On 04/17/2012 07:24 PM, Johan Engelen wrote:
0.48: there is the ability to turn snapping on and off *from* nodes. It is on per default, shift turns it off. Now, 0.49 adds another possibility to turn on/off node snapping,
In v0.48 our users had to realize there was a distinction between snap sources and snap targets. That proved to be confusing. Therefore we now have a global toggle, a group toggle, and a snap type toggle. This way one only has to think about groups of snap types. On the lowest level a type of snap can be set, and these can be toggled as a group or overall.
however, it is now no longer possible to only snap *from* nodes without snapping *to* nodes. That is annoying me.
That's why it's on my to-do list to allow a more fine grained control of snap sources and snap targets again. But it will be hidden from the main level of controls, it will not be exposed using the buttons we have now. I was thinking of adding a button that pops up the document properties dialog, and to show two lists there: one with all snap sources (> 20), and one with all snap targets (about 40). This way both you and Luca can have any setting you want with maximum control, without bothering new users too much.
It must be very strange to have figured out how to display a grid, and then find out that... "hey! nothing snaps to it! Great program this Inkscape...".
Of course we can discuss what should be enabled by default, and what not. This can be fixed by snapping cusp nodes by default.
And that's because you have to turn on all kinds of snap source+targets per default, so that everything snaps to each other without grid...
In v0.48 one had to enable three buttons to enable snapping to a grid, IIRC. "Global snapping", "Snap nodes or handles", and "Snap to grid" had to be enabled. And for this one had to distinguish between the "Snap nodes or handles" button and the "Snap to cusp nodes" buttons, with the former representing the sources and the latter representing the targets. That means observing the different colors in the icons (sources were depicted as blue nodes, whereas targets were depicted as green nodes), or reading the tooltips. In v 0.49 one has to enable four buttons, which is one more. But at least it's all just about grouping of snap-types, which is much easier to grasp than thinking about sources and targets. Currently, you cannot even toggle "snap cusp nodes" if the group itself hasn't been toggled. It will be greyed out. That shouldn't be too difficult to figure out. The v0.48-way might appear to be easier, but isn't this just because you got used to it?
I don't see the reason to change 0.48 behavior: snap a node while dragging it
... which required enabling three buttons!
, shift disables it quickly.
That still works
The control you want is: "shift". And we've had that for a long time in Inkscape.
Having control of snap sources can be useful, but only if there are more sources to choose from in the first place. When dragging a node, there is only one source to choose from,
Not completely true. There's still the distinction between cusp and smooth nodes.
so then it's an easy choice, and
We could overrule the snap settings per tool quite easily, but I don't like the idea. Why introduce inconsistencies? There will be people asking "hey, why do these nodes snap to the grid in the node tool? I just turned off snapping of cusp nodes while I was using the selector tool, didn't I" ?
IMHO the solution should be in enabling it by default, or in allowing the extremely fine grained control.
Diederik