A SmartDraw Legal Edition TUTORIAL

Creating Crime Scene Diagrams

Moving and Rotating Objects
You can move symbols in your crime scene using the mouse or the arrow keys.

Every shape has a Rotation Handle which appears as a small black circle. By dragging the rotation handle with the mouse, you can rotate a shape to any angle.

You can also specify the degree of rotation using the Rotate menu in the Shape Layout group under the Design tab.

Creating Your Own Shapes and Objects
SmartDraw comes with thousands of symbols to help you create professional-looking crime scenes quickly and easily. You'll find everything from body outlines to hand prints and furnishings.

But if you can't find a particular symbol that you need, you can always create it yourself using the freeform line tools.

Using the Polygon Line Tool
You can create a new shape with the Polygon Line tool located in the Line menu in the Tools group.

Start by clicking in your work area at the point you want your shape to begin and continue clicking to create more segments.

A line segment is automatically added to the line for each point that you click.

The shape will close automatically as the last line segment nears the starting point. To indicate that the shape is ready to be closed, your pen cursor will have a circle at the end.

Edit the New Shape's Outline
Each segment in the line or shape you create is initially a straight line with a diamond-shaped adjustment handle in the center.

If you click on the adjustment handle you can stretch the line into a curve. You can also adjust the corners of your shape by clicking on the square grow handles at the end of each segment.

Using these handles, you can draw just about any shape or line.