Node edit tool for multiple objects

Hello all,
I think that one of the very few things that Illustrator does better in comparison to Inkscape is that fact that its node edit tool allows editing the nodes of multiple objects at the same time. I think the procedure is: select multiple objects with object select tool, switch to node select tool, select nodes from separate objects, move.
I do realise that doing a "Combine" on the objects would allow me to edit their nodes in such a way, but this involves 2 extra steps (Combine/Break apart). If this functionality is added to the node edit tool, it may make sense to have a switch (checkbox) to determine whether to limit it to one object editing or multi-object editing.
Or a related theme, there is no way to scale/rotate a subset of the nodes of an object in Inkscape (rather than rotating/editing the whole object).
Does anyone else think that those things would be useful?
Stathis

On Fri, Jun 01, 2007 at 03:00:38PM +0100, Stathis Sideris wrote:
Or a related theme, there is no way to scale/rotate a subset of the nodes of an object in Inkscape (rather than rotating/editing the whole object).
Not from the toolbar, but the keyboard shortcuts for scale (, and .) and rotate ([ and ]) work on the selected nodes in node edit mode.
I often use scale to produce shapes such as trapezia. I draw a rectangle, convert it to a path, select the two adjacent points I want to be the narrow end, and hit "," to scale them down. That way I know the trapezium is symmetric and that the two parallel edges are parallel.

Daniel Hulme wrote:
I often use scale to produce shapes such as trapezia. I draw a rectangle, convert it to a path, select the two adjacent points I want to be the narrow end, and hit "," to scale them down. That way I know the trapezium is symmetric and that the two parallel edges are parallel.
Fantastic tip!
Aaron Spike

On Fri, 01 Jun 2007 10:23:04 -0500 Aaron Spike <aaron@...476...> wrote:
Daniel Hulme wrote:
I often use scale to produce shapes such as trapezia. I draw a rectangle, convert it to a path, select the two adjacent points I want to be the narrow end, and hit "," to scale them down. That way I know the trapezium is symmetric and that the two parallel edges are parallel.
Fantastic tip!
Aaron Spike
Hmmm, and "." expands it instead.
Now how do I manage to remember this?

On Fri, Jun 01, 2007 at 04:31:25PM +0100, Abrolag wrote:
On Fri, 01 Jun 2007 10:23:04 -0500 Aaron Spike <aaron@...476...> wrote:
Daniel Hulme wrote:
I often use scale to produce shapes such as trapezia. I draw a rectangle, convert it to a path, select the two adjacent points I want to be the narrow end, and hit "," to scale them down. That way I know the trapezium is symmetric and that the two parallel edges are parallel.
Fantastic tip!
Aaron Spike
Hmmm, and "." expands it instead.
Now how do I manage to remember this?
Well, if you think about the keys as < and > rather than , and . it might be easier to remember. But really the only way is to make it a habit: use those keys whenever you want to scale a whole object uniformly around the centre, rather than shift-dragging the corner handles.
Just in case anyone didn't know, you can also use ctrl or alt in combination with the scale and rotate keys to do so in bigger resp. smaller steps. Ctrl doesn't seem to work when you're scaling nodes, though. Perhaps one of the developers can explain why.

