Hi,

I am a geologist tracing some geological maps with Inkscape. I am trying to trace a line which has black triangles pointing in a direction perpendicular to the line direction where the triangle is located and with one side encased in the line i.e. I can distinguish two sides of the triangle because the third is in the same place as the line itself.

I have made a custom marker for this purpose - that's all fine. How do I change the marker settings so that instead of adding a marker at each node, I specify the two ends of the line and say "I want 20 evenly spaced markers between here and here"?

I have found a method here which seems to work well but any other less complicated ways would be appreciated!

viewtopic.php?t=424

Using the "Add nodes" extension is pretty straightforward, I think, if you want to use markers. But it also has disadvantages when it comes to editing paths after the change, and it may be difficult to space them evenly when there are already nodes in the path, which give it its shape.

If you do not want to use markers (and don't want to have the triangles linked to nodes), you need to either use the 'pattern along path' extension or the 'scatter' extension (both must be repeated every time you change the path), or the 'pattern along path' path effect (and count all triangles, if it's important that there are exactly 20).

If the only reason for not wanting to use nodes is that they make it difficult to change the shape of the path, you might be interested to find out more about the sculpting mode. To try it out, select a few nodes that are connected to each other, hold down SHIFT, then pull on one of the nodes.
This will make it easier to modify the shape of a path with many nodes (but the even spacing will be lost then, of course...).

Not using markers, but regular objects, or perhaps clones, you could use the Align and Distribute dialog, in the Distribute section. You can make them evenly spaced. But unless you do some simple math, it would be hard to make them spaced to some specific amount.

Ooorr....maybe you can distribute nodes on a path using A & D.... Oh yes, in the Nodes section....well, as long as you're talking about horizontal or vertical. It won't work if the path is diagonal or curved.

http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/MANUAL ... lign-Align

If you need the spacing to be some specific distance, then Add Node extension and Markers would be better. [Edit - I have consistently experienced crashes with that extension, so be sure to save before you use it, just in case ]

Or another thought - use a grid with snapping to lay out the objects or nodes. http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/MANUAL ... pping.html