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NEW: Live Path Effects
by unknown＠example.com 21 Nov '07

21 Nov '07

I think I did not yet officially announce LPE... from our wiki: __________________ Live path effects (LPE) Live path effects (not to be confused with extension effects or SVG filters) are a new way to non-destructively modify path and shape objects. Path effects affect the path data of an object but not its style. The original path is preserved and can be edited directly on-canvas, and the path effect applied to it will be updated live. In this version, we include several path effects that are analogous to the corresponding extension effects (such as Path along Path effect and Pattern along Path that replaces the extension of the same name). The most important advantage of path effects is that they are, indeed, live - you can still edit the original path and the effect will update in real time (unlike the extension effects which were one-time one-way transformations). In the future, we plan to reimplement most if not all of path-changing extensions as live path effects. Live path effects were developed by Johan Engelen as part of the GSoC 2007. = Applying effects = Path effects are applied through the Path Effects dialog (opened from the Path menu, or by pressing Ctrl+Shift+7. This dialog is also used for controlling the effect's parameters and for removing effects. When a path with a path effect applied is selected, the statusbar description mentions that, for example "Path (4 nodes, path effect)". There is a special Paste Path Effect command (Ctrl+7) that can be used to copy effects from one path to another. [edit] Editing effect parameters When switching to the node edit tool (F2), the original path can be edited. The original path is shown as a red helper path. Normal path operations, like simplify, still work. Some parameters of effects can be edited on-canvas. For example, path parameters can be node-edited, by pressing the "edit on-canvas" button in the Path Effects dialog. Press "7" to cycle through the different on-canvas editable parameters. This way, one can edit the parameters without opening the Path Effects dialog. The statusbar tells the name of the parameters that is currently being shown. = Available effects = Path along path The Path along Path effect can curve a path along another path. When this effect is applied to a path, it can be bend along another path (called bend path). With the node edit tool, both the original path and the bend path can be changed on-canvas and the result is updated live. This provides a direct equivalent of "vector brushes" or "skeletal strokes" features in other vector editors. In the effect's control panel in the Path Effects dialog, you can select how many copies of the original path are put along the bend path (either single or repeated) and whether it is stretched to fill the bend path. In this dialog you'll also find a button to edit the bend path on-canvas and a button to paste a new bend path from clipboard. A possible workflow is this: you select and copy the new bend path to the clipboard, then select the path you want to bend, apply the Path along path effect, and paste the bend path with the paste button next to 'bend path'. Pattern along path The Pattern along Path effect can curve a path along another path. When this effect is applied to path A (called skeleton), another path B (called pattern) can then be passed as a parameter. The result is that path B is bent along path A. With the node edit tool, path A can be changed on-canvas and the result is updated live. This provides a direct equivalent of "vector brushes" or "skeletal strokes" features in other vector editors. In the effect's control panel in the Path Effects dialog, you can select how many copies of the pattern are attached (either single or repeated) and whether the pattern is stretched to fill the skeleton path. You can also choose the pattern for the selected skeleton [either directly or] by pasting it from clipboard (that is, you select and copy to the clipboard the pattern, then select the skeleton, apply the Path along path effect, and paste the pattern). The Scale width parameter allows you to change the width of the pattern applied to the path. Stitch Subcurves The Stitch Subcurves effect connects points from two subpaths of the path with straight line or curved segments, i.e. the stitches. It looks a lot like the Effect Lines from Expression 3. The result is also referred to as "String Art". For some examples of string art, see http://members.shaw.ca/jillbritton/string_art/jbstringart.htm. The shape of the connecting paths can controlled by the stroke path parameter. This could be used to draw 'hair-shaped' connecting paths with sharp end-tips. Other controls include the number of paths, the variation in spacing between the connecting paths (clustering) and also whether the start and end points of the stitches should like exactly on the original subcurves or can stray randomly around them. Finally the width of the stroke path can be varied. Note that this effect can only be applied to a path with two subpaths in it, hence 'subcurve' in the name. Use Path > Combine to create such a path from two separate paths. Example file: live-path-effects-curvestitch.svg Example file showing cooperation between Stitch Subcurves and Path along Path: live-path-effects-curvestitch-hair.svg Gears The Gears effect is a toy effect. It generates a chain of interconnected gears from the path that has the effect applied to it. The nodes of the path define the centers of the gears. The first 3 nodes are special; the first defines the start angle of the chain, the second defines the center of the first gear and the third knot specifies the radius of the first gear. That is, to create a chain of 2 gears, you will need a path with 4 nodes; for 3 gears, 5 nodes, and so on. Example file: live-path-effects-gears.svg = Development of new effects = One of the goals of the Summer of Code project was to make it easy to create new effects. There is a framework that greatly simplifies effect implementation; very little code is needed to get the effect hooked into Inkscape. This leaves valuable time for the actual effect to be implemented. See the http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/MakingLivePathEffects wiki page for an explanation of how to get started with your own effect! ___________ I'd really like people to test things and to get feedback. It already works very nicely from my point of view, but that is also because I know how to use it! I hope it is intuitive enough to be used, if not: please let us know! Kind regards, Johan Engelen

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hybrid inkscape/blender gear
by Elwin Estle 20 Nov '07

20 Nov '07

Made the path in Inkscape development version using the gear rendering script. Made a few changes with some boolean operations, then imported it into Blender and extruded/textured it. http://clayogre.deviantart.com/art/blender-gear-70132293 ____________________________________________________________________________________ Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your home page. http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs

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Changing arrowhead size and color?
by Stephen Tucker 19 Nov '07

