C.Feb 22

I'm an #engineer, not an #artist. But every so often, I need to use graphics-related tools for something I'm working on. Today's example was trying to lay out some control panel #graphics, and I was using #Inkscape on #Debian.

What I did: created a circular object

What I wanted to do: when I select that object and type values into the #coordinates boxes, the circular object moves so that its *center* is at the specified coordinates.

What Inkscape actually does: moves the object so the top-left corner of the object's bounding box is at those coordinates.

Really not helpful when you want to #align multiple objects to the same #center.

Do some searching, find #forum posts of others asking how to do this exact thing. Answers range from "select the object and open the #XML editor..." to "do this specific thing which doesn't appear to have existed in the UI for a decade", to people suggesting workarounds (you need a #workaround for what must be an *extremely* common workflow?).

One workaround: "just create a #guide, move (or maybe it was 'align') the object's something-or-other to the guide". The word "guide" does not occur in the UI, FAQ or in the basic documentation for Inkscape. Searching for it is troublesome because of all the web pages that have "guide" in their *title* rather than their content.

Lots of other discussions with links to pages on the Inkscape site which are now 404.

Where's that "FFFFUUUUUUUU..." meme when I need it?

Show threadIshaan AroraFeb 22
@cazabon https://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/Release_notes/1.2#Selector_Tool - these are called anchor points. In your case you would need to click the object twice to get the rotation handle (which is at the center by default), then click on that handle to get very thin axis lines, and now all measurements are relative to the new origin. The UX is not that discoverable, that is why https://gitlab.com/inkscape/ux/-/issues/259 exists.
Release notes/1.2 - Inkscape Wiki

Show threadC.Feb 23

@pulsar17

I tried about 73 things trying to make this work. And now you show me that all I have to do is click the rotation handle - just select it, do nothing else - and magically this fixes itself?

Damned if it doesn't appear to do just that. My question would then be, why isn't it already using that as the coordinate point if it's already there at the center of the object? Sheesh.

This does seem like it would be easier to activate accidentally when doing other things, than finding it by actually trying every button and menu in the program.

Thanks!

Show threadIshaan AroraFeb 23
@cazabon By default Inkscape has always used the top left corner as the origin to which to apply many transformations to. I'm assuming it's similar for other vector programs. I shouldn't have called it the rotation handle. The official name is "Center of transformation". No reason it can't use it as the default. I could see this being some sort of preference/button. I find myself activating it accidentally too, that's why I created the issue!
Show threadC.Feb 23

@pulsar17

"Center of transformation" is a good name for it, and yes, it seems that would be a natural fit for its local coordinate origin. But what do I know...

I made some progress, and had it somehow reset its idea of the origin to the top-left of the bounding box, all by itself. Why? Mystery of mysteries...

Inkscape authors, don't get me wrong - I'm a free software author too, I get the challenges and whatnot. I just gripe about sharp edges that must hit a lot of newcomers, while people who are seriously into the tool don't think about them at all because of getting used to the surprising behaviour.

Show threadC.

@pulsar17

And FWIW, all of my circles (which are parts of groups) seem to have self-reset this property so they're no longer reporting the center of the circle as their coordinates. That's twice. Argh.

Feb 23 at 2:32amWeb
Show threadIshaan AroraFeb 23
@cazabon if you're able to reliably reproduce it, we could use the report over at https://inkscape.org/report/
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