Reduce nodes feature

Neil
over 14 years ago

Hi,

I use this feature often, but I'm not sure I fully understand it, because I don't know what the number setting (1-100) refers to, and I can't find an explanation of it in "help".

Usually I'll select all the nodes in an object and move the slider to the right until I can get as many nodes to disappear as it will let me. (I don't worry so much about distorting the object because I like to do the final shaping manually using as few nodes as possible...) and I find that at a certain point on the scale it won't reduce further, so at that point I remove the remaining unwanted nodes by hand.

My question is, does the 1-100 scale refer to the percentage of nodes that are removed, and what's the reason it won't go beyond a certain percentage?

Sometimes when I power trace a bitmap there are so many nodes that i spend too much time getting rid of them all...It would be nice if I could get the "reduce nodes" feature to remove more.

 

 

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  • 0 over 14 years ago
    Ahhh -- you aren't actually on "reduce nodes" -- the UI is VERY misleading and should have been changed. The two side by side items, "reduce nodes" and the "slider" beside it actually are totally different functions. Each has its own use.

    The reduce nodes button is, well, the reduce nodes button. Pressing it eliminates all nodes, using a fixed value, that would not change the curve. Its functionality was greatly enhanced in, I think X3, it might also be modifying adjacent nodes to those dropped so that they take up the slack, so to speak. In any event reduce nodes has a remarkable ability ( X3 and later) to eliminate nodes and make no discernible change in the curve.

    The slider beside it is the "smoother," a totally different function, as Ariel describes. The smoother, even in the lowest level, does change the appearance of the curve. Taken to extreme cases it can change some  complex curves either into a straight line or an ellipse.

    Going way back in history, there was a time when reduce nodes had a tolerance factor. Any node which, in eliminating it, would only move that point by the tolerance simply vanished. Somewhere, perhaps Draw 11 or so, the tolerance factor vanished and the function became almost useless. Then, I think in X3, the reduce nodes became very powerful, apparently a new algorithm. As mentioned above, more nodes disappeared with it and the accuracy became phenomenal.

    Summary: in X3 and later, if you need to keep the shape of the curve, use the reduce nodes button; the appearance of the curve won't change (in almost all cases). If you want to smooth the curve, use the smoother to the degree wanted; the curve will change visually, ranging from subtle to dramatic.


    Ripcord wrote:

    Hi,

    I use this feature often, but I'm not sure I fully understand it, because I don't know what the number setting (1-100) refers to, and I can't find an explanation of it in "help".


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