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Making A 2D Shape

The 2D shape editor is a tool for drawing 2-dimensional shapes which are then processed to make a 3-dimensional brush shape in the main editor.

This page covers the basics in making a shape in the 2D editor. For an overview of this tool, interface reference and processing types, see the 2D Shape Editor page.

The following tutorials cover making architecture with the 2D editor:

Opening

To open up the 2d editor, use tools menu or hit the 2deditor button on the toolbar.

The window initially displays a square shape.

File Operations

2D shapes can be loaded and saved, independently of the map in the main UnrealEd.

Loading a texture

A texture can be displayed as a backdrop in the 2D Editor's window. This makes it considerably easier to closely match a texture, for example an arch or a door. There are two ways of doing this.

  1. Quick & simple but may crash UnrealEd
    1. Load the texture in UnrealEd's texture browser (the skycity.utx texture package which has a very nice basic arch)
    2. Select an arch texture (to see all the arches of that package, in the drop down menu below choose arch)
    3. Do 2D Shape Editor Menu → File → Image → Get from current texture. The texture should now be displayed as a backdrop in the 2D editor window.
  2. More complex but sturdy
    1. Load the texture in UnrealEd's texture browser, right-click it, and "choose export to .pcx" from the pop-up menu.
    2. In the save dialog choose save as type > all file types. Save the file as anyname.bmp (the 2D Editor can only open .bmp textures).
    3. Do 2D Shape Editor Menu → File → Image → Get from disk.

The texture should now be displayed as a backdrop in the 2D editor window.

Moving vertices

Select any vertex by clicking on it. Click and drag to move it.

Adding vertices

Deleting vertices

Scaling & Zooming

Click the magnifying-glass + and - buttons on the toolbar to zoom and out. The view is scaled approximately to the current size of the shape you're working on.

Segment Type

Segments can be linear or curved.

  • converting back & forth

Bezier detail level

Its possible to change the detail level of a Bezier curve by adding in more sides to make the curve more smooth. The default detail level is 5.

First select the Bezier curve by clicking on one of the Bezier adjustment handles. Right click on the Bezier curve in the 2D Editor and go to Segment → Detail level and make a choice. This can also be accessed through Edit menu → segment → detail level.

things to cover:

  • selecting vertices
  • splitting sides
  • multiple selection
  • bezier & switching between the two types of side
  • the green origin point
  • moving the whole shape with the orange shape centre point
  • scaling

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