Sketch Help

With this control panel, you can sketch a knot in 3D freehand using the mouse.

To sketch something, either:

   sketch beads one at a time --- click the mouse where you want a new bead to
           appear.  if you click using the left mouse button, KnotPlot will 
           attempt to place a connecting edge to the previous bead that is 
           UNDER all other edges.  use right click (or SHIFT-left) to go 
           over. 

   sketch beads continuously --- click and drag out a knot path.  beads will
           be created at a set interval.  this method also defaults to 
           alternating over and under crossings when you cross paths with 
           something previously drawn.

   Delete all --- delete all knot components, click on `undo' if you regret
           doing this

   Delete last --- delete the last bead in the last component.  normally, this
           is the bead you just sketched

When creating a new knot component, it's best to place the last bead a short
distance from the first (if it's a closed component), but not right on top of
it.  A distance of about a centimeter (with a typical display) is about right.
If you want to start playing with the your new knot, just go to some other
control panel or click on `Finish'.  Clicking on `Finish' goes out of Sketch
mode.  If you want to keep sketching, you'll have to exit and re-enter the 
Sketch panel. 

Complete this component... --- Use one of the buttons in this section if you
want to sketch knots with more than one string (component).  The two options 
are:

   as open --- finishes sketching the component and leaves it open-ended

   as closed --- closes up the end points of the component 

Note that clicking on the `Finish' button or leaving the Sketch control panel
by going to another control panel will automatically perform an `as closed'
operation. 

After sketching is completed, one of a number of operations can optionally
be performed:

   centre link --- usually this is what you want, but sometimes not

   enable auto splitting --- this sets the value of `stusplit' (described on
           the Dyna control panel help) to something non-zero.  This is useful
           if you sketch something very roughly with very few beads and then
           immediately relax it using the `Go' button (on Main or Dyna).  

At the bottom is a button that goes to an alternate method for creating new
knots, the Celtic knotting panel.



