Comment 9 for bug 668341

>~suv wrote on 2010-11-01:
>Not a bug IMHO but a feature request: you are asking for a new implementation of the Simplify command that would
> be seful for technical drawing.
No, forget technical drawing: you don't approximate a shape in technical drawing, you simply draw as it has to be. :)
I'm not asking for a new feature but for the feature you described to be implemented as it should.

>Quoting 'The Book of Inkscape' [1]:
>«12.3 Simplifying
>A very important operation on paths is simplifying. When you simplify a path (Path > Simplify or Ctrl-L), Inkscape attempts
>to redraw that path using fewer nodes, ironing out smaller details but preserving the large-scale features and the overall
>shape.
That's what I said: "preserving large-scale features and the overall shape". What is the overall shape of a circle? Is the fact that a circle is a smooth curve a "large-scale feature" or not? So, why converting smooth points to cusps?

> In technical drawing, on the other hand, it is rarely useful, if only because it considers any sharp corners in a path
> to "defects" that should be smoothed out.
Well, now the opposite is happening...

> One effect that you can always count on is that if your path has nodes that can be deleted without any change in the
> shape of the path, they will get deleted by simplifying.
And what about the four-nodes circle becoming a five-nodes apple?

> «The amount of simplification (called the threshold) depends on the size of the selection. Therefore, if you select a path
> along with some larger object, it will be simplified more aggressively than if you select that path alone.»
Ok, if this is how it was intented that's fine for me too. Just finding it's not obvious for who doesn't read the "doc/advanced/tutorial-advanced.html" guide to look for the "simplification" tool... ;)