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How to use Cog tool in Affinity Designer tutorial

How to use the cog tool in Affinity designer application to create stunning cogs and gears.

Cog tool in Affinity Designer

Select the cog tool in the Affinity Designer toolbar
Click the document
Drag and create the cog
Change the settings via the interactive dot controls or via the settings along the top bar of Affinity Designer
Set the color for the cog via the color panel.

Video tutorial on the subject by graphicxtras.com (youtube)

Buy Price : $3.49 US or equivalent. 100 Octagon designs for use in the application in truetype font and eps vector format (V196) gallery

Basics : selected Select the tool in the toolbar and set the color for the path and apply.

Apply once or multiple times to create the default design.

This basic design can be manipulated in many ways using the interactive as well as field settings for the tool.

It can be found beneath the triangle / diamond / Crescent in the toolbar.

Transform the art

If you wish to transform the artwork, select the path and then go to the transform panel or use the move tool.

Go to the view menu and studio and transform and you can then rotate and shear the art etc

You can also change the reference point for the transformation of the artwork

Or use the move tool to transform the artwork

Interactive settings : With the path selected and the selection of the CT you will see a number of small dots on the paths.

The small dots can be used to interactively change the settings for the path. You can also change the settings for the shape via the settings along the top bar of the application.

Teeth settings and others : teeth The number of teeth can only be changed using the teeth setting. The other settings can be changed via the small dots : notch size and tooth size as well as inner radius and hole radius.

There is a curvature setting and it can be used to create some interesting curved designs but it depends on the tooth size and notch size.

Select the CT. Set color. Draw the artwork. Go to the small little red dots on the artwork (with the CT selected. Drag a dot left or right or up and down (it can only go in the direction allowed). You will notice the settings will change (to the limits allowed)

Starbursts : You can set the inner radius to the hole radius and the result will be a starburst design. Many different starbursts can be generated using the teeth settings. Instead of the standard path, the starburst paths are made of separate paths

Combinations of settings : examples Here a small selection of settings for the teeth and hole etc to create different designs.

Chunks:

teeth 29

inner 83%

hole radius 83%

tooth size 38%,

notch size 43%

Sharp separate triangles:

teeth 29

inner 83%

hole radius 83%

tooth size 4%

notch size 43%

Thin lines:

teeth 45

tooth size 4%

inner 83%

hole radius 83%

notch size 100%

Long thin lines:

teeth 45

inner radius 43%

hole radius 43%

tooth size 4%

notch size 100%

Curved edges:

teeth 9

inner radius 84%

hole radius 0%

tooth size 47%

notch size 100%

curvature 100%

Star design : star You can also create a star design by using the CT. Select the CT and then draw the path and keep that path selected and then use the interactive feature to manipulate the path or use the top bar settings to change the values.

I love using the interactive features to create stars etc but sometimes it is often easier to get the exact value and design you want via top bar settings of fill, stroke, stroke style, teeth, inner radius, hole radius, tooth size, notch size, curvature (along with show rotation center, hide selection etc)

Set the teeth to 48

Inner radius 69

Hole radius 60

Tooth size 0

Notch size 0

Go to the Ellipse and create a circle in the center of the path - see the end result on the right

This creates a star design. You can change the notch setting to create different star artworks.

You can also add other paths to the center of the star and then combine them using the union button. This can be with many paths as well and not just a single path.

Corners : rounding You can modify the shape by using the corner tool. The key thing before you use the corner feature is to right click any generated paths and use the convert to curves command otherwise the corner feature will be of no use.

You can use the different corner types to create many variant designs in the application. There are many different corner types such as rounded and concave and combinations of these with the different points can result in countless different path designs.

Convert to curves : nodes Once you have decided to with the individual nodes and no longer want to use the artwork with the CT, you can select the artwork with the node cursor and right click and then use the convert to curves and then you can select the individual nodes that made up the original path.

You can now select one or more of those nodes and totally changes the path

Adding transparency : You can select the artwork and select the transparency in the toolbox. (it is a little wine glass). Select the type of transparency to add to the generated gear artwork. Drag across the design.

Click on the gradient dropdown along the top bar to change the opacity stops for the gradient

Keywords : How to use Cog tool in Affinity Designer tutorial