On 04-Jun-2019 18:11, brynn wrote:
If "Inkscape is not a CAD program" is not an appropriate answer, I would welcome suggestions how to answer messages like this:
"Inkscape is a terrible CAD program. Where do I enter the length and angle of the line? How can I draw a line if I can't enter the length and angle?"
(substitute radius/diameter/circumference, etc, for a circle; or dimensions for rectangle)
Well, this probably isn't what the target audience would want to hear, but since it sounds like the questioner might have a set of simple elements with known sizes, locations, and orientations derived from who knows what (actual measurements, some abstract calculation?), it isn't unreasonable to ask if there might be a way to provide a quick and easy conversion of that data to a drawing through Inkscape.
For instance, if the user could write their data as a text file made of simple declarative 1 line statements like:
moveto,x,y lineto,x,y ray,x,y,length,angle ray2,x1,y1,x2,y2 square,x,y,side,angle #x,y is center square2,x,y,side,angle #x,y is lower left corner rectangle,x,y,width,height,angle #x,y is center rectangle2,x,y,width,height,angle #x,y is lower left corner circle,x,y,radius ellipse,x,y,radiusA,radiusB,angle ellipse2,x,y,radius,eval,angle text,x,y,points,font,angle,text_string draw_color,color_name draw_color_rgb,R,G,B fill_color,color_name fill_color_rgb,R,G,B draw_width,width (etc.) quit
it would not be hard to write a converter to read that and write it out again as SVG, either to a file or imported directly into Inkscape.
Yes, this duplicates features of many other graphics languages, from cgm to hpgl to postscript. So it might be best to pick the text form of one of those standards and write an importer for it. (Not postscript though, that is Reverse Polish, too bizarre for the average user.) For all I know there may already be an import option which works like this. If so, point said user to it and say "have at it".
Regards,
David Mathog mathog@...1176... Manager, Sequence Analysis Facility, Biology Division, Caltech