On 3/20/06, Joshua A. Andler <joshua@...533...> wrote:
I definitely understand what you're saying, and can agree that grouping is not too painful. What I needed to communicate in the last email was with the mentioned grouping... clipping "groups" are not quite like regular groups, they have special editing properties. Let me save a whole lot of correspondence by asking a question. Will it be possible to move objects around inside (and out) of the clipped area while clipping is applied?
Of course. If you've clipped a group, you can move objects inside the group, delete them or add new ones as you would do in any group. The clipping remains fixed as you do so. Only if you transform the group object itself as a whole, its clippath is transformed with it. I think this is quite logical.
It's only if you've applied clipping directly to an object, not a group, then moving that object without moving the clippath with it becomes impossible. But you can node-edit it (if it's a path) and thus even "move" it as a whole by moving all its nodes, without affecting the clippath. Or you can just unclip it, group it with something and clip the group.
Finally, if you _really_ need it, I can add yet another (5th) "transform with object" button to the Selector bar - for clippaths (and a 6th for masks). Like the corresponding buttons for gradients or patterns, these would allow you to transform the clipped/masked object either together or independently of its clippath/mask. It's not difficult to do, and I even like the idea somewhat for its consistency.
-- bulia byak Inkscape. Draw Freely. http://www.inkscape.org