Modifying shapes

You can modify shapes by converting lines to fills, expanding the shape of a filled object, or softening the edges of a filled shape by modifying the curves of the shape.

The Convert Lines to Fills feature changes lines to fills, which allows you to fill lines with gradients or to erase a portion of a line. The Expand Shape and Soften Edges features allow you to expand filled shapes and blur the edges of shapes.

The Expand Fill and Soften Fill Edges features work best on small shapes that do not contain many small details. Applying Soften Edges to shapes with extensive detail can increase the file size of a Flash document and the resulting SWF file.

To convert lines to fills:

Select a line or multiple lines.
Select Modify > Shape > Convert Lines to Fills.
Selected lines are converted to filled shapes. Converting lines to fills can make file sizes larger, but it can also speed up drawing for some animations.

To expand the shape of a filled object:

Select a filled shape. This command works best on a single filled color shape with no stroke.
Select Modify > Shape > Expand Fill.
In the Expand Path dialog box, enter a value in pixels for Distance and select Expand or Inset for Direction. Expand enlarges the shape, and Inset reduces it.

To soften the edges of an object:

Select a filled shape.
Note: This feature works best on a single filled shape that has no stroke.
Select Modify > Shape > Soften Fill Edges.
Set the following options:
Distance is the width, in pixels, of the soft edge.

Number of Steps controls how many curves are used for the soft edge effect. The more steps you use, the smoother the effect. Increasing steps also creates larger files and slows drawing.

Expand or Inset controls whether the shape is enlarged or reduced to soften the edges.