It would be great if the symmetries could also be chosen on-canvas, at least to some degree.
[snip]
Although the idea is interesting, I'm a bit confused about it. That said, I'm not that familiar with the 17 transformations in the first place, so I have trouble visualizing your proposal on my own. So, if you do come up with a corresponding interface, it could be very interesting. :) Right now I am also discussing toolbar grouping options, so for the "tools" version of tiles and symmetries I'm going to assume that I can make a tool with sub-tools.
In this case, I'd be dividing into the following sub-tools: - Point symmetry - Symmetry - Rectangular tiling - Triangle tiling (P3 and P6 transformations) - Copies along path (maybe)
Within the sub-tools, you'd then have extra drop-downs, with visual previews of the transformation types. I'm thinking that it'd be a text drop-down but with a bigger image preview on the side.
Since "better guides" are on Inkscape's to-do list, I'm pondering between the following possible workflows: 1. Adding a symmetry or tiling generates a new guide. 2. To generate a symmetry or tiling, you need to select the object and an existing guide already on-canvas. The idea is that you'd have a guide made to position your starting object in the first place. 3. It could be both: if a guide is selected when applying tiling or symmetry, Inkscape uses it by default. If not, if generates a new one.
Lots of possibilities, many depending on features that don't seem like they will be implemented anytime soon, though I'm in no hurry so all's good.