Tube vs Drawing

Drawings and Tubes are related, but they are not the same thing.

Understanding the difference makes it easier to organize NeonFX designs correctly.

Drawing

A Drawing is the complete NeonFX design.

It can contain one or more Tubes and can be controlled as a single object.

Drawing-level properties include things such as:

• Enabled state
• Brightness
• Color
• Render quality
• Effects

Tube

A Tube is one continuous path inside a Drawing.

Each Tube defines part of the geometry of the design and can have its own path and profile.

A Drawing may contain several Tubes when the design has disconnected sections.

Example

A simple neon line may use:

Drawing
└── Tube

A logo with several disconnected parts may use:

Drawing
├── Tube 1
├── Tube 2
└── Tube 3

All of those Tubes still belong to the same Drawing.

Which one should you create?

Create another Tube when the new path should remain part of the same design.

Create another Drawing when you want the new object to be controlled independently.