How to draw a slot?

Ran into a problem today and finally got it done but there has to be an easier way. I was attempting to draw a slot open on one end. I drew a circle first, then a line on either side perpendicular to the circle. I then marqueed all, combined, and manipulated nodes to get rid of half the circle to make an open ended slot.

How would you do it?

 

  • Draw a rectangle equal to the dimensions of the slotted area; use the Shape Tool; grab a corner and pull to arc the ends; convert to curves (Ctrl+Q); use the Shape Tool again to add two nodes for the open end just past the node points at both sides of the arc; break apart the added nodes and their respective arc points; group the two arc points and delete.

    • Not exactly sure what you mean by a 'slot', but how about just using the Knife tool on a rounded corner rectangle?

       

       

    • plain ol Bill said:
      How would you do it?

      like this...

      in my setup, node tracking is ON in options to enable interactive corner rounding.

       

      • In your display, I understand all that you are doing until the step of converting to curves.  I see 2 images of the lines as if you had created two different loops and then joined them (Ctrl+L), but not sure how that happened -- one of your tricks -- and then you placed the rectangle over the one end.  Did you make the rect. all white or did you use one of the intersect or trim options to leave it blank?  I tried this and kept getting a line at the break.

        • Graewerld said:
          I see 2 images of the lines as if you had created two different loops and then joined them (Ctrl+L), but not sure how that happened

          I made thick outline then pressed CTRL+SHIFT+Q to convert outline to object

          Graewerld said:
          Did you make the rect. all white or did you use one of the intersect or trim options to leave it blank?

          You can trim using a filled or unfilled rectangle, same result