I've also noticed that exact dimensions get changed behind my back, and it bothers me somewhat. Fortunately I can afford to ignore it for almost all the work I do. Although I love Inkscape, things like that make it feel a little bit broken, even if there's a good reason.
I assume the reason is that there's some rounding and conversion to other units going on behind the scenes. But mm is a native SVG unit, right? It seems like these numbers should be stored with the same units & precision as they were entered.
Or perhaps the problem is related to Paul's other concern -- that this figure is a sum of other figures, and so there are rounding errors in the calculation. I'm just guessing.
With recent talk about using Inkscape as a PCB design tool (which I'm very interested in), this may become much more important.
In regards to Paul's other concern: as an artist, I do find it useful that the dimensions given are the total size of the object (bounding box, I assume). For many tools (rectangle, etc), you can get the "naked" dimensions easily enough just by using the tool. But I can also see the use of having a way to get the "naked" dimensions of arbitrary shapes. I don't know of a way.
- Bryan
On Fri, Jun 21, 2013 at 5:37 AM, Paul Beard <paulbeard@...400...> wrote:
Maybe sounds like more of a philosophical question that related to development but there are some things Inkscape does that I either don't understand or that work in ways that are counter to what I want.
I seem to have recurring problems with object dimensions changing. This is a problem as I am doing what might charitably be described as mechanical drawings, parts that need to fit together with some precision once they're made into physical objects. I can create an object of some specified dimension (100mm by 100mm) and come back later to find that it's 100.107mm or something. I'm going to see if I can find out what it takes to repro this and file a bug against it if I can make it happen.
I also don't get why the stroke and dimensions are summed in the toolbar that specifies the size of an object. I generally work in outline view with stroke turned off because I don't like that adding a stroke value to an object also changes it's dimension. I'm slowing coming to rethink this as the stroke being the cutter width or kerf, which is useful but if I then have to contend with shifting dimensions, it gets frustrating.
Is there a way to break apart the dimensions of the an object from it's stroke values? Or maybe a toggle that displays the true dimensions and display the stroke and fill for visual reference/clarity? It would useful to work in Normal view and have the colors there but the dimensions then become a problem. If I specify a 3mm opening and 3mm component to go in it, I want those numbers to display while I work.
Maybe Inkscape is the wrong choice for me. I like the ease of use/low barrier to entry and getting things done, and the price is definitely right. But maybe I'm making work for myself.
-- Paul Beard
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