On Thu, 16 Feb 2017, brynn wrote:
I think you had said that these circle objects are going to have text on them (or some of them)? And I guess different text for different circles? I'm just stretching now, but just to cover all the bases.
That was a simplified example I gave just to make sure it was clear I wasn't talking about a simple circle. My actual project is a little more complex, although not much.
I have 5 "circles" (which are circles within circles with cross-hairs and multiple colors all contained in a group), followed by an oval (again, multiple parts combined into a group). This pattern (5 circles, 1 oval) needs to be repeated over the length of the path such that it ends exactly on an oval.
Personally I'm still liking the Markers option.
The 3 problems I currently have with the Markers option are:
1) I would need to specify different markers for interior nodes. Given the pattern I mentioned above, I would need 5 nodes as the circle objects, then the 6th node as the oval object. Then repeat the pattern. I don't *THINK* there's a way to define a Marker on a per-node basis... only 1) beginning node, 2) interior nodes and 3) end node.
2) There's no way (I can see) to evenly redistribute the existing nodes along the length of the path. Align and Distribute only provides a way to distribute horizontally and/or vertically, but not along the length of the path.
3) I'm still using 0.91 and the "Custom Markers" doesn't seem to work very well with 0.91. I did try the test version of 0.92.1 for Mac OS X, but it didn't work at all.. didn't even start up. I'm assuming it's because my current platform is Snow Leopard (10.6.8) and the test build was for Lion.
Soooo, this is the approach I've eventually come up with. It's certainly not as efficient as I would like, but it's "workable".
To start with, I know the exact size of each of the objects in my pattern (circles and oval) and I know how much space I want between the objects on the path.
1) I create a path with the Pen tool and move it into the rough shape I want. At this point I know where the path needs to start and where it needs to end, I just don't know exactly how to "shape" the path in order to get the exact length I need.
2) Add a Ruler LPE with custom markers. The Major marker represents the position of the 6th object in my pattern (the oval).
3) Reposition the path until the end point matches exactly with a Major marker of the Ruler LPE. That way I know it's the exact length with the right number of objects in my pattern.
4) Remove the Ruler LPE. This is annoying, but apparently necessary since the LPE and Scatter Extension don't seem to play well together. I'm *guessing* the markers used for the Ruler LPE appear to be part of the path from Scatter's point of view?
5) Run Extensions->Generate from Path->Scatter and check to see if the objects which are now on the path are interfering with anything and/or routed the way I want. If not, I go back to step 2 and repeat.
That's basically it.... well, kind of. I don't really use Scatter because it doesn't work quite right, so I wrote my own version of Scatter. Ok, that's a lie, I just made a copy of Scatter and tweaked it a bit:
1) Use the size of the objects within the group to determine the spacing between objects on the path instead of the size of the group itself. Seems like this is the way it should work to me.
2) Allow placement of the final object on the path if there's space. The current Scatter seems to leave space at the end of the path even if the last object would fit. I *think* this might be because it assumes a closed path and all of my paths are open. I didn't look that closely to be sure, just tweaked the code to make it work.
OK. THAT's basically it.... workable, just not as efficient as I'd like.
With regards to the Ruler LPE... is there any way to temporarily disable the LPE without actually removing it? It seems like clicking the little eyeball should do that, but it doesn't change anything.
Or maybe get it to at least remember the last settings used so I don't have to re-enter all the settings each time I set it up?