dimensions of cloned objects seem wrong

[Ulrich-windl]

I created a test document, cloning four objects at once, then I moved the cloned objects together.
Ispecting the result, I feel the dimentsions in the cloned <use> objects are wrong: I expected the dimensions to be unchanged (on translate), but each object seems to have the dimension of the whole drawing:
top-svg: width="1052.3622" height="744.09448"
original-rect: id="rect4642" width="402.85715" height="515.71429"
cloned-rect: <use xlink:href="#rect4642" transform="translate(555.5839,0)" x="0" y="0" width="1052.3622" height="744.09448" />
Shouldn't the dimensions be preserved on this type of transform?

Inkscape 0.48.5 r10040 (on x86_64 openSUSE 13.2)

[su_v (suv-lp)]

Please always include information about OS/platform and Inkscape version (see Inkscape menu 'Help > About') to a bug report, thx.

[su_v (suv-lp)]

On 2015-01-23 15:08 (+0100), Ulrich-windl wrote:
> I feel the dimentsions in the cloned <use> objects are wrong

Please reread the SVG 1.1 spec about the meaning of x, y, width and height of a <use> element [1]: those refer to position and size of "the rectangular region into which the referenced element is placed.", not the position and size of the <use> element itself.

«The ‘use’ element has optional attributes ‘x’, ‘y’, ‘width’ and ‘height’ which are used to map the graphical contents of the referenced element onto a rectangular region within the current coordinate system.»
<http://www.w3.org/TR/SVG11/struct.html#UseElement>

Note that the spec differs between <use> elements referencing a <symbol>, an <svg> element or otherwise.

AFAIU current stable Inkscape 0.48.x adds the width and height attributes as soon as the clone is transformed (e.g. translated), referencing the dimensions of the <svg> viewport the referenced object is in (i.e. the page size as set in the document properties, aka the width and height of the top-level <svg> element).
Upcoming 0.91 will use '100%' for the added width and height attributes of the <use> element if transformed (i.e. referencing the full width/height of the viewport of the referenced element).

[1] http://www.w3.org/TR/SVG11/struct.html#UseElementXAttribute

[Ulrich-windl (ulrich-windl)]

I guess you know that Inkscape's version is in the file: 0.48.5 r10040 (on x86_64 openSUSE 13.2)

[su_v (suv-lp)]

Somewhat related earlier reports:
* <use> referencing a <symbol> element:
  Bug #1107924 “Used symbols won't show in webbrowser due missing attribute.”
  http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.graphics.inkscape.devel/40338/focus=40339
* <use> referencing a <svg> element:
  Bug #568833 “<use> with referenced <svg> must set width/height properties”

Based on tests with archived builds (rev <= 12285 uses page size (in user units), rev >= 12292 uses percentages), the fix for bug #1107924 is what changed the width/height attributes to use "100%" instead of the computed page width/height (for upcoming 0.91). The wording in the SVG 1.1 spec is still confusing to me though, and I'm not sure whether setting width/height to '100%' on "regular" clones is more correct than what earlier versions did (or whether the two attributes should be omitted completely in this use case).

[Ulrich-windl (ulrich-windl)]

Please accept my apologies for not understanding the SVG specs: I wondered what the use of wight and height attributes are if (what they seems to be) they are no actual hints for the bounding box of the insered element.