linearize strokes to preserve its perimeter

[lsilva.m]

Hi

I was trying to make a simple thing: from a circle make a line with the same perimeter (respect the length). But I realized that there is not a quick way to do this. I wonder how would you do such task when you need to.

The way I did it was to draw a circle and from its diameter (px units) manually calculated the perimeter to then draw a line of the same length.

But this gets more complicated if the shape is irregular. For example, imagine a shape «M» and you want to "linearise" it so it is just a line «-----».

I imagine that this could be implement by choosing some sort of "convert to line" . Would this be too hard to implement?

Thank you in advance.

Cheers

[Hangman]

Hi @lsilva.m,

Are you just looking for a quick way to determine the perimeter for various shapes with a view to drawing a straight line of the same length? If so then the Area tool in V2.0 would perhaps be an option...

To get a better understanding, what is the reason for wanting to do this, as in how will you use it?

[lsilva.m]

47 minutes ago, Hangman said:

Area tool

Great! This helps a lot. At least there is no need to waste time doing doing math next time.

I am drawing a DNA molecule that is circular (plasmid) but it can also be represented in its linear form. So to have consistency between different representations both need the same perimeter/length.

something like this: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/figure?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0211065.g001
 

[GarryP]

To follow on from what’s already been said, if you use the Pie Tool to create the arcs – as per my attached video – then you can use the Area Tool to find the approximate length of the curve.

In the video I’ve used a 100×100 pie to make it easy to see that the measurement is close to what you would expect (e.g. 314.171 versus 314.159).

It’s not totally accurate, because a pie is not a single arc, but it’s maybe good enough for what you want.

You can then draw the straight line manually to the desired length.

Note: You can change the Mitre (in the Stroke Panel) to make the ends of the curve flat so they look like those in your example.

[lsilva.m]

36 minutes ago, GarryP said:

if you use the Pie Tool

yes. this was what I end up doing. Thanks for sharing video on how to do it