Em 2007/06/01, às 15:17, Daniel Hulme escreveu:
On Fri, Jun 01, 2007 at 03:00:38PM +0100, Stathis Sideris wrote:
Or a related theme, there is no way to scale/rotate a subset of the nodes of an object in Inkscape (rather than rotating/editing the whole object).
Not from the toolbar, but the keyboard shortcuts for scale (, and .) and rotate ([ and ]) work on the selected nodes in node edit mode.
Well, I am using Inkscape in a Mac, and the keyboard shortcuts for scaling are < and >, in my machine (it seems that . and , are also working here). And it works just fine.
But I am not able to rotate the nodes. Or, at least, that rotation is acting in a weird way. In my keyboard (Apple Powerbook with Portuguese layout), I type the [ and ] characters by pressing Alt/ Option 8 and Alt/Option 9. However, whenever I try to rotate the nodes with these two shortcuts, something unexpected happens (please see the image attached to this message). Alt 8 does nothing, and Alt 9 seems to be transforming all the object (is Alt 9 a shortcut for inset ou outset operations?). Alt 0 seems to have an inverse effect.
Maybe Inkscape is using a wrong keyboard layout...? In fact, although I have seen that there are portuguese localizations of Inkscape's interface (at least in other platforms), it still show every string in English. I don't know if those two problems are related... I have just tried to write some characters to test the keyboard layout in Inkscape and the accents and puntuation seem to apear just fine in its correct places. The problem is with the characters that need the Alt/Option key. They simply are not written. Does anyone know how to solve this problem?
Thanks in advance, Victor Domingos http://lojamac.com/blog


Looks kinda like your accessing the keys for an inset or outset operation.
On 6/2/07, Victor Domingos <editor.arcosonline@...155...> wrote:
Em 2007/06/01, às 15:17, Daniel Hulme escreveu:
On Fri, Jun 01, 2007 at 03:00:38PM +0100, Stathis Sideris wrote:
Or a related theme, there is no way to scale/rotate a subset of the
nodes of an object in Inkscape (rather than rotating/editing the whole
object).
Not from the toolbar, but the keyboard shortcuts for scale (, and .) and
rotate ([ and ]) work on the selected nodes in node edit mode.
Well, I am using Inkscape in a Mac, and the keyboard shortcuts for scaling are < and >, in my machine (it seems that . and , are also working here). And it works just fine.
But I am not able to rotate the nodes. Or, at least, that rotation is acting in a weird way. In my keyboard (Apple Powerbook with Portuguese layout), I type the [ and ] characters by pressing Alt/Option 8 and Alt/Option 9. However, whenever I try to rotate the nodes with these two shortcuts, something unexpected happens (please see the image attached to this message). Alt 8 does nothing, and Alt 9 seems to be transforming all the object (is Alt 9 a shortcut for inset ou outset operations?). Alt 0 seems to have an inverse effect.
Maybe Inkscape is using a wrong keyboard layout...? In fact, although I have seen that there are portuguese localizations of Inkscape's interface (at least in other platforms), it still show every string in English. I don't know if those two problems are related... I have just tried to write some characters to test the keyboard layout in Inkscape and the accents and puntuation seem to apear just fine in its correct places. The problem is with the characters that need the Alt/Option key. They simply are not written. Does anyone know how to solve this problem?
Thanks in advance, Victor Domingos http://lojamac.com/blog
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Am Freitag, den 01.06.2007, 15:17 +0100 schrieb Daniel Hulme:
On Fri, Jun 01, 2007 at 03:00:38PM +0100, Stathis Sideris wrote:
Or a related theme, there is no way to scale/rotate a subset of the nodes of an object in Inkscape (rather than rotating/editing the whole object).
Not from the toolbar, but the keyboard shortcuts for scale (, and .) and rotate ([ and ]) work on the selected nodes in node edit mode.
I often use scale to produce shapes such as trapezia. I draw a rectangle, convert it to a path, select the two adjacent points I want to be the narrow end, and hit "," to scale them down. That way I know the trapezium is symmetric and that the two parallel edges are parallel.
Nice tip! I was thinking the same some days ago... As I tried to learn some blender I (as used to) tried s/r after selecting some nodes - but of course it doesnt work. (btw, I like the way blender let you skale / rotate by moving the mouse but it seems not possible in inkscape?)
Would be cool to have an window you can display with a map of your keyboard and all shortcuts on it that you can access right now.
Florian
participants (7)
-
Aaron Elmquist
-
Aaron Spike
-
Abrolag
-
Daniel Hulme
-
Florian Ludwig
-
Stathis Sideris
-
Victor Domingos