Hi,
I've had to use markers in inkscape recently and found them very frustrating: putting the markers in the middle of the semgents instead of intermediate nodes is much better in many cases. Consider a path made of horizontal and vertical segments: to show an orientation on it, you'd like to add little arrows at the middle of the segments, definitely not at the corners.
I know this contradicts the svg specification, wich has good reason to do so (in patricular, I guess the middle of a segment is not so well defined...)
Then I came to the following minimal suggestion: would it make sens to refine the svg spec to avoid/allow markers at smooth/angular points?
Even in this case, this wont be a perferct solution: in many cases, I'd like to have only one arrow at the middle of each smooth piece, even if that piece requires many points to be drawn. I don't see any svg compilent way to achieve this.
Any suggestion? we could have lpe generated markers, more or less like what "pattern along path" does, with improved placement of the pattern (= markers), but I don't like this solution, as it is not natural to use lpe to do a "stroking decoration"...
Cheers, jfb.
-----Original Message----- From: jf barraud [mailto:jf.barraud@...400...] Sent: Wednesday, March 18, 2009 14:32
we could have lpe generated markers, more or less like what "pattern along path" does, with improved placement of the pattern (= markers), but I don't like this solution, as it is not natural to use lpe to do a "stroking decoration"...
This could be done by a more general LPE that puts a path multiple times along another path oriented by the tangent to that path.
Apply this LPE on path A. This LPE's has a path B parameter along which instances are put. There is also an array parameter listing the locations where path A should be put along path B. That would be convenient for tangent/perpendicular paths too. See it as a more general 'pattern along path' LPE. Shouldn't be too hard to make.
Cheers, Johan
I put together a concept for a more advanced Pattern-along-path lpe a while ago. I just looked it over and brushed it up, and I think it addresses this problem (or could be adapted to do so). The svg is attached.
JF
J.B.C.Engelen@...1578... wrote:
-----Original Message----- From: jf barraud [mailto:jf.barraud@...400...] Sent: Wednesday, March 18, 2009 14:32
we could have lpe generated markers, more or less like what "pattern along path" does, with improved placement of the pattern (= markers), but I don't like this solution, as it is not natural to use lpe to do a "stroking decoration"...
This could be done by a more general LPE that puts a path multiple times along another path oriented by the tangent to that path.
Apply this LPE on path A. This LPE's has a path B parameter along which instances are put. There is also an array parameter listing the locations where path A should be put along path B. That would be convenient for tangent/perpendicular paths too. See it as a more general 'pattern along path' LPE. Shouldn't be too hard to make.
Cheers, Johan
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-----Original Message----- From: Joshua Facemyer [mailto:jfacemyer@...400...] Sent: Thursday, March 19, 2009 01:35 To: Engelen, J.B.C. (Johan); Inkscape Devel List Subject: Re: [Inkscape-devel] markers
I put together a concept for a more advanced Pattern-along-path lpe a while ago. I just looked it over and brushed it up, and I think it addresses this problem (or could be adapted to do so). The svg is attached.
Woah! Give us more of these concept drawings!!! :-)
You mean me personally, or people in general? Was it clear?
I have a few ideas, but I just figured that people don't have time to implement them, so I've not put much effort into it.
I wish I had time to learn to code myself to get it done...
JF
J.B.C.Engelen@...1578... wrote:
-----Original Message----- From: Joshua Facemyer [mailto:jfacemyer@...400...] Sent: Thursday, March 19, 2009 01:35 To: Engelen, J.B.C. (Johan); Inkscape Devel List Subject: Re: [Inkscape-devel] markers
I put together a concept for a more advanced Pattern-along-path lpe a while ago. I just looked it over and brushed it up, and I think it addresses this problem (or could be adapted to do so). The svg is attached.
Woah! Give us more of these concept drawings!!! :-)
yeah, pattern along path can be generalized. There could be a "scatter" effect that would repeat a pathB along pathA's stroke or fill, with advanced placement feature: random, aligned, centered, custom...
But for markers however, we typically want to keep the orginal path and *stroke* it, while the markers should be *filled*... lpes don't allow that. (there is a workaround using boolops with a cloned operator B, but that is way too complicated...)
Cheers, jfb. .
2009/3/18 <J.B.C.Engelen@...1578...>
-----Original Message----- From: jf barraud [mailto:jf.barraud@...400...] Sent: Wednesday, March 18, 2009 14:32
we could have lpe generated markers, more or less like what "pattern along path" does, with improved placement of the pattern (= markers), but I don't like this solution, as it is not natural to use lpe to do a "stroking decoration"...
This could be done by a more general LPE that puts a path multiple times along another path oriented by the tangent to that path.
Apply this LPE on path A. This LPE's has a path B parameter along which instances are put. There is also an array parameter listing the locations where path A should be put along path B. That would be convenient for tangent/perpendicular paths too. See it as a more general 'pattern along path' LPE. Shouldn't be too hard to make.
Cheers, Johan
On Thu, 2009-03-19 at 02:14 +0100, jf barraud wrote:
yeah, pattern along path can be generalized. There could be a "scatter" effect that would repeat a pathB along pathA's stroke or fill, with advanced placement feature: random, aligned, centered, custom...
But for markers however, we typically want to keep the orginal path and *stroke* it, while the markers should be *filled*... lpes don't allow that. (there is a workaround using boolops with a cloned operator B, but that is way too complicated...)
Cheers, jfb.
I'd been thinking that adding "along a path" might be helpful for the align-and-distribute dialog.
-----Original Message----- From: jf barraud [mailto:jf.barraud@...400...] Sent: Thursday, March 19, 2009 02:14 Cc: Inkscape-devel@lists.sourceforge.net Subject: Re: [Inkscape-devel] markers
yeah, pattern along path can be generalized. There could be a "scatter" effect that would repeat a pathB along pathA's stroke or fill, with advanced placement feature: random, aligned, centered, custom...
But for markers however, we typically want to keep the orginal path and *stroke* it, while the markers should be *filled*... lpes don't allow that. (there is a workaround using boolops with a cloned operator B, but that is way too complicated...)
I mean not to apply the "place-along-path-LPE" to the original path A. The LPE must be applied to a marker path, with its own styling. The pathB parameter of the LPE is then linked to the original path A (I mean the "link to path" button for path type parameters).
To see what I mean: Draw path A, copy it (ctrl+c). Draw path B. Apply 'Bend'. Press 'link to path' button for the 'bend path' parameter. Now path A is used to determine how to bend path B; note that both paths are still shown ! Image now that path A is used to determine where any number of instances of B are placed, not like a pattern, but only on the locations where you chose them to be.
-J
participants (4)
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unknown＠example.com -
jf barraud -
Jon A. Cruz -
Joshua Facemyer