Am I doing something wrong here?

Whenever I rotate an object, it quickly shows the "angle in degrees", but then instantly overwrites that info with something usless about the "object is group of 3".

Ugh.

I need to know the *ANGLE* as I rotate it.

There's tons of free space on that line... why is it necessary to put both lines of info... in the same space????

I'm just an user, not related to developers or this site's administration at all, but I personally understands the way it is (which doesn't mean it can be better).

As it's precisely a 'status bar' (I guess you mean this) it seems logic that it shows current aspects, thus when you're playing an action it just gives details of it in present time, until you stop it. By stopping I mean 'mouse release', and its just then when all those details about groups come. So, basically you can give time yourself by keeping the mouse button pressed even when the rotation is finished for you.

Otherwise it would be permanently displaying -8.75º (or whatever) in relation to a previous totally circumstantial and irrelevant position, since that position was within the action of rotating (never a state of the object). Now, if Inkscape could keep record of an original state of the object and then displays a permanent rotation difference in degrees, then I think it would be justified and useful as well (espetially for imported bitmaps).

Same thing is also applicable to scale and all other transform operations. Hope some time those details are displayed in 'tools control bar'. For now, I already had a clear negative answer about it (viewtopic.php?f=5&t=3414#p16001).

What I think it's maybe an issue is that the 'status bar' displays the information about grouping from time to time while rotation is in process. That interrupts the number sequence and adds a bit of confusion.

I think the solution would simply be "no need to speed-read", "no need to remember to hold/release the mouse at certain times"... etc.
No special things to remember at all.

It's just that there's room for about 300 *HUNDRED* characters on my status-bar. It's impossible to fit "41 degrees rotated"... *AND* "object is group of 3" on that line????

There's plenty of space... use it!

I need to know the *ANGLE* as I rotate it.

Hi Inkscapehelper. What platform are you on and what version of Inkscape is giving you this problem?
I can't quite replicate or perhaps understand your problem; on Windows with a recent build of IS I can rotate and fine tune my rotation back and forth with the status bar telling me how much my rotation is in degrees until I am satisfied. Even if I pause the rotation is still displayed. Of course once I am done with the rotation the updating degrees display goes away, is this the problem you are describing? The same behaviour can be seen with the scale and with all the constraints (shift, ctrl). If you want a precise transformation you could try the transform dialog.
if you are having trouble aligning to a particular angle Inkscape now lets you snap to guides while rotating, a very useful feature.

Most likely as described in bug #636220 “Text describing selection superimposes change description in the notification area” (IIRC triggered when using snap to grid).

Hi InkscapeHelper,

Welcome to InkscapeForum!

I think this a valid issue. I never even knew the angle of rotation was shown at all! I tested on Win7 64-bit, Inkscape 0.48. Using the Selection tool, if I rotate really fast, I can see that numbers with the degree sign (tiny circle) are displayed, but they're flashing really fast. And literally, they seem to only be displayed WHILE the rotation is happening. If I rotate slowly, the status area info flashes, but I never see the angle at all. Once I stop moving the mouse, and even though I'm still holding the mouse button, the numbers are gone. And it appears that it displays every angle throughout the rotation, which really is not necessary, imo. What needs to be displayed, somehow (I'm not a developer either) is the beginning and ending angle (imo).

Probably and hopefully, others will add some comments, as to the how and why of this. But once we've covered everything, if it still appears not to be working properly, you're welcome to submit a bug report to Launchpad, Inkscape's bug tracker. And whether it would be a bug or a new feature request/wish list report, I hope we'll find out here in this discussion. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if it's already reported

I understand what Marcelo means, about not wanting or needing the angle to be displayed as part of the item's description, and I agree. But I think somehow the angle needs to be displayed, in a way that it can actually be read.

When I first started to learn about computer graphics (just as a personal hobby), I was presented with the choice of raster vs vector -- whether the graphics are defined relative to pixels vs whether graphics are defined by length (distance?) and angle. I love the concept of, and chose vector. But thinking back about that decision, I have to say that I expected to be able to draw a line, and see displayed the line's length and angle. And I know that they are displayed, during the drawing of the line. But once the line is finished, I guess you'd have to break out the XML Editor to learn the length/angle. So in that way, I'm surprised that the angles aren't displayed, whether related to rotation, paths, or as Marcelo said, size and orientation of embedded "bitmaps"/raster images, etc., etc.

