using the Trapezoid Tool, it will have two red handles.
These can be adjusted to alter the angle of the trapezoid’s sides.
You can also drag the handle(s) all the way to the edge of the bounding box to turn your trapezoid into another shape entirely.
On the other hand, If you drag on of the red handles all the way in to snap to the other handle, you can turn the trapezoid into a scalene triangle.
Creating new shapes
Now let’s try having a play around with some of the less commonly used shape tools.
The Donut Tool is essentially made up of an outer circle and an inner circle. Both of these can be completely adjusted simply by dragging the tool’s inner and outer handles.
Dragging the outer handle creates a gap in the outer circle which can be adjusted, altering the shape into something new.
Dragging the inner handle out or in widens and narrows the inner circle (or hole).
By copying and pasting this new shape, you can create something with a completely different look.
Using the presets and adjustable handles, you can tweak the look and feel of many of the shape tools as little or as much as you want.
For more information on getting the most out of shape tools, check out this tutorial.