Flash 8 - Object Drawing Model

Feature
  -   Object Drawing Model
Level       -   Beginner
Audience -   Designers

What is Object Drawing Model?

OBD is a new drawing model in Flash 8 which allows users to draw overlapping shapes which doesn’t combine into a single object as it used to in previous versions.

How to enable this feature?

Select any of these tools :

1. Line Tool
2. Pen Tool
3. Pencil Tool
4. Brush Tool
5. Polygon Tool
6. Oval Tool or
7. Rectangle Tool

Before you draw a shape select the Object Drawing mode in the Options section.

Now when you draw a shape the shape will be drawn using the Object Drawing Model.

How is OBD different from grouping?

In a outlook both OBD and grouping is looks alike; but there are a lot of operations which you can perform on a shape drawn using OBD, which you can’t when the shape is grouped. Some of them are :

1. You can change the fill and stroke color of a shape drawn using OBD but you can’t do the with in a grouped shape.
2. You can use Distort , Envelope and other transformations on a OBD shape which you can’t with grouped shapes.

and a lot more like Combining Objects.

Additional operations using OBD

With two overlapping OBD shapes you can perform combine operations on them using Union, Intersect, Punch and Crop.

JS API Methods

• document.deleteEnvelope()
• document.intersect()
• document.punch()
• document.union()
• shape.isDrawingObject
• document.crop()

Detailed description of these methods can be found in the Flash 8 inbuild help system or Live Docs.

OBD in action

Click this image to download the demo of the feature.

Comments & Questions

Please drop in your comments / questions in the comments section.