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Course Designer 3
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Creating Shapes

A "shape" is anything that appears on the course, other than grid lines, grid numbers, and obstacle coordinates. Most shapes on a course are obstacles, but other things like obstacle labels, text, start/finish lines, etc. are also "shapes".

Shapes are created with the "shape creation toolbar" which appears on the left side of the screen, to the left of any courses shown.

At the top of the shape creation toolbar is a drop-down list box in which you select which standards organization is associated with the top-most displayed course. The rest of the shape creation toolbar will only display icons for obstacles which are used by the selected standards organization. Also, the dimensions of newly created obstacles will default to the dimensions required by the selected organization. Even the displayed names of the obstacles will be changed to use the terminology of the selected organization.

Almost all of the buttons on the shape creation toolbar are "shape buttons". The one exeption is the "Repeated Shape Creation" button, which is used in creating multiple instances of a shape, as described below.

To create a single shape:

  1. Click one of the shape buttons on the shape creation toolbar.
  2. If a dialog box is displayed asking for additional information about the shape to be created, enter the additional information, and click the OK button. You can control which shape types will display such a dialog box when a shape is created. For more information, see Changing Shape Properties.
  3. Click on the course where you would like the new shape to appear. While the mouse button is down during this click, you can drag the mouse to adjust the position of the shape, if desired. Release the mouse button when the shape is at the desired position.
Creating any of the path or line shapes, or the unusable area shape, is done slightly differently. For any of those shapes, replace step 3 above with:
  1. Click on the course where you would like the new shape to begin. Drag the mouse to extend the shape. Release the mouse button where you would like the shape to end.

To create multiple instances of a single type of shape:

Sometimes you will need to create multiple instances of a particular type of shape, one right after the other. This is especially the case when creating obstacle labels. Fortunately, it isn't neccessary to click on the shape button for each instance you create of a shape. Instead, you can use the "Repeated Shape Creation" button on the shape creation toolbar. To create multiple instances of a single type of shape:
  1. Click on the Repeated Shape Creation button: The button will appear to remain depressed.
  2. Follow the steps listed above for creating a single shape, but repeat step 3 for each shape to be created.
  3. Click on the Repeated Shape Creation button again, cancelling repeated shape creation mode. The button will no long appear to be depressed.
It is also possible to create multiple instances of a single type of shape by using the Ctrl key:
  1. Follow steps 1 and 2 listed above for creating a single shape.
  2. Press the Ctrl key and keep holding it down.
  3. Repeat step 3 listed above for creating a single shape, for each new shape to be created.
  4. Release the Ctrl key.

Cancelling shape creation

You may occasionally change your mind about creating a shape, after you have clicked on a shape button, but before you have clicked on the course to actually create the shape. There are two ways to cancel the creation of the shape. If a dialog box is displayed asking for additional information about the shape to be created, you can cancel the creation of the shape by clicking the Cancel button on the dialog box. You can also cancel the creation of the shape by clicking on the shape button a second time, so that the shape button no longer appears depressed.

See also: Changing Shape Properties