Fine tune Pen as a measure tool with Edit Paths tool

[Wojciech Ryrych]

I get the idea of using Pen as a measure tool but it should be fine tuned. Suppose we are happy with overall angle and distance but want to enhance it. We double click or hit enter to produce a segment.
It would be fine if we could then grab the Edit nodes tool, grab one node and watch 'distance' and 'angle' output in the status bar - just like it is present in Pen as a measure tool.

[su_v (suv-lp)]

Would you propose to display distance and angle relative to previous node (in path direction) or relative to original position of the selected node?

[su_v (suv-lp)]

(Partially) related feature requests:
Bug #171128 “CAD-Functions”
Bug #171494 “Measurement tools”
Bug #314473 “Delete all guides + guide units in % + measure tool ”
Bug #656337 “Display height/width of selected nodes in toolbar”

Related blueprints:
Geometric & Tech Drawing
<https://blueprints.edge.launchpad.net/inkscape/+spec/tech-drawing>
Metrics tool
<https://blueprints.launchpad.net/inkscape/+spec/metric>

Complementary feature request (input relative distance and angle):
Bug #264174 “Console to input commands and node coordinates”
Allow Inkscape to draw using a string as input
<https://blueprints.edge.launchpad.net/inkscape/+spec/command-line-drawing>

[Wojciech Ryrych (ryrych)]

> to display distance and angle relative to previous node (in path direction)

I think when we have one line (2 nodes), grabbing one of them, information should be displayed relative to the other. It is what you meant?

[su_v (suv-lp)]

What comes to mind:
- What happens if you edit a path with multiple segments with the node tool?
- What if you don't know the path direction (if there are more than 2 nodes) - how would you relate the information then?
- Users might expect the information to reflect the current transform of the selected node?

[Wojciech Ryrych (ryrych)]

~suv: can you tell me what's the state of the measurement tool? I don't have the access to the page (blueprint).
What about tech drawing? Were they implemented?

[su_v (suv-lp)]

Just a quick answer (I'll search for more details later):

Seems that there hasn't been a spec written yet for the measurement tool (beyond what is on the blueprint page and the linked reports). Work to be done? ;) Maybe a search in Inkscape's Wiki reveals some orphaned pages… <http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/Inkscape>.

About the tech drawing: the tool has been committed into Inkscape's sources, but it is disabled (as requested by its author, due to the unfinished state of its UI). See <http://www.libregraphicsworld.org/forum/viewthread.php?thread_id=64&pid=170#post_170> for a recent discussion, including a teasing screencast provided by Alexandre Prokoudine and information on how to enable it (needs some edits in the source files, and recompiling).

[su_v (suv-lp)]

s/teasing/teaser/

[su_v (suv-lp)]

@Juca - subscribing you to this feature request (with regard to your work on the new measure tool). While the requested feature here is intended to be part of the node tool context, maybe you could reply to the question asked in comment #5:
«can you tell me what's the state of the measurement tool?»

[Wojciech Ryrych (ryrych)]

Wow! New tool is going to be pretty awesome. :)
It would be great to be able to drag it on the canvas as many times as you want to – IMHO, it should be not a click-drag-release-disappear tool but we should be able to drag its/theirs ends to fine tune it.

Yes, I know that it is still incomplete tool and probably it is going to be merged into 0.49 branch – can you tell me when it is going to happen (0.49)?

Really good work!

[su_v (suv-lp)]

The progress of the measure tool can be tested with builds from the current development branch (lp:inkscape).

See also the newly provided packages of Inkscape trunk, as mentioned in the news from June 14, 2011:
<http://inkscape.org/archive.php?lang=en&year=2011&month=06>