On 1/28/07, Romain Thouvenin <romain.thouvenin@...400...> wrote:
But when I try this button, the clones become closer and closer, that's quite different from "spreading out", isn't it ?
Unclumping does not just spread out - it tries to equalize distances between objects, taking into account their shape and size (i.e. ideally, to equalize distances between the facing edges of the objects, although so far it's much more primitive than that ideal). This is not something that can be done deterministically by a single formula; it's an iterative process and the results are always imperfect. For an already regular tiling, unclumping just "shakes" the grid and makes it more natural. But create a highly irregular tiling with randomized positions, then press Unclump to see how it removes the "clumps" (hence the name) and makes the grid more even and natural, almost man-made, although still irregular. Here are some examples of unclumping at work:
http://inkscape.org/screenshots/gallery/inkscape-0.42-CVS-tiles-unclump.png