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Help Using Inkscape => Inkscape Beginners' Questions => Topic started by: jeffkiwi on March 24, 2017, 11:41:55 PM

Title: Ellipse tool makes triangles not circles
Post by: jeffkiwi on March 24, 2017, 11:41:55 PM

What have I done wrong?

Title: Re: Ellipse tool makes triangles not circles
Post by: Moini on March 25, 2017, 04:28:46 AM

You're probably creating circle sections. To fix, set the circle tool to create full circles. See screenshot:

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Title: Re: Ellipse tool makes triangles not circles
Post by: jeffkiwi on March 25, 2017, 08:32:02 PM

Thanks, I don't understand the contexts yet. There's usually panels on the right but also panels on top. Which buttons/menus belong on the right and which buttons belong on the top? Are the buttons on the top related to whatever tool you have selected?

Also what do folks call these different elements within the Ink Scape window? (things are docked on the right or top, with normal drawing tools on the left)

Title: Re: Ellipse tool makes triangles not circles
Post by: brynn on March 25, 2017, 10:44:34 PM

Welcome to the forum!

Maybe this will be helpful?  http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/MANUAL/html/Anatomy.html

Moini is referring to the last button on the right, on the Ellipse tool control bar.  The control bar is just above the horizontal ruler, and it changes for each different tool.  It provides various different options for all the tools, whatever that tool needs to work properly.

Also, here's a tutorial you might find helpful.  Because Inkscape has this insane default behavior, that whatever way you edited the last object you draw with a tool, the next time you use that tool, it will draw it the exact same way as the last time.  So obviously, at some point you were playing with the Ellipse tool, and you got it switched to drawing arc or wedges, instead of whole ellipses (or circles, if you hold the Ctrl key).  Once you switch it back to the full ellipse, it will keep drawing them whole, until you change it again.

This tutorial tells you how to make your tools draw whatever you want, every single time, no matter how much you might edit the objects later.  https://forum.inkscapecommunity.com/index.php?action=articles;sa=view;article=15

Title: Re: Ellipse tool makes triangles not circles
Post by: jeffkiwi on March 26, 2017, 04:05:32 PM

Is there a way to resize/scale every layer? I plan to make graphics for a game and things need to be scaled so that they're under 100px by 100px.

Title: Re: Ellipse tool makes triangles not circles
Post by: brynn on March 27, 2017, 09:56:57 AM

In Inkscape, layers are different from other graphics programs.  That's because Inkscape strives to adhere to the SVG standards.  And the SVG standards haven't created any official definition for layers yet.

So Inkscape creates layers by using special groups.  Most of the time, this doesn't affect the user, and most of the time is an interesting anecdote.  But I mention it, mostly just to be thorough.

Layers extend throughout the whole canvas (which is more or less infinite size, although at some point, Inkscape will crash if you make an object too large) (would be something over 40 or 50 feet, in what little experience I have with page size or object limits), so that layers can't have any particular size.  In Inkscape, it's the page size that matters.  If you go to Document Properties > Page tab, you can set the page size.  There are many "preset" page sizes, and there are also many preset templates, which can have certain page sizes, as well.

It sounds like you probably don't need a template, although I don't really know much about your project.  But you're probably looking to set a custom size.

Although if you plan to do a lot of the same kind of project, you might want to consider making yourself a custom template.  So for example, you can set it so it opens at 100% zoom, with or without page border, maybe you might like a grid, already set for your custom page size, etc., etc.  Pretty much anything you can do with Inkscape, can be enabled in a custom template -- just whatever you need.

Before you start, make sure you're using the current stable version of Inkscape 0.92.1, or at least no older than 0.92.  That's because with 0.92, Inkscape's native DPI was changed, so that if you started drawing an image with an older version, and you wanted to work on it some more with the new version, you would have to deal with changes in the size of your drawing.  But as long as you start with 0.92, you'll have no worries.  (Inkscape seems to be undergoing some intense development, over this last year or so.  So big changes can happen fast, sometimes.)

Also, I want to mention the page border.  You probably saw it the first time you opened Inkscape, and it's probably still there, unless you disabled it.  At the bottom of that same Page tab, you can enable/disable it, if you like.  If you have it enabled, you might notice it change, when you change the page size.

