CALLIGRAPHY TOOL: Etching interface bounding circle is smaller with distance from source stroke

[Troy James Sobotka]

Summary: Interface to keep etching tool (via CTRL button when using the "Calligraphy Tool") is nigh on impossible to keep within the 'snap' circle for strokes that are intended to be close to each other. The snap circle becomes far too small to within.

Frequency: Always (5/5 trials for manifestations)

Platform: Linux amd64 (Ubuntu 8.04)

Version: Inkscape 0.46+devel, built May 14 2008

Suggestive Fix: Once a distance has been selected, the 'snap' circle should be a constant user defined OR make it such that the tool will contour UNTIL the point that the user releases the CTRL key. I cannot think of an instance where the user would keep the CTRL key pressed an _not_ wish to remain in contour etching mode.

[bbyak (buliabyak)]

please try a devel version, it has several fixes in this area

[su_v (suv-lp)]

Troy - any feedback if this feature has been improved for you in Inkscape 0.47 r22583, as mentioned by bbyak?

[Troy James Sobotka (troy-sobotka)]

@~suv:

Plus one on making it useful. It's a vast improvement over the other interface.

There is still one glaring issue - the tension on the snap isn't clearly controllable. Is this subject to the standard snap rules? Should it be (my guess is not)?

I say this because most of the 'arts and crafts' era styled etchwork is _densely_ complex, involving thousands of strokes. This would mean a workflow where you can craft many strokes with fluidity. As it currently stands, smaller etch lines will snap off and create a blemish on your work.

Improving snapping or providing the ability to 'lock' to the etch object (preventing snapping off, undo, redo repetition) might greatly help in this regard. The ability to remain 'locked' to an object by holding that control key down is a bit of a requirement. An easy way to demonstrate this is by doing smaller closely constrained strokes at a great speed.

There are also a few crash bugs that, given time, I'll try to backtrace for the Inkscape team.

[Troy James Sobotka (troy-sobotka)]

I would also add that there is some strange logic at play for the 'grab' (again remedied by a 'lock' toggle) as you can only grab onto the object 60% of the time.

I guess at the core is "Is there an edge case where you would NOT want to remain locked on a stroke if you are using the contour / etching feature via control?

At the point when you wish to NOT be locked to an object, wouldn't you toggle the feature off by using the control key? Is this a reasonable question?

[su_v (suv-lp)]

Troy James Sobotka wrote:
> The snap circle becomes far too small to within.
(…)
> Suggestive Fix: (…) OR make it such that the tool will contour
> UNTIL the point that the user releases the CTRL key.

Since this has been implemented I would recommend to close this report and move the discussion about adding new controls (tension) or toggles (lock) to a new feature request.

> There are also a few crash bugs that, given time, I'll try
> to backtrace for the Inkscape team.

As mentioned in bug #232085 this is possibly bug #284546, reproduced and confirmed by several tablet users (including duplicates).