Construction
Construction draws the circles, axes, tangents and alignments Inspect measured onto your artboard, as layers you can restyle and export. The panel previews it live; drawing it into the document is Pro.
How to use it
Open the Construction tab
Select the mark, then Construction. The drawing above the tabs is a live preview of what will be drawn, and its caption counts it, such as “14 paths · 4 circles, 6 lines”.
Choose how much it shows
The four buttons at the top add relationships in order of how much of the outline they explain: Essential, Structure (the default), Detail and Full. Full is everything Linyal can prove.
Set the look
Under Display, set Line weight, Marker size and Line opacity; double-click a slider to reset it. Then choose Colour, Lines and Artwork.
Choose the layers
Open Layers to switch the ten layers on or off. A layer the mark has nothing for is greyed, with the reason on hover, such as “No arcs in this mark”.
Draw it
Press Draw construction. The drawing goes on a locked layer named after the artboard, such as
Linyal Construction · Artboard 1. The layer is locked; the paths in it stay editable.Pro. Drawing into the document is Pro; the button reads “Upgrade to draw” on Free. The live preview is free. Until 31 January 2027, Pro is open to everyone.
Draw again, or remove
Draw again replaces the drawing on that artboard. Remove deletes its layer, on every licence.
Options
- Essential to Full
- Essential, Structure, Detail or Full. Each adds the next relationships Linyal can prove.
- Line weight
- 0.25 to 2 pt, in steps of 0.25. Default 0.75 pt.
- Marker size
- The size of anchors, centres and other markers, from a quarter to four times the mark’s own default.
- Line opacity
- 10% to 100%.
- Colour
- Grey, Ink, Paper or Custom, which opens Illustrator’s Color Picker.
- Lines
- Across the artboard, or Past the mark.
- Draw on
- Centreline, Stroke edges or Both, for a mark drawn with thick strokes.
- Artwork
- Full colour, Dim (the default) or Hidden behind the construction.
- Layers
- Outline, Axes, Edges, Circles, Tangents, Unit, Alignment, Anchors, Handles and Lattice, with Anchor size, Handle size, Handles (A few, Main, All) and Grid (1x, ½x, ¼x).
When the mark changes
A drawing on the artboard is never redrawn by itself. The line above the button says why it is out of date:
drawn, but the mark changed · 14 paths · 4 circles, 6 lines now
Press Draw again to bring it up to date. If the mark changed at the moment you press, nothing is drawn: Inspect measures it again and asks you to press once more.
Limits
- One drawing per artboard: two marks on one artboard share its layer, and the last Draw wins.
- A stop too large for one drawing, over 4,000 paths, is greyed. Choose a smaller one.
- To take a drawing back, press Remove or delete its layer in the Layers panel.