Correcting Pencil
Draw a new path or redraw part of an existing one.
Choose Correcting Pencil from the Vextra panel or the Illustrator toolbar. You do not need an active path to start, because the Pencil can create one.
Draw a New Path
Drag across the canvas.
Vextra turns your stroke into an Illustrator path and activates it for editing, with live Vextra processing already in place.
The Pencil ignores snapping, so the stroke follows your hand.
Correct an Existing Path
Turn on Pencil can Edit Path in the panel menu, then start a stroke near the active path.
- Start or end near an open end to join the stroke there.
- Start or end on a segment to replace that part of the path.
- Draw between two found points to redraw the path between them.
Vextra highlights a valid join point before the stroke finishes.
Draw a Separate Contour
Hold Control / Ctrl while drawing to skip joining and path correction for that stroke, creating a separate contour instead.
You can also turn off Pencil can Edit Path when separate contours are what you usually want.
After the Stroke
The new or changed path joins the processed Vextra result immediately. Live Smart Corners, G2 joins, and loop cleanup keep working without another edit.
Cancel
Press Escape before mouse-up to drop the stroke and restore the path.
Good Uses
- Draw a new open or closed path.
- Fix an uneven part of a traced shape.
- Replace a messy group of curves with one clean stroke.
- Continue an open path by hand.
- Add another contour to the active artwork.
Use Optimizer or Simplify when you want fewer nodes without redrawing the path.