"Geometric bounding box" setting does not affect XYWH edit fields on the Tool Controls bar

[Matthias_H]

I use Inkscape mainly to do technical drawings and program CNC machinery. Therefore, I am sometimes interested in precise node coordinates, as opposed to "fill", which in most cases doesn't exist, and "stroke width", which will be determined by the machining tool anyway.

Besides snapping nodes to the grid and guides (which works fine), I sometimes need to position my objects using the edit fields on the Tool Controls bar (F1, then click an object). However, these fields will display (and affect) the "visual bounding box", even when I choose otherwise in the global settings. So, say I have a bunch of objects and want to position the corner coordinates of their geometric bounding box exactly, I have to go through this tedious procedure:
- disable strokes
- choose any fill color (so I can still click on objects to select them)
- enter the new coordinates
- delete the fill color
- enable strokes again to render them visible

In expectation of a solution to this problem (if not already happened; the last release build is over a year old)
Matthias

[Matthias_H (mhullin)]

Update:

I just went through the 0.47 release notes in the hope that the bounding box handling should have gotten rid of its inconsistencies. Instead, I stumbled upon the following:

> Only visual bounding box is affected; if you use geometric bounding box, you will notice no change in most cases. However, the Export bitmap dialog always uses the visual bounding box for selection of the export area; this means that you can now export a blurred object to bitmap without any clipping of the blur.

So I am getting visual bounding boxes for export, even when I explicitly choose geometric BB? Why can't this setting be handled in such a way that it affects ALL functions alike (unless there is an option to choose otherwise within the function dialog itself)? Most people who use Inkscape for technical drawings and CNC programming have to rely on precise coordinates for object manipulation as well as print and export.

I would appreciate if the BB behavior could be unified in the not-so-distant future.
Thanks,
Matthias

[su_v (suv-lp)]

duplicate of bug #212768 "Geometric and Visual bounding box and object dimensions"?

Could you test with a prerelease build from <http://sourceforge.net/projects/inkscape/files/> if your issue is solved?

[su_v (suv-lp)]

Regarding the 'visual bounding boxes for bitmap export' issue: this fix is explained in bug reports about cut-off shadows (blur filter) and clipping masks like:
Bug #204820 in Inkscape: “clipping when exporting bitmap”
Bug #209832 in Inkscape: “exporting objects with blur makes them cut”
Bug #317846 in Inkscape: “Export selection or drawing to bitmap, cuts of any blurred/feathered objects.”

If you really need bitmap export with geometric bounding box selection for your technical drawings, you might consider to add a comment to the 'Blueprint: “Geometric & Tech Drawing”': <https://blueprints.launchpad.net/inkscape/+spec/tech-drawing> or to file a separate (wishlist) bug report with a mockup for an enhanced 'Export Bitmap…' dialog.

hth, ~suv

[Matthias_H (mhullin)]

Hi,

I just tested v0.47RC1-1, and it's behaving weirder than ever.

For example, try the following:

(0) Set geometric bounding box.
(1) Draw a rectangle.
(2) Select the rectangle.
(3) Enter coordinates/measures manually, in mm: X = 10, Y = 10, W = 10, H = 10.

Every new number you enter will affect the other ones. For visual bounding box, everything seems to be fine, but then again, who wants to use that anyway.

[su_v (suv-lp)]

This is also described in bug #190557 “resize of group by entering a numeric size results in a different size.”: after entering the new number three times, it sticks (confirmed with Inkscape r22062 on OS X 10.5.8, scale stroke width is deselected, using geometric bounding boxes).

> but then again, who wants to use that anyway
not true ;-)

[su_v (suv-lp)]

Proposing to close this bug as fixed - as per description '"Geometric bounding box" setting does not affect XYWH edit fields on the Tool Controls bar'.

Wrong re-calculation of numerically entered position/size values is a separate issue and already filed in bug #190557.

[su_v (suv-lp)]

Closing as 'Fix Released': the issue as originally reported (for Inkscape 0.46) was addressed in Inkscape 0.47 (select tool controls bar uses the user-specified bounding box type).

<http://inkscape.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/inkscape?revision=18352&view=revision>

For the other issues related to the visual/geometric bbox setting added in later comments, please subscribe to the bug reports mentioned earlier, or file a new report against the latest stable release.