resize / rotate / shear / ... nodes using mouse

[jahvascriptmaniac]

Hi !
I've seen many bug reports asking the ability to transform a group of nodes.
This can be done with :
 - [ and ] to rotate
 - ( and ) to resize
 - left & right arrows to move
 - (I don't know how to shear)

However, giving a look at how many times this feature was requested, I think the interface lacks some easy way to do that - and using the mouse instead of typing ) twenty times to increase the size.

To get an idea, see blender's keys :
 g enters grab mode, you just move your mouse and the nodes follow, use ctrl / shift keys to get precision / steps.
 s enters scale mode
 r enters rotate mode
 ...

The best would be to have an extra button in the node editing toolbar, "enter transform mode".
Then selected nodes would be surrounded by the bounding box you have for objects, with resize / shear / rotate on the edges / corners and you could move the nodes by dragging them (just like you can do already)

[jahvascriptmaniac (jahvascriptmaniac)]

Sorry can't find how to change this bug's importance to wishlist :-(

[Krzysztof Kosinski (tweenk)]

Instead of Blender-like keys, it would be better to have a single easy key, i.e. Enter or Space, also available through the context menu (Transform Selected Nodes) that would draw the familiar selection box around the nodes and present the handles to the user. This would also allow to rotate the nodes around something other than the selection center. Pressing the key again would unlock the selection.

[joelholdsworth (joel-airwebreathe)]

Corel Draw had a feature like this - with the handles. Quite useful! There was a special button for it on the toolbar.

[afonit (afonit-gmail)]

As I have come to use Inkscape more seriously than in the past, this feature is now growing in importance - would be usefulness. The use case I am running into is attached.

[Krzysztof Kosinski (tweenk)]

This feature will be in 0.48, along with the new node tool. It should hit SVN shortly after 0.47, so stay tuned.