19 Nov '07

Hi list, I am trying to make a flow diagram with Inkscape 0.45 on Windows XP. (1) I have arrows pointing to and from text. Whenever I move the text, I am deleting the arrow and making a new one, because I cannot seem to move/scale the arrow in such a way that the size and aspect ratio of the arrowhead is preserved. Is there a better way? (2) I can change the arrowhead color to match the line by going to Effects -> Modify Path -> Color Markers to Match Stroke But each time I do this I get additional End Markers. For instance, if I had used Arrow1Lend, each time I invoke the function above I seem to get another marker, Arrow1Lend[x], where [x] is a letter of the alphabet. Because of the procedure I described in (1), I have a ton of these extra markers... is there a way to prevent this? Thanks very much in advance! Stephen ____________________________________________________________________________________ Get easy, one-click access to your favorites. Make Yahoo! your homepage. http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs

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Inkscape under KDE - focus question
by Donn 19 Nov '07

19 Nov '07

Hi, I know KDE can do all kinds of funky tricks with windows and focus etc. I was wondering if anyone out there has a way to do this: Make the floating dialogues (like align) release the focus (perhaps when the mouse is away) so that the main canvas keeps it. I am quite worn down by all the click one has to do to get the focus (keyboard) back onto the canvas between uses of dialogues -- one has to click the title bar so selections are not lost and then carry on. So, it's click, select, click the dialogue, work, click title bar, continue, repeat. I could set focus to follow mouse, but that affects *all* other apps and it's not cool. Just wondering. /d -- If there is anyone in the audience who believes in telekinesis, please raise my hand! -- James Randi

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text on linked offset path
by Simon Morris 18 Nov '07

18 Nov '07

Hi, I'd like to create an ellipse, create a linked offset path around it, and put text on that linked offset. This works OK, except that the text goes the wrong way round the path. Reversing either the path made from the ellipse, or the linked offset path, doesn't work. A horizontal flip of the linked offset path works, except that if I then translate the ellipse path, the corresponding translation of the linked offset path is also horizontally flipped. Any suggestions? Thanks, Simon Morris

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Re: [Inkscape-user] How to align filled objects to even gridlines
by D. Jones 18 Nov '07

18 Nov '07

Maarten van der Velde (wrote) Hey, Think of it this way: In the same preferences dialog (document preferences), it has an option "major grid lines every [ ] lines." If you set this option to "2", you can easily see the difference between "even" and "odd" lines. This is just a complicated way saying "lines running over pixels and lines running between them". I myself prefer to work in a different way, though. Maybe it suits you as well. I use a 1px grid (with every 8th grid line a mayor one). I put the cursor steps to 0.25 or .5 (Inkscape preference dialogue) and I let objects I draw align to the grid. If a 1px line runs over a grid line (instead of between two), I simply use the arrow keys to nudge the object with half a picture. Maarten When you say you put the cursor steps to .25 or .5 are you refererring to in the inkscape preferences. Inscape preferences> Steps> Arrow keys move by> .25 or .5 ____________________________________________________________________________________ Be a better pen pal. Text or chat with friends inside Yahoo! Mail. See how. http://overview.mail.yahoo.com/

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Question on 0.45.1 Different Builds for OSX
by Xin Liu 18 Nov '07

18 Nov '07

Hi, I noticed that there are actually two universal builds of 0.45.1 for OSX: one named "Inkscape-0.45.1-1-TIGER.UNIVERSAL.dmg" is linked on the official download page ( http://www.inkscape.org/download/?lang=en ), the other named "Inkscape-0.45.1-2-UNIVERSAL.dmg" is on the sourceforge download area. I'm just wondering, is there any difference between these two? I can see that the second one was generated on Nov 11, 2007. Does it correct problems of the first build? Best Regards, Xin Liu

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How to align filled objects to even gridlines
by D. Jones 17 Nov '07

17 Nov '07

In the inkscape tips and tricks it mentions that: Suppose you want to create a 24x24 pixel icon. Create a 24x24 px canvas (use the Document Preferences) and set the grid to 0.5 px (48x48 gridlines). Now, if you align filled objects to even gridlines, and stroked objects to odd gridlines with the stroke width in px being an even number, and export it at the default 90dpi (so that 1 px becomes 1 bitmap pixel), you get a crisp bitmap image without unneeded antialiasing. I get the part about setting up the grid to .5, but I am drawing a blank when it says to align filled objects to an even number and strokes to an odd number. What exactly does this mean and is there an example of this somewhere? ____________________________________________________________________________________ Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your home page. http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs

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Re: [Inkscape-user] [Inkscape-devel] Improved performance of the object snapper
by Diederik van Lierop 16 Nov '07

16 Nov '07

Alexandre Prokoudine wrote: > I wonder if within current snapping framework the so called Smart > Guides are possible. That is -- snapping without touching. This is new to me, but it looks like it simply aligns vertically/horizontally to the boundingbox of objects at any distance, am I correct? Such a thing is not supported by the current snapping framework, but it shouldn't be too difficult to implement. If implemented, it will need a key binding though to easily turn this on/off because otherwise it will get annoying. Diederik

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Automatically set Z-order
by Rob Antonishen 13 Nov '07

13 Nov '07

Is there a way in Inkscape (extension/plugin) to automatically set the z-order of a number of objects? For example, I want to do what is shown by this image: http://www.maj.com/gallery/ffaat/Stuff/howto.png (The objects here are the same just for convenience. They are not necessarily the same, and are not necessarily in a grid). Ideally, I could provide a direction/line and have it change the z-order of all the selected objects in that orientation (though I would settle for top->down and left->right as I could just pre- and post- rotate) I have written script-fu extension for GIMP before, but think that Inkscape is much harder to add to that way... -Rob A>

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