Type number of sides for polygon tool and star tool
Currently to get a number of points on a star you have to type the [up key] or [down key] But often I know what number of points or sides I want on the polygon or star.
I'd like the ability to type the number of sides/points.
This could be achieved in a number of ways:
- An option panel (could change it after the fact as long as it is selected as long as the points haven't been moved?)
- hold and drag and type the number (say 3, 6, 9, etc)
- double click on the polygon/star icon on the tools palette which brings up a dialog box Then you can type in things like number of stars and size similar to the Line segment tool. (Also extend this to the rectangle, etc tools?)
I'm pretty sure implementation of this probably would be a bit tricky? The number trick for hold and drag for sides 1-9 probably wouldn't be as hard to implement, given that up and down keys are already cued to the number of sides.
The rest of it has some architecture, but probably would take longer to implement.
It's annoying to have to go "I need an octagon, but I just got 9 sides" and then go, "Oh, I need a pentagon...." and then spend a good few minutes trying to magically get the number of sides. And then going, "Oh ****, I'd like to get the octagon again and it would be easier to draw it out than find where my last octagon was..." and then sit there again hoping to get the perfect number of sides.
I'm not saying "eliminate the up and down key" because sometimes people don't know how many sides they need, etc and want that randomness, but I want precision too and sometimes on a new document that's super annoying.
BTW, Scripts don't particularly work on my computer. So please don't recommend scripts.
Kim Yoonmi 김윤미 金潤美 Surname first
shared this idea
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Hm.
Ai allows this today. Not using all the ways you offered, but some.
1. You can change the number of sides in the Transform / Control / Properties panel — if your selected object is a live shape. If it’s not, but can be one, we can convert a fitting path into a live shape with Object > Shape > Convert to Shape
2. We can click the canvas with the picked Star / Polygon tool to get the creation dialog (and it works for other shapes) to set up values. Double-clicking the tool icon can be a method too, but then it’d require a variant of each dialog for each shape to also provide coordinates... Not sure it worth it, if we can just feed coordinates with a click (also try Alt-clicking for Rectangles and Ellipses to get them drawn from the center).I think you are aware of these method though...
The idea with pressing a number while dragging is fun, I like it! Upvoting just because of this one.
