Hi Friends,
I've used Pattern Along Path before, without any trouble. But it's been awhile, so maybe I've forgotten something. However, I am following the tavmjong bah Manual....http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/MANUAL ... nAlongPath
Here's a screen shot of what I'm getting, including the dialog settings:



The Manual says

"The bounding box of the pattern is used for placing the pattern along the path, with the bounding box of one pattern copy touching the bounding box of the next copy (if no additional spacing is specified)."

But it appears that the bounding box must have somehow shifted! The star is not whole. I'm guessing it appears this way because the bounding box of the Pattern, and the bounding box of the Path, MUST both begin at the same point. In this image, I did not line up the bounding boxes before applying the Effect. And when I do, the pattern follows the path in "full units" so to speak.

Is this a correct assumption, that the bounding boxes of both the Path and the Pattern must be aligned? If so, I'm curious why Inkscape doesn't automatically start the Pattern wherever the Path starts?

I'm using v 0.46, the last stable release, and looking forwards to v 0.47 (which is due out sometime before too long). Does anyone know how it works in 0.47? I searched Launchpad, but didn't find anything, although I know that sometimes you need to know the magic words to search with. If there's no good reason why Inkscape doesn't automatically align the bounding boxes when the Pattern Along Path Effect is applied, I'm thinking of submitting the idea to Launchpad. Because it's going to be a bother to align them just right. What do you all think?

Thanks for your help

I might be wrong, but
despite it's name, pattern along path does not use a pattern ( eg. DO NOT go object -> pattern -> object to pattern)

Instead, create a line, then create a star //object//, select both and you should be fine.

basically patten along path is actually a "path effect", and needs two paths (or a group and a path) to work, and has no relation to patten fills

tomh

Thanks tomh,
I can't remember now, I've tried so many times, but it may be that I did use Object to Pattern. That certainly can be confusing! Now I can get it to work with the simple star, and a simple square as well. But when I apply a gradient, then it doesn't work right. I've prepared and uploaded a sample file: http://www.petaimg.com/u292/766paptest.svg

Is there some reason why having a gradient for the fill should cause a problem? Does the gradient somehow make it a pattern or something? Or can a gradient just not be used for Pattern Along Path?

Thanks for your help tom