{"id":2861,"date":"2025-11-20T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.drawstitch.com\/blog\/?post_type=knowledge-base&#038;p=2861"},"modified":"2025-11-20T15:11:31","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T15:11:31","slug":"how-to-insert-and-customize-star-shapes","status":"publish","type":"knowledge-base","link":"https:\/\/www.drawstitch.com\/blog\/knowledge-base\/how-to-insert-and-customize-star-shapes\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Insert and Customize Star Shapes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In DRAWings PRO XII, the <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.drawstitch.com\/blog\/knowledge-base\/how-to-insert-and-customize-ready-made-shapes\/\">Shapes<\/a><\/strong> tool allows you to easily insert parametric geometric forms. This tutorial guides you through inserting star shapes, adjusting their properties (such as the number of rays and start angle), and editing them using special nodes or curves.<\/p>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed wp-block-embed-youtube is-type-video is-provider-youtube epyt-figure\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><div class=\"epyt-video-wrapper\"><div  style=\"display: block; margin: 0px auto;\"  id=\"_ytid_95760\"  width=\"1290\" height=\"725\"  data-origwidth=\"1290\" data-origheight=\"725\" data-facadesrc=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/w-xCIFYzuro?enablejsapi=1&#038;autoplay=0&#038;cc_load_policy=0&#038;cc_lang_pref=&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;loop=0&#038;rel=0&#038;fs=1&#038;playsinline=0&#038;autohide=2&#038;theme=dark&#038;color=red&#038;controls=1&#038;disablekb=0&#038;\" class=\"__youtube_prefs__ epyt-facade no-lazyload\" data-epautoplay=\"1\" ><img decoding=\"async\" data-spai-excluded=\"true\" class=\"epyt-facade-poster skip-lazy\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"YouTube player\" src=\"https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/w-xCIFYzuro\/maxresdefault.jpg\" title=\"\"><button class=\"epyt-facade-play\" aria-label=\"Play\"><svg data-no-lazy=\"1\" height=\"100%\" version=\"1.1\" viewBox=\"0 0 68 48\" width=\"100%\"><path class=\"ytp-large-play-button-bg\" d=\"M66.52,7.74c-0.78-2.93-2.49-5.41-5.42-6.19C55.79,.13,34,0,34,0S12.21,.13,6.9,1.55 C3.97,2.33,2.27,4.81,1.48,7.74C0.06,13.05,0,24,0,24s0.06,10.95,1.48,16.26c0.78,2.93,2.49,5.41,5.42,6.19 C12.21,47.87,34,48,34,48s21.79-0.13,27.1-1.55c2.93-0.78,4.64-3.26,5.42-6.19C67.94,34.95,68,24,68,24S67.94,13.05,66.52,7.74z\" fill=\"#f00\"><\/path><path d=\"M 45,24 27,14 27,34\" fill=\"#fff\"><\/path><\/svg><\/button><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">1. Select the Star Tool<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Star tool is nested within the Shapes section of the toolbar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol start=\"1\" class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Hover your mouse cursor over the <strong>Shapes<\/strong> section. (Note: The icon displayed usually represents the last used shape).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Click on the <strong>Star shape<\/strong> icon to activate the tool.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">2. Define Shape Options<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Before drawing the star on the canvas, you can configure its properties using the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.drawstitch.com\/blog\/knowledge-base\/how-to-use-numeric-transformations-and-the-tool-options-bar\/\">Tool Options bar<\/a>. This allows you to preset the shape&#8217;s appearance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Number of Rays:<\/strong> Define how many points the star will have.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Ray Size (%):<\/strong> Adjust the thickness\/depth of the rays.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Start Angle:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.drawstitch.com\/blog\/knowledge-base\/how-to-transform-designs-move-resize-rotate-skew\/\">Rotate<\/a> the initial orientation of the star.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">3. Draw the Star<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ol start=\"1\" class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Click and drag<\/strong> on the workspace to define the position and size of the star.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Release the mouse button<\/strong> to finalize the shape.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Right-click<\/strong> to release the tool when you are finished.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Tip:<\/strong> The Star tool remains active after you draw a shape, allowing you to insert multiple stars in rapid succession. You must right-click to exit the tool and return to selection mode.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">4. Edit the Shape via Tool Options<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Even after the star is drawn, it remains a &#8220;parametric&#8221; shape. This means you can select the star and change its properties (Number of Rays, Ray Size, etc.) using the <strong>Tool Options bar<\/strong> at any time, provided it has not been converted to curves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">5. Edit using Special Nodes<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You can visually edit the star&#8217;s properties using the <strong>Node Editor<\/strong>. When a star shape is selected in Node Editing mode, it displays four distinct &#8220;Special Nodes,&#8221; each serving a specific function:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Ray Size Node:<\/strong> Drag this node to adjust the depth\/thickness of the rays interactively.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Start Angle Node:<\/strong> Drag this node to rotate the star.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Proportion\/Size Node:<\/strong> Use this node to change the overall size or stretch the proportion of the shape.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Center Node:<\/strong> Use the central node to reposition the star on the canvas.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">6. Converting to Curves<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you require manual control over every single node (for example, to distort just one ray of the star), you must convert the parametric shape into curves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol start=\"1\" class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Select the star.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Right-click and select <strong>Convert to Curves<\/strong> (or use the appropriate toolbar icon).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Important Note:<\/strong> Once a shape is converted to curves, the &#8220;Special Nodes&#8221; discussed in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.drawstitch.com\/blog\/knowledge-base\/how-to-use-step-fill-stitches-density-styles-underlay-and-gradient-blending\/\">Step<\/a> 5 are no longer available. The shape becomes a standard vector object, and you cannot use the Tool Options bar to change the number of rays or ray size percentage.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This tutorial guides you through inserting star shapes, adjusting their properties (such as the number of rays and start angle), and editing them using special nodes or curves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2862,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":""},"categories-kb":[333],"class_list":["post-2861","knowledge-base","type-knowledge-base","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","categories-kb-how-to-training"],"acf":[],"taxonomy_info":{"categories-kb":[{"value":333,"label":"How to Training"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/www.drawstitch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/draw-star-shapes-1024x576.jpg",1024,576,true],"author_info":{"display_name":"DRAWings Embroidery Software","author_link":"https:\/\/www.drawstitch.com\/blog\/author\/drawings\/"},"comment_info":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drawstitch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/knowledge-base\/2861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drawstitch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/knowledge-base"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drawstitch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/knowledge-base"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drawstitch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drawstitch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drawstitch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"categories-kb","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drawstitch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories-kb?post=2861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}