There are a few tricks to node editing that aren't on the editing menu.The best way to demonstrate them is to go through and make an actual intricateshape, such as one might use for an interface.

You can start your shape with just about anything, such as a shape madewith the shapes tool, something from a dingbat font that has been convertedto a shape, or even a simple shape drawn with the Point-to-point tool.I used the point to point line tool to create the shape below. Just tomake things easier to remember, I put the points down in a clockwise fashion,starting with the upper right hand node and finishing with the upper lefthand node. I did this so that the path direction would match the usualdefault for shapes done with the Shapes tool. After I put in all my points,I closed the shape by left clicking to bring up the editing menu, scrollingdown to Edit with my mouse, and choosing Close form the secondary menu.Then I moved the points around a bit to get nice vertical and horizontallines and just the right angles.
 
 
 

The corners on the shape are a bit sharp. I'd like them to be more smoothand curved, but without sacrificing the straight lines of my edges. I startedwith the lower left hand corner. I zoomed in, and then went into Node editingmode by selecting the shape with the Vector Selection tool and clicking Node edit on the Tool Options palette. The first change Imade was to add a node on either side of the corner node. You add nodesto a shape or line by moving the cursor over the line while holding downthe control key. A little message that says Add will appear next to yourcursor. Click and you have a new node. If you don't hold down the controlkey, you'll get a little wavy line under the cursor as it passes over.
 
 

To get a rounded corner I changed the node type. First I selected itby clicking on it, then I right clicked to bring up the menu, scrolleddown to Node Type, and chose Asymmetric from the secondary menu. I chosethis type because a thought I might have to adjust the sides of my curveindependently to get it to look right. Initially the new curve looks terrible,a bit bulged out at the sides.
 
 
 

The first thing I did to correct this was to use the cursor to movethe node in a little bit toward the other nodes. Then I adjusted eitherside of the arrow to get the curve I was looking for. Remember to alwaysleave editing mode after making changes like this to see if they look right. The lines you see in Node editing can be deceivingly smooth. You can leaveNode editing by either by choosing Quit Node editing from the menu or byclicking outside your window. I like to have my vector object set to Filledto get the best idea of how it's going to look.
 
 

The lower right hand corner was adjusted to a curve in just about thesame way we did the lower left one.
 
 

The bottom part of the shape now looks like this, with rounded cornerson both sides.
 
 

I wanted to make the top right hand section more rounded, like a semicircle. One of the wonderful things about node editing is that you cancopy nodes from one vector shape and paste them into another. First I usedthe shapes tool to create a circle that was almost the right size to capthe end of my interface shape.
 
 

Unfortunately, I didn't do such a great job of matching sizes - thecircle was too small. No problem though, I simply resized the circles lengthby grabbing the bottom of the deformation box and pulling down. If I'dwanted to keep the circle perfectly round I could have resized it by rightclicking on a corner and pulling out. That would have maintained the aspectratio.
 
 

Now that I have the right size circle, it's time to add it to my shape.I want my shape to be all one piece, so first I copied the nodes from thecircle by going into Node editing mode, selecting the circle with my cursor,and copying (you can use the Copy command in the Edit menu, or you cansimply use Control C.) I moved the circle out of the way and then I selectedmy interface shape, went into Node editing, and pasted (again, you canuse the menu or the keyboard commands.) When you paste all of the pastednodes are selected, so you can move them as a unit. I positioned them tocap the end.
 
 

To make this all one continuous unit, we need to remove the line cappingthe end so that we can attach the circle. To do this, first we add a nodein the middle of the line (hold down control and click on the line). Thenwe delete it (select the node, right click to bring up the menu, then Edit:Delete.)I also deleted the left node of the circle to remove the half I don't want.
 
 
 

To join two nodes and make them into one, grab one of the nodes by clickingon it. Hold down the control key and overlap the two nodes. The littlesign next to your cursor should say Join. Release and your two nodes willbe one.
 
 
 

The problem with joining nodes this way is that when you join a straightline and a curve you occasionally have to fine tune the result. My joinmessed up the semicircle curve a bit, as well as the line. First I straightenedthe line by changing the attributes of the joined node to Line After (selectthe node, right click to bring up the menu, then choose Node Type:LineAfter)
 
 

I Joined the nodes at the top of the semicircle with no problem. Joininga horizontal line to a semicircle causes no changes because a horizontalline is a tangent to the curve at that point. To adjust the bottom partof the semicircle curve, I changed the node type in the middle of the semicircleto Asymmetric (select the node, right click to bring up the menu, thenchoose Node Type:Asymmetric), and then pulled and adjusted the end of thearroww on that side to get a smoother, rounder curve.
 
 
 

For the area between the vertical and horizontal areas of the interfaceshape, I decided I wanted a wider curve. First I added nodes as I had forthe lower two corners, but these I spaced further away from the centernode.
 
 
 

Changing the central node to an Asymmetric node gave the expected uglycurve, which I corrected by pulling the node down and to the right, andthen adjusted with the arrows.
 
 
 

The final outer shape of the interface now looks like this: