Feature request: Restore Feet to list of units

[Bruce Westfall]

Inkscape 0.92.1
Linux Mint 18.1 Serena

I know most people don't, but I draw large things to scale and use feet all the time. Was shocked when it disappeared.

Most recent drawing I did was figure out material usage for a large enclosed trailer. Just frustrating to have to keep calculating sizes when it used to be automatic. I also draw and cut basketball floors to scale and been doing so for 10 years now, and not at all practical to draw at a different scale and change later.

I've see other posts where "feet" is not in the SVG standard, but isn't it true that Inkscape has alot of things that are not SVG standard?

If nothing else, direction on how to customize individually and restore that would be great.

[Patrick Storz (ede123)]

Hi Bruce,

I really want to say: "That's what you get for using the imperial unit system!" ;-)
(Who designed a system with more than one unit for lengths?!?)

Then however (seeing how you Anglo-Saxon countries are already burdened anyway :-P ) you can easily restore "feet" to the list of usable units by modifying the file "share/ui/units.xml"

Simply revert the following change in units.xml (which removed the foot)
https://gitlab.com/inkscape/inkscape/commit/4cce40a79ab973a3609cd5ee7666673bc2337fef

[Bruce Westfall (brucewestfall)]

found the file at /usr/share/inkscape/ui/units.xml

Worked perfectly!!

Will explore other similar files now that there is some success!

[Bruce Westfall (brucewestfall)]

AWESOME!

Thank you so much!!!

Will add note to bug report and close.

... not sure how to close it. Better leave it to a wise person.

On Tue, Aug 8, 2017 at 1:19 PM, Eduard Braun <email address hidden> wrote:

> Hi Bruce,
>
> I really want to say: "That's what you get for using the imperial unit
> system!" ;-)
> (Who designed a system with more than one unit for lengths?!?)
>
> Then however (seeing how you Anglo-Saxon countries are already burdened
> anyway :-P ) you can easily restore "feet" to the list of usable units
> by modifying the file "share/ui/units.xml"
>
> Simply revert the following change in units.xml (which removed the foot)
> https://gitlab.com/inkscape/inkscape/commit/4cce40a79ab973a3609cd5ee766667
> 3bc2337fef
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to the bug
> report.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1709342
>
> Title:
> Feature request: Restore Feet to list of units
>
> Status in Inkscape:
> New
>
> Bug description:
> Inkscape 0.92.1
> Linux Mint 18.1 Serena
>
> I know most people don't, but I draw large things to scale and use
> feet all the time. Was shocked when it disappeared.
>
> Most recent drawing I did was figure out material usage for a large
> enclosed trailer. Just frustrating to have to keep calculating sizes
> when it used to be automatic. I also draw and cut basketball floors
> to scale and been doing so for 10 years now, and not at all practical
> to draw at a different scale and change later.
>
> I've see other posts where "feet" is not in the SVG standard, but
> isn't it true that Inkscape has alot of things that are not SVG
> standard?
>
> If nothing else, direction on how to customize individually and
> restore that would be great.
>
> To manage notifications about this bug go to:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/1709342/+subscriptions
>

--
Bruce Westfall
740-249-9449

[Alvin Penner (apenner)]

the normal way is to choose the item called Invalid underneath the Status column

[Bruce Westfall (brucewestfall)]

thanks for the information. Another bug gone!

On Tue, Aug 8, 2017 at 2:16 PM, Alvin Penner <email address hidden> wrote:

> the normal way is to choose the item called Invalid underneath the
> Status column
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to the bug
> report.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1709342
>
> Title:
> Feature request: Restore Feet to list of units
>
> Status in Inkscape:
> New
>
> Bug description:
> Inkscape 0.92.1
> Linux Mint 18.1 Serena
>
> I know most people don't, but I draw large things to scale and use
> feet all the time. Was shocked when it disappeared.
>
> Most recent drawing I did was figure out material usage for a large
> enclosed trailer. Just frustrating to have to keep calculating sizes
> when it used to be automatic. I also draw and cut basketball floors
> to scale and been doing so for 10 years now, and not at all practical
> to draw at a different scale and change later.
>
> I've see other posts where "feet" is not in the SVG standard, but
> isn't it true that Inkscape has alot of things that are not SVG
> standard?
>
> If nothing else, direction on how to customize individually and
> restore that would be great.
>
> To manage notifications about this bug go to:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/1709342/+subscriptions
>

--
Bruce Westfall
740-249-9449

[TylerDurden (8thrule)]

Despite this being marked invalid, I see merit in restoring m and ft to the GUI in release versions. Inkscape is being widely used beyond the scope of SVG as a web format, as the OP demonstrates.

At my local makerspace, Inkscape is used across disciplines (cnc/large-format print/architectural/scientific/etc.)

If the GUI can be reverted as Tav B. notes in #1268355 (without impact to meeting svg spec), I would welcome that change.

[Mc (mc...)]

What may be done is better document the process of how to add/modify units, but I don't think it would be good to restore non-svg units to a release version

[Patrick Storz (ede123)]

I agree with Mc.

If we now add feet and meters it's only a matter of time until somebody wants to use miles or lightyears.

Unfortunately it seems we do not have any documentation on this (the closest is probably [1] which does not discuss units.xml, though).

[1] http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/Units_In_Inkscape

[phiscribe (dcbevins)]

I can live with inches. It's easy to do 12xnumberxin. I just am a hard core keep metric out of my head USA type. Put ft back in. I can not be reasoned with.

[Hachmann (marenhachmann)]

@phiscribe You can put it in yourself :)

You only need to edit the units file, which is either

/usr/share/inkscape/ui/units.xml (Linux)
or
/Programs/Inkscape/share/ui/units.xml (Windows)

[Hachmann (marenhachmann)]

(capitalization may be different)

[phiscribe (dcbevins)]

Hachmann, I missed this till just today. I will do that.

[Hachmann (marenhachmann)]

Happy feet, then :) (but we really need to document this, Eduard is right)

[Hachmann (marenhachmann)]

phiscribe, where would you have looked to find this info about the units.xml file?

[grey tomorrow (gtomorrow)]

Hi - thanks for reporting this bug, I've manually migrated it to Inkscape's new bug tracker on GitLab, and closed it here.

Please feel free to file new bugs about the issues you're seeing at
https://inkscape.org/report .

Moved to: https://gitlab.com/inkscape/inbox/issues/3666
Closed by: https://gitlab.com/greytomorrow