How to drawing objects at specific sizes w/o mouse?

[ProfReader]

I have just spent thirty minutes reading over Paint.Net's user information and trying to search for this on these forums. I can't find any help, but I fear there is an obvious answer to this. I am trying to use the tool for drawing a filled-in circle with a colored border to add a series of circles to a map for use in identifying specific stops on a tour. I cannot, to save my life, figure out how to designate the size of the circles. Instead, the only thing I can figure out to do is use my mouse to click, hold, and drag until the pixel dimensions on the screen show exactly the size I am aiming for. The problem is that I am trying to hit exactly 30x30 pixels. Either my hand is not steady enough or the mouse is too sensitive, but it is taking forever to try to hit precisely the right size. Is there any way to simply click the point where I would normally begin dragging to draw the circle and then just type in the dimensions on my keyboard?

[pdnnoob]

A few things to help you:

1. Hold shift while you are dragging. This will make sure you get a circle and not an oval

2. Zoom in.

3. While you hold down on the mouse button, you can use the arrow keys to make precise movements. It will move your mouse 1 pixel at a time if you are zoomed in at least to 100%.

[minners71]

Also draw the circle on a new layer then duplicate this layer as many times as needed, so for 10 stops duplicate the original circle layer 10 times then select each layer separately and move with the blue arrow to the correct spot on map remember to hit CTRL-D after each one to deselect the active selection. Once finished merge all layers down.

[Ego Eram Reputo]

The size of the circle is shown in the status bar as you draw it. You get the dimensions of the bounding rectangle and area.

Consider one of the bounding rectangle dimensions as the diameter

[Djisves]

If you haven't already, download and install the Align Object Plugin.

Set the primary colour to what you want the outline colour to be, and the secondary colour to what you want the fill colour to be.

Add a new layer above you map. Let's call it "layer 2".

Select the Brush tool, set the brush width to 30, click once on layer 2. This will draw a perfect circle, 30 pixels in diameter, in the colour of your primary colour.

Use the Align Object plugin to centre the circle on the canvas.

Add a new layer above layer 2. Let’s call it "layer 3".

Depending on your preferred circle outline width, set your brush size to a width smaller than 30. For example, a new brush width of 20 pixels will leave an out line of (30-20)/2=5 pixels.

Right-click once on layer 3. This will draw a perfect circle in a diameter as per your brush width, in the colour of your secondary colour.

Use the Align Object plugin to centre the circle on the canvas.

You should now see one circle with outline, in the colours of your choice, 30 pixels in diameter, in the centre of your image.

Merge layer 3 down into layer 2. You should now have your complete circle, outline and all, on layer 2 above your map layer.

(Like minners71 advised above…) Duplicate your circle layer (layer 2) as many times as you need circles on your map.

Use the Move tool to move each circle in the desired position on the map.

Save your work as a *.pdn file to preserve the layers and be able to re-visit and edit in the future.

Flatten the image and save your new map with the tour stops in the image format of your choice (*.png is recommended by the gurus of this forum).

[Edit: Fixed line spacing]

Edited January 15, 2012 by Djisves

[jim100361]

Excuse me while I add my 2 cents if I may. If you're having trouble getting a specific size, simply edit the outer perimeter (square portion) down to the perimeter of the circle using the selection tool (use selection tool, frame the circle, and crop to selection - if you don't get it down exactly the first time, repeat the process), and once done, simply resize the image down to the pixel size you desire.

Edit: Using this method, it doesn't matter what the original size of your circle is.

Edited January 15, 2012 by jim100361