Adjust Shape and Use Shape Check

What you are trying to accomplish

Refine a traced piece into clean, intentional geometry and review the diagnostic findings shown by Shape check. The editing tool is named Adjust Shape; the checks behind Shape check inspect likely path, fold, and seam-allowance geometry problems.

Why it matters

Photographed paper edges contain noise, and even a careful trace can include a tiny gap, duplicate points, a spike, a self-crossing loop, or an awkward curve transition. Those defects can affect allowance, mirroring, measurements, and export.

Diagnostics help you find suspicious areas. They do not know the intended design, and a “Healthy” result does not prove fit, construction, or sewing quality.

Needs cleanup

Smooth and closed

Step by step

1. Select the piece and choose Adjust Shape.
2. Drag existing points to place them on meaningful corners and curve changes.
3. Use a ghost midpoint when you genuinely need another point. Avoid adding points merely to chase small image wobble.
4. Click a segment to switch between straight and curved behavior when its current type is wrong.
5. At high zoom, inspect corners and transitions. Then zoom out and judge the whole line; a mathematically smooth local edit can still make an unbalanced overall curve.
6. Keep true corners sharp. Smooth only the places intended to flow as curves.
7. Open Advanced, then Shape check. Review every issue and its suggested repair.
8. Choose Zoom to problem to frame a flagged area. Fix the shape itself, then check the surrounding segments as well.
9. If the piece has many unnecessary points, Simplify may help. Inspect the whole outline immediately afterward and use Undo if it changes an important curve, corner, fold edge, or seam relationship.
10. Revisit Shape check until errors are resolved and every remaining advisory has been deliberately reviewed.

What success looks like

• The outline is one closed, non-self-crossing loop.
• Straight lines, corners, and curves match the intended paper pattern.
• There are enough points to preserve the design, but not dense clusters of nearly identical points.
• Seam allowance follows the shape without impossible spikes or collapsed inside areas.
• Shape-check findings are clear, fixed, or consciously understood.
• The outline looks intentional both zoomed in and at normal viewing size.

Common problems and recovery

• The curve has small waves: Remove points before adding more. Adjust the neighboring points so the direction changes gradually.
• A true corner keeps rounding off: Change the point or adjoining segment behavior so the direction break remains intentional.
• Shape check reports an open outline: Find the gap and close the perimeter; do not cover it with a label or allowance.
• Shape check reports a crossing or loop: Follow the path order through the area and untangle it. A visual silhouette can hide crossed geometry.
• Allowance has spikes or folds over itself: Repair the sewing-line shape first. A large offset around a very tight area may also be unsuitable for that construction.
• Simplify changed the fit line: Undo, then remove only the clearly unnecessary points by hand.
• No issues are listed: Still compare the outline with the source. Shape check can detect certain geometry conditions, not whether you chose the correct size line or design curve.
• A warning is unclear: Use Zoom to problem, inspect at two zoom levels, and preserve the physical pattern as your primary evidence.

Quick safety check

Before leaving the piece, inspect it in this order: closed loop, no crossings, clean corners, balanced curves, allowance behavior, then agreement with the paper source. Do not treat the green badge alone as approval.

Related tools and next step

If the line meaning is still uncertain, revisit Choose Sewing Line or Cutting Line. When every piece has a clean shape and its details, continue to Complete Pattern Check.