Enhancement to the Scatter Extension

[Rob Antonishen]

I have made a small enhancement to the Scatter extension.

I have added an option to randomly pick the members of the pattern group (if the pattern is a group) when creating the scatter.

Attached is a zip of the modified py and inx files

Here is a sample image showing the result where the pattern was a group of 3 different shapes in four different colours (12 objects in the group).

http://www.majhost.com/gallery/ffaat/inkscape/scatter.png

-Rob A>

[su_v (suv-lp)]

Nice! :) (tested with Inkscape 0.48+devel r9709 on OS X 10.5.8, Python 2.6.2)

Would it be difficult to add an option to keep the sort order (-> z-order) of the objects inside the group instead of randomize it? This would allow to use 'Scatter' similar to the extension 'Place Objects on Path' [1].

[1] http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/Extension_repository#Place_Objects_on_Path

[Rob Antonishen (rob-antonishen)]

Attached is a version that can optimally place the group items using sequential z-order.

From the Place Objects on Path description:
"Places objects on a curve. The curve is the object that has the lowest z-order (and which must be a path). Distances between objects remain the same as they were before placing. If objects can't be placed on the curve because of their distances they are left in place. Objects will not be modified; clones are allowed. Arrange distances between your objects manually first as curve position and direction."

The big difference here is that the modified extension does NOT consider the width (bounding box) of the individual objects. They are spaced equally based on the size of the group. This was because it was non-trivial to split the target paths non-uniformly.

The big advantage of the place objects on path extension is it looks like it respects the object spacing when placing them on a path, so it can be irregular.

[Alvin Penner (apenner)]

thanks, Rob!
tested and committed to bzr 9729