Hello guys, there is a idea that I have in mind which can be considered the very first start to CAD support of Inkscape.
When I have manipulated the display units, I noticed that scale x, and scale y does change. I tried to find out what works best from Inkscape to Solidworks .dxf import, and as it turns out, the scale must be exactly 1.0 x and 1.0 y in order to achieve the correct size within Solidworks. The viable workaround to this is of course to make CAD templates, and I might make series of CAD templates.
For people who are using Inkscape due to its .dxf support, they have to pay attention to the scale feature with document property. Also, sometimes they have to snap created object within the 0,0 of the workspace in order to import a vector object exactly as if the origin is the rotation point of the object. Modifying the centerpoint can be done with Solidworks, but it's a little tedious, but it can easily be done in Inkscape.
There are 4 solutions I can think of for this when it comes to .dxf export, and CAD program support
- Under Scale Box, there should be a checkmark which says retain 1:1 scaling when changing display unit.
- If I were to export .dxf and the scale factor is not 1, then during the export process, Inkscape should automatically scale the result to 1/x where x represent the scale factor within Inkscape. Also, I wouldn't support px export in .dxf.
- There should be a option to display the axis line within document property. That means the X line or horizontal line and the Y line or the height line.
- Last of all, under .dxf export, I think one should have the option to always export the name of the unit being used next to the file name. That way, it would be easy to tell what's being used to avoid scaling issues within .dxf.
Right now, all I have are templates, and I might try to give them out to you guys to put on the next release. I will try to talk more about this in the inkscape-devel if I can.
Oh, and to Bryan or whatever the name is, I'm not in that state. I'm a university student with a very long commute and possibly suffering from unrecoverable chronic fatigue. It's unlikely I'll ever be able to go to a physical meeting as much as I want to.