Feature Request: Allow flip image and rotate view for easy editing

[Dodgy]

Feature request

When drawing freehand, it's usually useful in other packages to be able to flip the image temporarily or rotate the view so the arm's natural movement can be used to draw a line.

Also, image flipping is a common way to check the balance of a drawing, ie what looks good left to right might not look good right to left. At the moment, to flip you have to select all nodes etc and do a flip on them, when all that should be needed are photoshop style flip image x, flip image y commands.

[ScislaC (scislac)]

What about, Selector Tool, click on what you want flipped and hit H or V depending on if you want it flipped horizontally or vertically?

[Dodgy (mike-mikegreen)]

It's too faffy if you want to just get a good idea of how it looks. It
should be <ctrl+H> flip horizontal, look, <ctrl+H> back to normal. It's
in just about every other package, so I was quite surprised to see no
equivalent. Plus, it means faffing about with multiple layers if lines
overlap, fills are on different layers etc. Just becomes a big chore for
something which should be instant.

Regards,
Mike

ScislaC wrote:
> What about, Selector Tool, click on what you want flipped and hit H or V
> depending on if you want it flipped horizontally or vertically?
>
>

[Pablo Trabajos (pajarico)]

Dodgy: I'm guessing you mean a temporary flip and rotate tool that doesn't transform objects, rather it moves the canvas (like you were rotating/flipping a real piece of paper), right? In that direction, there is already bug #170498.

> It's in just about every other package
Which ones?

[Dodgy (mike-mikegreen)]

Yeah, I mean one which flips the entire canvas. This has existed in
Photoshop Paint shop pro, Serif Photo plus, the GIMP and so on for as
long as I can remember, which also have Rotate canvas 90/180/-90
degrees. The flip tool doesn't necessarily have to be just temporarily
as it is useful in its own right, but obviously a Rotate view is more
just for drawing. It's not as common, but when I've used it in other
packages like Anime Studio, I've found it to be really useful for more
natural arm movements.

I did do a search before posting this, but didn't turn up that post,
which seems fairly equivalent. Maybe someone knowledgeable could
amalgamate the two threads?

Pablo Trabajos wrote:
> Dodgy: I'm guessing you mean a temporary flip and rotate tool that
> doesn't transform objects, rather it moves the canvas (like you were
> rotating/flipping a real piece of paper), right? In that direction,
> there is already bug #170498.
>
>
>> It's in just about every other package
>>
> Which ones?
>

[Pablo Trabajos (pajarico)]

> The flip tool doesn't necessarily have to be just temporarily as it is useful in its own right
But doesn't flip horizontal and vertical from the Object menu (keys H and V) do basically that? If you could elaborate a bit more on this...

> Maybe someone knowledgeable could amalgamate the two threads?
The only solution is to set this as a duplicate of the other. But I want to first hear your opinion about the flipping thing.

Regards.

[Dodgy (mike-mikegreen)]

    But doesn't flip horizontal and vertical from the Object menu (keys H and V) do basically that? If you could elaborate a bit more on this...

It only flips around the selection centre for a start, not the whole
page, and it means having to select all objects to flip them, and so
doesn't work when one or more layers is locked and you try to select them.

[Dodgy (mike-mikegreen)]

Yes, that's what I'm saying, you can't flip the entire page reliably
with Object flip. Create something on one side of the page and press
'H'. It'll stay on that side of the page. It's basically completely
useless for flipping a page.

Dodgy wrote:
> But doesn't flip horizontal and vertical from the Object menu (keys H and V) do basically that? If you could elaborate a bit more on this...
>
>
> It only flips around the selection centre for a start, not the whole
> page, and it means having to select all objects to flip them, and so
> doesn't work when one or more layers is locked and you try to select them.
>
>
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--
=====================================
3d Artist/Animator

www.mikegreen.name

[Pablo Trabajos (pajarico)]

> It only flips around the selection centre for a start, not the whole page
A workaround is to place the center of the object or selection at the center of the page. That way you get a flip relative to the page.

> and it means having to select all objects to flip them, and so doesn't work when one or more layers is locked and you try to select them.
This adds the problem that such a tool would be selecting and manipulating objects that are in locked layers, and flipping them based on the page's center instead of object's center. I'm not saying it's impossible to implement but it seems a bit risky to have such an option (especially the locked layers thing). Also, I fail to see why this approach is so important. I can understand why is important to flip the canvas but not why it's important to do this permanently. What's your use case? wouldn't a visual flip (not a real transformation) would suffice for drawing?

Regards.

[Dodgy (mike-mikegreen)]

The whole point is to flip the entire page, not just unlocked layers or
selected objects. All the things you're suggesting require too much
faffing when other packages do it as standard, usually with hotkeys to
make it even quicker. I use it all the time for reversing images or
designs, or for just seeing how the page works in reverse.
Imagine you want to do this currently, with a complex layout.
First you have to unlock all layers.
Select all the objects
Then set the object centre to the page centre.
Then do the object flip
Look at objects.
Undo undo undo
I fail to see why this operation if implemented would be so dangerous.
Surely it would be less dangerous than having to carry out such a series
of events every time you want to do this operation, when you might miss
one object/layer , and thus screw up your design.

Pablo Trabajos wrote:
>> It only flips around the selection centre for a start, not the whole page
>>
> A workaround is to place the center of the object or selection at the center of the page. That way you get a flip relative to the page.
>
>
>> and it means having to select all objects to flip them, and so doesn't work when one or more layers is locked and you try to select them.
>>
> This adds the problem that such a tool would be selecting and manipulating objects that are in locked layers, and flipping them based on the page's center instead of object's center. I'm not saying it's impossible to implement but it seems a bit risky to have such an option (especially the locked layers thing). Also, I fail to see why this approach is so important. I can understand why is important to flip the canvas but not why it's important to do this permanently. What's your use case? wouldn't a visual flip (not a real transformation) would suffice for drawing?
>
> Regards.
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> No virus found in this incoming message.
> Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
> Version: 8.5.421 / Virus Database: 270.14.9/2426 - Release Date: 10/09/09 18:43:00
>
>

--
=====================================
3d Artist/Animator

www.mikegreen.name

[xroox (drewsecret)]

It has been more than a year. Is there yet a way to rotate the canvas?