Drawing API animate??

Question

Hi guys, i have only recently started with Drawing API, and
im getting the hang of it. But i was wondering if it's possible to
tween the lineTo method??
for example, im rounded rectangle at runtime, but i dont want
it to just " appear " , say i wanted it to " draw it's self "
like tween the outline first, then fade in the fill.
is that possible? if so, what code would i use to animate the
drawing process?
Thanx guys.

Answer 1

Sketchsta,
> Hey David, i only just saw your post after i replyed..
uum,
> could you give be the basis of how to use the
setInterval ?
The setInterval() function can be run in more than one way.
The basic
way is to provide it two parameters: a) another function to
run, and b) a
time interval at which to run this other function. That's
really all there
need be to it.
> cuz i only used it once, but i didnt know how to stop
it, it
> kept going forever, till my com was struggling.. then i
found
> clear() ... now my comp has no problem, but i still cant
> stop the line.. anyway, off the point...
That's not off the point. ;) Sounds like that's exactly what
you need
to figure out now. The clearInterval() function stops a
particular
setInterval() loop. How does it know which loop to stop? The
answer is,
you provide clearInterval() with a number. This works a bit
like those
lines at the deli section where you "take a number" and they
eventually call
it.
setInterval() provides a return value, just like many (but
not all)
functions. The getTimer() function, for example, returns a
number that
represents how many milliseconds have passed since the Flash
movie began.
The isNaN() function returns a Boolean (true or false) value
that tells
whether a given value is "not a number." Well, setInterval()
returns a
value that indicates the number of its latest usage. The
first time you use
setInterval(), it sets up a scenario whereby it repeatedly
calls the
function you pass it at the time interval you pass it. This
is the first
such scenario, and so the number it returns is 1. The next
time you use
setInterval(), it sets up a second scenario -- calling some
other function
you provide, or the same one -- and this time it returns 2.
The third time,
3, and so on.
Conveniently, you don't have to keep track of this. You can
store the
return value of setInterval() in a variable and use the
variable as a
parameter to clearInterval().
> could you give me an example of how to set it up?
var id:Number = setInterval(drawingFunctionHere, 30);
In the above line, an arbitrarily named variable id (which
will be a
number) is set to the return value of setInterval(), which in
this case
calls an arbitrarily named function, drawingFunctionHere
every 30
milliseconds. Whenever you see fit (such as when your drawing
is finished,
and only you'll know that), you can call clearInterval() and
pass in that id
variable.
clearInterval(id);
That stops the repeated call to drawingFunctionHere(). Of
course, the
first time around, you could use clearInterval(1) -- but
again, there's just
no reason to keep track of the interval numbers yourself. You
can re-use
that id variable as often as you need.
David Stiller
Adobe Community Expert
Dev blog,
http://www.quip.net/blog/
"Luck is the residue of good design."