In case you haven't realized it yet, Inkscape opens (the first time) with a zoom level of 35% (if I recall correctly).  So the first page border you saw was the traditional A4 page size, except the canvas was zoomed out.  You can change the zoom level to anything you want.  But 100% is the level which shows the real size of your drawing.

Oh!  Also note that changing the page size does not affect your drawing.  If you want your drawing or individual objects to be a certain size, you need to scale them directly (Selection tool, and/or Object menu > Transform).

Almost everything I've explained here is a consequence of vector graphics.  It sounds like you're probably used to using a raster graphics program.  But vector graphics is a whole different paradigm, and you'll learn more and more about it, as you go.

(Sorry, I enjoy helping newbies, and I get carried away sometimes  :b1: )

Title: Re: Ellipse tool makes triangles not circles
Post by: Lazur on March 27, 2017, 10:36:42 AM

Quote from: brynn on March 27, 2017, 09:56:57 AM

Inkscape will crash if you make an object too large

Haven't got that issue, not sure what object size is extra large.
There should be problems as the number of digits are limited to 16 the max, but haven't seen it affecting the rendering speed-resulting it in lagging.


For scaling the document, inkscape tries to use a global method; using a viewbox svg element to link a real word unit to a px size.
In 0.92 with the default resolution upgrading from 90 to 96 resulted drawings made with 0.91 or older opened needing adjustments for the expected px values so at the moment three options pop up.
As far as I know there are three ways for defining that global scale factor, and,
actually in 0.92 in the document properties panel (Shift+Ctrl+D) there is an option to scale the drawing,
maybe that will do exactly what you are after.

Title: Re: Ellipse tool makes triangles not circles
Post by: brynn on March 27, 2017, 10:59:05 AM

Well, to be honest, it's been a few years since I heard a couple of reports of drawings for a 50 feet wide banner was causing a crash.  And someone determined it was a limitation of Inkscape.  But so much developement recently.  Maybe the problem was fixed. 

But still, there must be some limit, don't you think?  What about 50 meter wide rectangle?  Would crash?  Don't have time to test, at the moment.

But I don't think jeffkiwi needs to worry -- not about large drawing, or dpi change, as long as he hasn't started working in an older version already.  :)

Title: Re: Ellipse tool makes triangles not circles
Post by: Lazur on March 27, 2017, 11:35:32 AM

As far as I can recall such a large banner didn't crash on "inkscape side".
If it was exported to png, the cpu probably maxed out -even photoshop would melt on an 50000 px wide image. Probably that was the case: user exported at an irrationally large size/resolution.

If it was saved as a pdf, then probably the pdf's renderer-acrobat reader couldn't handle the material. Not sure about the details but there is a size limit for pdf-s in real word units.

Inkscape won't crash on large sizes as per se, only that the renderer fails clearing screen once you pass the 80000 px coordinate mark.
"Multiple ghosting issue (https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/1421231)" with zooming. Still affects only 2 people, however it's a long time requseted feature to have -which will never will be implemented- the ability to draw in 1:1 scale.

50 m wide rectangle won't crash, only rendering would produce mentioned glitches. And, that it's stored absolute coordinates couldn't be as precise on the number of digits as with a way smaller (positive) value.
Haven't tested either, I don't think one would notice the difference straight away.

Title: Re: Ellipse tool makes triangles not circles
Post by: brynn on March 27, 2017, 11:45:07 AM

Off-Topic: show

Well, who knows if we are even remembering the same message, haha.  My recollection is that Inkscape crashed.  Don't remember anything about PNG export.  But I wouldn't even be able to search out that message by now -- don't remember enough to think of search terms.  It might have been more than 5 years ago!

Title: Re: Ellipse tool makes triangles not circles
Post by: Moini on March 28, 2017, 05:42:11 AM

If you want to resize the whole drawing, select everything (Edit -> Select all in all layers), then use the selection tool (the arrow) and grab one of the resizing handles. Hold Ctrl key down to keep the aspect ratio. Check with the width / height fields for the size you want.

Or: Select everything, and use the transformation dialog to enter a specific value for width or height (Object -> Transform, second tab). Check the 'proportionally' checkbox to keep aspect ratio.

Resize the page either in File -> Document properties, or adapt the page size to content size by Edit -> Resize page to content.