Setting Gradient Fill Properties

The gradient fill features allow you to illustrate your real-world objects, like tanks and pipes, with a three-dimensional look. A gradient fill can also be used for the picture itself. The gradient fill is composed of fade color, fade type, blend percentage of fade color, and gradient angle of fade color. For more information about applying fade color, see Setting the Picture Background and Fade Colors and Working with Color.

Like the behavior of other fill styles, you can animate the gradient effect with the shape; for example, rotate, scale, fill, and translate with the shape; however, you cannot animate gradient effects in your picture.

You can right-click an object and apply the individual gradient fill properties after you have set the fill style to Gradient. You can also apply the properties all at once using the gradient preview dialog box. The gradient preview dialog box for shapes contains the tools you need to preview and apply gradient fill properties.

The type of object you select determines the properties available for your use. For example, pipe objects have a different gradient preview dialog box where the properties specific to pipe objects are available, as well as gradient fill properties. For other shapes, only gradient fill properties are available.

Clicking the Foreground or Fade color buttons opens the Select Color box where you can choose the colors you want to apply to your shape or pipe. For more information about choosing colors for your shapes, refer to Using the Color Box.

When you choose Fade from the Color pop-up menu on a shape object, the Gradient preview tab of the Select FadeColor dialog box appears. The fields on this dialog box allow you to apply gradient fill properties to the object. These fields are available only when you select a single shape object. If you select multiple objects, you can only choose a color from the Select Color dialog box.

Shape Gradient Preview Dialog Box

When you choose Fade from the Color pop-up menu on a pipe object, the Gradient preview tab of the Select FadeColor dialog box appears. The fields on this dialog box allow you to apply pipe and gradient fill properties to the pipe object.

Pipe Gradient Preview Dialog Box

These dialog boxes offer a central place to apply gradient fill properties rather than making individual changes using the right-click pop-up menu. However, you cannot make gradient fill changes to multiple shape objects.

For more information about making changes to multiple pipe objects, refer to Modifying Pipe Characteristics.

The following sections describe the different gradient fill features that you can apply to your shape objects.

Fade Type

Fade type blends the fade color with the foreground and background colors to produce the three-dimensional appearance in the shape. You can apply the following fade types to your objects and pictures:

Fade Type	Description
Linear	The foreground color fades to the fade color from one end of the shape to the other.
Reflected	The foreground color converges to the fade color in the center of the shape in a linear fashion. NOTE: This fade type may not display in long, narrow rectangular shapes.
Radial	The foreground color is darkest around the edges and recedes radially towards the center.
Concentric	The foreground color is darkest along the edges and center with a concentric band of fade color in between.

Linear

Reflected

Radial

Concentric

Blend Percentage of Fade Color

When you use gradient fill, you can change the way colors are mixed to achieve different effects. The blend percentage is the amount of fade color that is applied to the fade type. The higher the percentage, the more fade color is visible. The following diagrams show different blend percentages.

20% Blend

50% Blend

75% Blend

Gradient Angle of Fade Color

Gradient angle is the angle, in degrees, of the gradient brush. The default gradient angle is 0° and is always on the right side of the shape. You can apply as precise an angle as you need using the Gradient Angle slider.