Stroke

Stroke describes the formatting applied to a drawing element’s lines or borders. You can apply a number of different strokes to an element depending on what kind of lines or elements you are working with. Measurement for the stroke width, dashes, and spacing is usually measured in pixels.

Most of the stroke formatting properties can be applied from the Stroke group or, through the Properties view, under the Stroke property. The arrow start and end shapes are configured in the Properties view only.

Stroke Array

A stroke array is a collection of values that determines whether or not an element’s stroke is a solid line, or consists of a pattern of dashes and gaps. From the Stroke group, on the Home tab, you can select from a list of pre-defined arrays, or, if you navigate to the Properties view, you can enter the values in the Stroke Array property to create a pattern of dashes and gaps for your array. The first value entered determines the size of the dash measured in pixels, and the second value determines the distance of the gap between dashes. You can continue to add values for the alternating dash and gaps values. Whatever pattern is entered in the stroke array field is then repeated until the end of the stroke length. If you only have one value, this creates a dash and gap of equal length.

Stroke Thickness

You can set the width of the selected stroke. The width is measured in pixels and must have a value of zero or higher. The default stroke width for all drawing elements is set to one.

Stroke Start and End Lines and Stroke Dash Cap

The Stroke Start and End properties and Stroke Dash Cap properties all allow you to set the shape at the start and end of a line, segment, or dash--depending on the stroke array. For both lines and dashes, there are four shapes to choose from. The default shape is set to flat.

You can choose from one of four shapes to apply to the start, end, and cap of a line, dash, or segment:

• Flat – A shape or cap that does not extend past the last point of the line. This is the default shape for all stroke start, end, and dash cap properties.
• Square – A rectangle shape that has a height equal to the line thickness and a length equal to half the line thickness.
• Round – A semi-circle shape that has a diameter equal to the line thickness.
• Triangle – An isosceles right triangle the base length of which is equal to the thickness of the line.

Stroke Line Join

You can determine how elements that have lines with corner joins meet. There are three join options to choose from:

• Miter – Angular vertices, two 45 degree angles that create a 90 degree angle. The result is a pointed corner. This is the default join shape for elements with corner joins.
• Bevel -- The corners are flattened.
• Round – The corners are rounded.

Arrow Start and End Shape

You can create a line that has an arrowhead at the start, end, or both ends, of a line. To configure a line with an arrowhead you use the Arrow Start and Arrow End Shape properties from the Properties view, Stroke group. These properties are not available from the Stroke group.