When smooth flowing curves to garden beds such as those defined by Corten steel edging, are required, use the spline command. The spline command can be started by selecting from the Draw drop menu, by typing the word spline at the keyboard or selecting from the draw toolbar.
We demonstrate the use of the spline tool to create smooth flowing curves indicating the location of Corten steel edging in a landscape design plan.
Editing a spline entity
It can be a tricky tool to manage. Placing the first and subsequent points (vertices) is simple and straight forward. However, when the right mouse button is activated and the Enter option is selected to complete the spline, the cursor jumps back to the start point for the line. At that point, use the mouse to set the approach angle for the start of the spline. Repeat the enter option and next it is time to set the ‘leave’ option for the polyline. When that’s done, a small directional handle will appear at the start and end of the spline. This handle is useful for future editing.
Each point is a spline becomes a vertex. Controlling the shape of the spline is easy and involves selecting a vertex and moving it to a new point.