I've been working an a drawing that involves a lot of little objects that have to be placed in the right spots, and I've found that it's cumbersome using the regular transform tools.
I have a new idea (please tell me if it's been done before) for a tool that will make this much easier.
Basic synopsis: a tool that transforms an object based on a single mouse drag, combining moving, rotating, and scaling into one. This makes transforming an object much quicker and more natural. It's even more useful when creating multiple randomish clones but with finer control.
Please, see the full explanation at http://files.aztekera.com/images/Quick%20XForm.svg Inkscape recommended.
Tell me what you think, Mazin
(This has also been posted to Inkscape's tracker on SF.net)
On 3/13/07, Mazin <mazin@...1692...> wrote:
I've been working an a drawing that involves a lot of little objects that have to be placed in the right spots, and I've found that it's cumbersome using the regular transform tools.
I have a new idea (please tell me if it's been done before) for a tool that will make this much easier.
That's an interesting idea. But we certainly do not need to change the Selector tool for that. This sounds like it's best done by the Pencil or Pen tool that create paths with applied pattern, the pattern being that butterfly or whatever else you need. This will be just like you describe - draw a line, have the object scaled/rotated to fit it.
Even now you can already do something similar. Draw a few straight lines and combine them into one path. Select the butterfly, then select the combined path. Effects > Generate from path > Pattern along path, select "Single Stretched". This is almost what you need except for two things:
- It's not interactive - but it can and hopefully will be made interactive with path effects
- It scales the butterfly only along the path but not perpendicularly, thus distorting its shape. But I think it's fixable and worth a RFE to add a "Scale proportionally" checkbox to the extension.
On 3/13/07, bulia byak <buliabyak@...400...> wrote:
On 3/13/07, Mazin <mazin@...1692...> wrote:
I've been working an a drawing that involves a lot of little objects that have to be placed in the right spots, and I've found that it's cumbersome using the regular transform tools.
I have a new idea (please tell me if it's been done before) for a tool that will make this much easier.
That's an interesting idea. But we certainly do not need to change the Selector tool for that. This sounds like it's best done by the Pencil or Pen tool that create paths with applied pattern, the pattern being that butterfly or whatever else you need. This will be just like you describe - draw a line, have the object scaled/rotated to fit it.
Even now you can already do something similar. Draw a few straight lines and combine them into one path. Select the butterfly, then select the combined path. Effects > Generate from path > Pattern along path, select "Single Stretched". This is almost what you need except for two things:
- It's not interactive - but it can and hopefully will be made
interactive with path effects
- It scales the butterfly only along the path but not perpendicularly,
thus distorting its shape. But I think it's fixable and worth a RFE to add a "Scale proportionally" checkbox to the extension.
-- bulia byak Inkscape. Draw Freely. http://www.inkscape.org
I intended this to be functional for moving multiple individual objects. Your technique would be useful (when scale proportionally is added) for multiple clones, but I thought this up after making this piece: http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/50015139/ I had to arrange all of the little pieces of text manually, because they're all different. But every piece involved at least a move and rotate, and usually a scale operation. I don't know how much of a change to the selector tool it would be, but I intended for it to be another tool that hides in the Selector tool's toolbar.
Please consider it, Mazin
On 3/14/07, Mazin <mazin@...1692...> wrote:
I intended this to be functional for moving multiple individual objects. Your technique would be useful (when scale proportionally is added) for multiple clones, but I thought this up after making this piece: http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/50015139/ I had to arrange all of the little pieces of text manually, because they're all different. But every piece involved at least a move and rotate, and usually a scale operation.
Well, first of all, transforming object is a lot faster if you use keys: <>, [], and arrow keys instead of dragging handles. I use the keys much more frequently than mouse.
For this specific use case, however, still much better would be to enable the Text tool to draw (perhaps with some modifier) text-on-path. Like a hybrid of Pencil and Text tools, with the added option that the text fits to the length of the path by scaling font size. This would also let you create curved text lines easily.
participants (2)
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bulia byak -
Mazin