Implement a 'Paint inside' mode for drawing tools

[nicolas]

It could be great to implement a 'Paint inside' mode, that can be enabled with all drawing tools, when a object is selected. See the “Drawing enhancements” video at http://www.adobe.com/products/illustrator/whatsnew/

Basically, it's just presetting a clip with the shape of the selected object and apply this clip on the drawn thing (shape, lines, all type of drawable things).

[su_v (suv-lp)]

You can already do this with Inkscape:

1) copy object to clipboard
2) group the object (Ctrl+G)
3) paste in place (Crtl+Alt+V)
4) select pasted copy and group > set clip
5) double-click clipped group to enter and draw within the clipped group

Inkscape 0.48 makes this easier by optionally putting a selection that is getting clipped into a new group.

See also:
Bug #394475 “Feature request: clipping mask / paste inside”:
<https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/394475>

«Preferences have been added to allow automatic grouping when setting a Clippath or Mask»
<http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/Release_notes/0.48#Other_features>

[nicolas (nclmar)]

Thanks for the tip, I known the clip function but I never though of using it in that order. And indeed, this is simpler with 0.48 with the option activated. But this could be simplified by this button activating an inner drawing mode when tracing. In back-end, it would a clip function, but for the user, it would just be 'drawing inside'.

And thanks for pointing out bug #394475, also a potential handy improvement for the clip feature.