Rectangle tool — Cadivari Knowledge Base

✓

Recommended test

Use this short sequence after every rectangle iteration.

Press R, click the first corner, then click the opposite corner to create a snapped 100 × 50 mm rectangle.
Press V, select it, and drag its north-east corner.
Enter 120 for W and 60 for H in Properties.
Undo twice, then redo twice. The shape should follow each committed state.
Turn Snap off and confirm fractional values can be drawn and entered.
Select the rectangle, then click its top side. Confirm only that side receives a cyan halo and Properties reports one Open segment.
Choose Right, Bottom, and Left using the Path edge buttons. Confirm the halo and reported length follow each side.
Resize the rectangle while an edge is selected. The semantic side and its measurements should follow the edited rectangle.
Press Esc or Delete once. Edge selection should clear without deleting or splitting the rectangle.

01 · CREATE

Draw a rectangle

Open Draw in the left tool rail and choose Rectangle, or press R. The gold circle and center dot show the exact coordinate while a small pointer stays offset so it cannot cover the point. Click once to place the first corner, move the pointer to preview the dimensions, then click the opposite corner to commit the rectangle.

Grid snapping

When Snap is enabled, both corners are rounded to the configured grid spacing, which is 10 mm by default. The fixed first corner remains marked during the preview, and the live width and height labels show the result before the second click.

02 · RESIZE

Drag a corner

Press V and select a rectangle. Four gold handles appear. Drag any handle while its opposite corner stays fixed. Release once to add one resize command to history.

Opposite corner stays fixedDimensions preview while dragging

Press Esc before release to discard an active resize.

03 · PATH REFERENCE

Select one side without breaking the rectangle

First select the rectangle as normal. Then click its top, right, bottom, or left outline, or use the four Path edge buttons in Properties. The chosen side receives the connected-path halo, endpoint rings, exact length, and an explicit semantic reference.

The four sides are not converted into line objects. A reference such as rectangle-edge:rectangle-id:north continues to mean the top side after X, Y, width, height, corner-drag, undo, or redo changes.

Explicit participation

Only the chosen side enters the connected-path graph. The other three rectangle sides are not silently included. Lines, arcs, or eligible open splines snapped to either endpoint can join the selected side.

Press Esc or Delete once, click the rectangle interior, or choose Return to whole rectangle to leave edge selection. These actions do not delete the owner rectangle.

04 · PRECISION

Enter exact values

The Properties panel exposes four millimetre fields for a selected rectangle.

XLeft edge position

YBottom edge position

WWidth; must be positive

HHeight; must be positive

Press Enter or leave the field to commit. Invalid values are rejected. Each accepted field change creates one undo step. An active semantic edge follows the resulting rectangle automatically.

3D PROFILES

Divide a sketch into closed regions

In one sketch, straight lines, rectangle edges, circles, circular arcs and unmirrored splines can combine to enclose several selectable areas. Each area becomes a separate selectable profile in 3D > Push/Pull, even though the lines themselves are open. You can give each region its own extrusion height, or use it for Join or Cut. The original rectangle and lines remain editable. To extrude several areas together, use Ctrl-click region selection in Push/Pull.

Endpoints must meet the boundary, or the lines must cross it; a real gap stays open. This region detection includes all rectangle edges automatically and is separate from selecting one edge for a connected path. See the five-region rectangle example and circle and arc regions for the workflow and supported edits.

SKETCH CLEANUP

Remove part of a rectangle side

Choose Trim (X) and hover over a side. Click to remove the highlighted section between crossings or a corner. With no internal crossing, the whole-side preview removes only that side.

The remaining outline becomes ordinary editable lines. Untouched sides keep their exact positions, and the original rectangle width/height controls are replaced by Line editing. You can keep trimming the result without switching tools. One Undo restores the complete rectangle.

Regions update immediately. Saved solid features that reference the original rectangle retain their definitions but report a rebuild issue after the conversion; undo or recreate them using the intended current region. Rectangle edges also remain cutting boundaries when trimming other lines, circles, arcs and unmirrored splines.

REFERENCE

Controls

RActivate Rectangle

VActivate Select

Second side clickSelect one semantic rectangle edge

EscClear edge selection, or cancel an active draft or resize

DeleteClear an active edge selection first; otherwise delete the rectangle

Ctrl + ZUndo

Ctrl + YRedo

IMPLEMENTATION NOTE

Document model

A rectangle is stored independently from the SVG renderer. All measurements are canonical millimetres in mathematical Y-up coordinates.

{
  "kind": "rectangle",
  "x": 10,
  "y": 20,
  "width": 120,
  "height": 60
}

Edge selection stores a lightweight semantic reference containing the rectangle ID and one of north, east, south, or west. It does not alter the document entity. This representation can later drive SVG, DXF, and CAM paths without reading coordinates back from the screen.

CURRENT SCOPE

Not implemented yet

CAM operations sourced directly from a selected edge or mixed path
Moving a rectangle by dragging its body
Edge-only resize handles
Deleting or separating one side from its rectangle
Rotation and rotated rectangles
Rounded corners and corner radii
Persistent project save/open
Constraints between shapes

Next, persist validated open and closed path references as associative CAM operation sources.