Would it be possible to do something like this in Inkscape?

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You may have to be more specific about "this" before we can give an answer. But I'll try with what I see.... Well actually, I do have to ask a couple of questions. Are you looking for animation? Inkscape does not currently offer any animated features. So if you want to draw an image where there's a line that you need to move, like hands on a clock face, then no, Inkscape can't animate it.

But if you mean that you want to move nodes on the canvas, yes, Inkscape certainly can do that!

In your image, I'm not quite clear what you want to move. It might be that you just want to move one node and its segment. But I think that you mean to change the paths on the left to look like on the right. So that if the object on the left is the body and legs of a stick person, you want to swing the legs around to the left. Yes?

One thing you may need to know. In Inkscape, you can't have 3 paths emanating from one node, like the blue one in the object on the right. That object would have to be drawn with 2 open paths, at the very least.

Now, having said all that, you can rotate the legs of the stickman around like that, by selecting all the nodes. On the Node tool control bar, you have to enable 'Show transformation handles of selected nodes' button. Hhhmmm.....actually I thought this could be done, but I can't figure out how to do the next step, and I can't find it in the manual. So it's possible that it can't be done this way. The next step would be to display the rotation center, and snap it to the blue node. Then just drag a corner arrow (handle). But either you can't get a rotation center by showing transform handles of nodes, or I just can't figure out how.

If that turns out to be a bust (as they say) you could consider what I've already mentioned about a node only having 2 paths attached to it. Using that knowledge, we could draw a single path which comprises the stickman's legs. The path from hips to neck or shoulders would be a different path. With the legs path, you can select it with Selection tool, click a 2nd time to display rotation center and rotation handles. Snap rotation center to blue node, grab handles and drag around.

Or another idea would be to draw the object with a bunch of straight segments, and group according to your needs.

But hopefully someone can clarify about the node transform handles. Apparently it's a fairly new feature.

Rotating nodes was my guess too but I do have rotation center displayed when nodes are selected?! (Win7/0.48.2 r9819)

Not sure if it`s necessary to mention... rotating is activated when is active and when some of the selected nodes is clicked once, with the same tool.

Maestral wrote:Rotating nodes was my guess too but I do have rotation center displayed when nodes are selected?! (Win7/0.48.2 r9819)

If this is actually a question (I'm not sure - it might be just a statement I fail to understand): the rotation center is only present if you rotate with the mouse using the transformation handles for the node selection:

• Show Transform Handles (new in Inkscape 0.48)

Maestral wrote:Not sure if it`s necessary to mention... rotating is activated when is active and when some of the selected nodes is clicked once, with the same tool.

If you rotate a selection of nodes with keyboard shortcuts, hover the node with the mouse pointer which you want to use as rotation center:

Inkscape keyboard and mouse reference wrote:Rotate nodes (>1 nodes selected)

These commands rotate the selected nodes as if they were an "object".

If mouse is over a node, that node becomes the axis of rotation; otherwise it rotates around geometric center of selected nodes.


[, ] rotate nodes by the angle step
The default angle step is 15 degrees. ] rotates clockwise, [ rotates counterclockwise.


Alt + [, Alt + ] rotate nodes by 1 pixel
The actual angle for pixel rotation depends on zoom level. Zoom in for finer movement.

Yes, Maestral. NOW when I display transform handles, they are displayed with rotation center and rotation handles showing. But the first time I did it, it looked just like the Selection tool with one click. With the Selection tool, you have to click a 2nd time to get the rotation center and handles. But they weren't showing the first time I tried it. I'm not sure what is different this time. But the first time I tried it, I couldn't find a way to change it. And now, that I have rotation center and handles, I can't figure out how to change it back!

So elevate, just follow my original instructions, and you should get it done. But if you have trouble, please let us know

OH!! Ok, now I have it with outward pointing arrows, no rotation center or handles. But what did I do? .....Let me play around and try to find out what changed..... I'll post back when I figure it out. Or someone else probably knows what's happening already?

Edit
Oooohhh ok! You can switch between the 2 modes by clicking on an already selected node. So elevate, if you get no rotation center or handles, click on a node that's already selected. It won't deselect it, but it will change to rotation mode (for lack of better word).

Edit
Oops again! Now I realize that's just what you said Maestral. But I didn't understand it at first. Sorry about that

@ ~suv
It was a declarative sentence, but I was surprised why brynn does not see the rotation center. English is not my first language, and next time I`ll check the spelling first. Many thanks for the reminder about the keyboard shortcuts.

@ brynn
Apparently ... it happens to the best, too ,)