To select objects which are underneath other objects (in z-order), you can do Alt + click. But the new Objects manager (in 0.92) might be superior, because you can see something about what's under there, without actually selecting it. Or I'm pretty sure if you select it in the manager dialog, it gets selected on the canvas.
I don't know for a fact, but most likely the Scatter extension uses the bounding box as a measure. So on a horizontal line, yes, the width is the main factor.
If you have a group, and all the objects in the groupe are centered to each other, the group will be the smallest it can possibly be. If the objects in the group are here and there, then it makes the group larger.
You're right, the group is sort of like a bucket. A group is another kind of object, just like a rectangle or path. At the moment, I can't think of any way that a group differs from any other object, except that it's made of individual objects.
If the circle objects are not in a group, then Scatter is going to use each object's bounding box for the measure. It might be that Scatter is using the center or rotation center for the spacing. But most often when spacing is an issue, I've noticed Inkscape uses the bounding box.
I've never used that option for individual objects in a group. But it sounds like you have it figured out in a reasonable way. I'm not sure what to guess about how Inkscape measures the objects in a group. Because they don't have bounding boxes. Well, it almost has to be either bb or center....or maybe width.
I've been thinking that you wanted all the circle objects centered to each other. But if they are going to be kind of spread around, and disconnected it will be harder to manage the whole thing.
Are you having the possibility of these individual circles aligned to nodes? I've been thinking in terms of a small group of circle objects aligned to a node.
Well, by now you might have seen my other message which I sent right be for this message came in. Just some more thoughts and ideas.
brynn
-----Original Message----- From: Hans Carlson Sent: Monday, February 13, 2017 4:35 PM To: Inkscape User Community Subject: Re: [Inkscape-user] Movable Chain
On Mon, 13 Feb 2017, Maren Hachmann wrote:
- You need to center them all, so they are right above one another,
using the align and distribute dialog (Object -> Align and distribute). The order is determined by the stacking order.
Ahhh... thank you, that does work better. Well mostly... there's still a gap problem (see below).
Also, it's kind of difficult to SEE the stacking order of objects especially when they're placed right on top of each other. Is there a way to see if there's anything below an object? ie, object A is a 10px circle and object B is a 20px circle right above it. How do you know object A is even there?
In other words: The point of each object that will be attached to the path is determined by the center of the group. If the center is outside of the object, then the object is put at a distance from the path.
So, if I understand you correctly, the center of the objects being placed is not based on the objects themselves, but rather the center of the group containing the objects?
That seems kind of odd. When Scatter is used the with "Pick Group Members" option, the GROUP is essentially just a way to hold the objects... it's just a container, a bucket. It seems to me when placing the actual objects on the path, the center point for each object should be used, not the center point of the container that it came from. And assuming that was the case, then I wouldn't think it would be necessary for all the objects to sit on top of each other, which would make things a little easier to deal with. The stacking order would still need to be correct, but the objects wouldn't need to be directly over top each other.
This leads into the "well mostly" comment above. I suspect the gap between the objects on the path is also determined by the width of the containing group?
So I updated my previous test to better match what I actually want to do. I added a 3rd object which is a 10px wide X 30px high oval:
- simple path (15 nodes that curves around a bit). - small 25px diameter solid blue circle with "1" in the middle - made that into a group of it's own. - second 25px circle with "2" in the middle, into a group. - 10px wide X 30px high solid green oval with #3, group. - set the stacking order: circle #1, circle #2, oval #3 - aligned objects over each other: circle #1, circle #2, oval #3 - grouped the 3 objects together. - opened Scatter with the 2 circle/1 oval group and the curved path. - used 5 for the "Space between copies" and then Preview.
Now I see the gap between the 2 circles is correct, about 5px. But the gap between the #2 circle and #3 oval is about 12px, then the gap between #3 oval and #1 circle is also about 12px. Math wise, that suggests Scatter uses the width of the container group (25px) regardless which object is being placed. Wouldn't it make more sense to use the width of the actual object being placed?
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