How do I draw a semicircle?!

[ryansmith2007]

What do you mean?

[dcnicholls]

Norm11 originally wrote:

"Help!
This has to be easy. I'm trying to create a simple semicircle with an
open path. You know--just a simple curved line.
So here's what I do--I use the ellipse vector tool and draw a perfect
circle. I take the knife tool and cut it in half. That gives me two nice
semicircles. I delete one. OK, so far, so good.
Here's the problem: Fireworks treats it as a CLOSED path. So if I try to
join it to other open paths and apply a fill, it treats it as a closed
semicircle and messes up the combined path.
All I want is to cut a circle in half and just have an open semicircle,
not a closed one. Can anyone help?"

(but the NG server has lost touch with the Web forum, so I've quoted it
in full)

Try this: draw a circle, diameter 100px, gray fill, black stroke. Cut
it *exactly* in half with the knife tool, delete the right half. Draw 1
100px square, green fill, cut it in half (roughly) and delete the left
half. Drag the half square so that it exacty meets the semicircle so
that the open edges exactly match. Select both, then Modify > Combine >
Join (or just control-J) The two open objects become a hybrid closed
object with a gray fill.

Is that what you're seeing?

As soon as you combine two open paths, they become a closed path and one
fill predominates. If you want a semicircle closed object, draw a
vector line 100px long, nudge it up to the open side of the semicircle
and join the paths. There are probably other ways to do this, too.

DN
______

[dcnicholls]

Post by dcnicholls
"Help!
This has to be easy. I'm trying to create a simple semicircle with an
open path. You know--just a simple curved line.
So here's what I do--I use the ellipse vector tool and draw a perfect
circle. I take the knife tool and cut it in half. That gives me two nice
semicircles. I delete one. OK, so far, so good.
Here's the problem: Fireworks treats it as a CLOSED path. So if I try to
join it to other open paths and apply a fill, it treats it as a closed
semicircle and messes up the combined path.
All I want is to cut a circle in half and just have an open semicircle,
not a closed one. Can anyone help?"
(but the NG server has lost touch with the Web forum, so I've quoted it
in full)

Or better still, draw a circle, drag a guide to that it exactly bisects
the circle. Drag out a rectangle starting exactly on the guide, so that
it overlaps half of the circle, selct both then Modify > Combine > Punch
and what you're left with is a closed semi-circle. Better than the join
or union procedures.

DN

[Norm11]

Thanks, but I don't want to create a closed semicircle--I want to create an open one.

[Norm11]

Well, I think I've figured it out--looks like a bug in my version of Fireworks
MX. I just attempted to do the SAME very thing in Fireworks 4, and it worked
like a charm--exactly the way it's supposed to.

[Norm11]

OK, maybe what I'm doing is just flat wrong, but let me describe it so everyone
can visualize what I'm doing:

First up, I am building shapes that require a perfectly round arc. So I
think, OK, no problem, I'll just draw a perfect circle and cut it in half (or
in thirds or however big I need it) with the knife tool.

So here's what I do:

- I have a blank canvas
- I draw a perfect vector circle on the canvas with no fill and a black
stroke
- I take the knife tool and draw a straight line through the circle with a
tiny bit of "over-cut" on each side
- I double click the canvas to split the circle into two by way of my knife
cut
- I delete the half of the circle I don't want
- OK, so far, so good. I have a plain semicircle with a black stroke and no
fill
- Now I take the line tool and make a simple shape, maybe an upside down V
- I size that V I just drew to perfectly fit into the opening of the
semicircle
- I drag the V into the semicircle, thus creating a pie-type shape
- All ends are touching--there are no openings
- I select both paths using the black arrow (selection arrow)
- I go to PATH...JOIN
- OK! Everything is really looking good now. When I click on the pie shape
and drag it, the whole thing moves across the canvas as one
- Now I say, OK, that's the shape I want. Now let's apply the fill
- Any fill type I select--let's say SOLID to make it easy--messes up the
shape! Fireworks is still treating the semicircle arc, the one I created by
slicing the perfect circle into 2 pieces as a closed semicircle! So the V shape
I drew with the line tool is ignored--Fireworks just paints the fill color over
it instead of treating it as a boundary!

Please help. This is driving me nuts.

[Linda Rathgeber *TMM*]

Post by Norm11
- I drag the V into the semicircle, thus creating a pie-type shape

Why not just use the Pie Auto shape?
--
Cheers,
Linda Rathgeber
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[Norm11]

Because I'm not really drawing a pie shape. I just used that to simplify my example.

[Stéphane Bergeron]

Post by Norm11
- I select both paths using the black arrow (selection arrow)
- I go to PATH...JOIN

That's where you went wrong. Doing this you end up with what Fireworks
calls a Composite Path but you still don't have a closed shape. You need
to join at the anchor level. Before doing that, undo your Composite path
by going to Modify>Combine Path>Split. You'll end up with your two
original separate paths.

Grab the white arrow tool and select one of the end points of your
inverted V shape and move it away from its corresponding point on the
semi circle (for now) and let go of the mouse button. Grab the same
point again and move it close to the point you want to join it to on the
semi circle. When you are close enough it will "snap" into place.
Release the mouse button again and marquee select around the two points
which should "look" like one now and go to Modify>Combine Path>Join.
Repeat this for the point on the other end of your inverted V shape and
you should have a closed shape that you can fill now.

HTH!

Stéphane