Anyway, long story longer -- I'd like to see an improvement here too

PS -- oops, I see ~suv and druban have posted while I was typing....I'll reply back after reading the bug report....

Well, I think this problem is related to that bug, in that the same thing happens when scaling with the Selection tool. WHILE the scale is happening, the size info flashes quickly (too quickly to be read, but I can identify the 'X' and '%'), and appears to display the size at every position along the scale/drag. But once the mouse stops moving, that info is gone, even if I haven't released the mouse button. If I drag slowly, the status area flashes, but no size info is seen.

However, that bug (#636220) describes it as "superimposed". To me, it does not appear superimposed (meaning eg rotation info on top of usual descriptive info). Instead, it appears to flash back and forth from rotation info to usual info, really fast, too fast to read, while mouse is being dragged. Once movement stops, flashing rotation info stops. Also, it happens for me with and without a grid or snapping engaged.

I would make a little video, but I probably don't have the right software....

In this case, ~suv, I should add a brief comment to that bug?

brynn wrote:However, that bug (#636220) describes it as "superimposed". To me, it does not appear superimposed (…). Instead, it appears to flash back and forth from rotation info to usual info (…)

IMHO the meaning is the same: the message about the current selection can quickly overwrite the message about the transformation, or replace it or get superimposed - whatever word is used might depend on your perspective (user, developer) and native language. I think we can agree that we see the same happening, and the report does convey what is going on.

brynn wrote:I think this problem is related to that bug, in that the same thing happens when scaling with the Selection tool.

Scaling is a transformation of the object, as is rotation - IMHO it is not only related, it's the same problem (a message about the on-going transformation is replaced/overwritten/superimposed by the generic message from the select tool).

I had added the comment about the color gestures because the issue possibly is not related to a certain tool, but how internally the message queues for the notification area are handled (i.e. the fix could be outside of a specific tool context).

brynn wrote:should add a brief comment to that bug?

If something is missing, yes. I'll re-test my earlier observation about what snapping (or rather - visibility of the grid) contributes to the reported issue (re-reading my comment: I did state «Most noticeable …» - i.e. not limiting it to this single factor).

whatever word is used might depend on your perspective (user, developer) and native language.

I'm good with that, so won't add any comments

I have this problem on Windows XP, 100% up-to-date.
InkScape v0.47

I'd gladly post a "what settings do you have InkScape set to" listing... if there was a simple/quick way to generate such a list.
Is there?

I don't think it matters in this case -- just system and version. And since it's already been reported as a bug, there's not much else we can do besides just be patient.....unless you have coding skills, and want to join the developers and fix it yourself, lol

It sounds like something very different is happening on Brynn's system, than on mine, which is dev r10061 on windows xp. I am NOT seeing a flash of info while rotating and scaling. The amount stays visible until I am satisfied and release the mouse; it does not flash back and forth.
Here's a screenshot. It's not a movie, but here's a play by play: 1. Started rotating, 2.Stopped rotating but did not release button, 3. Hit Printscreen. The delay between stopping and taking the screen shot was about half a second (touchpad user today). Rotation remained on display. Same for the screenshot below, for scaling. If your Inkscape does not give you time to read or take a screenshot (at your leisure, not with some kind of split-second gamer's joystick, or maybe with your toes poised on the keyboard ) then something is quite different.





The gestural control - ah, that's another matter entirely. When dragging with a modifier key held down the flashing is very fast and then the crashing is certain. (Hey, that's kind of poetic!).
Without, i.e. only making a hue change, seems generally ok, i.e. doesn't crash with a mouse but sometimes crashes with a tablet, although the status does flash back and forth.

druban wrote:(…) If your Inkscape does not give you time to read or take a screenshot (at your leisure, not with some kind of split-second gamer's joystick, or maybe with your toes poised on the keyboard :D ) then something is quite different.

Apparently things are different with your Inkscape installation (tested & compared with Inkscape 0.47, 0.48 and 0.48+devel r10074 on Mac OS X 10.5.8 (i386)). Maybe you could attach (or pastebin) your preferences file, to allow comparing if your current settings have an influence? Do you work with an extended input device, or just the normal mouse (or trackpad)? Did you transform with any modifiers pressed when creating those screenshots?

~suv wrote:Do you work with an extended input device, or just the normal mouse (or trackpad)? Did you transform with any modifiers pressed when creating those screenshots?

Hi ~suv. Although I often use a tablet the behaviour is the same for the transforms as without. The screenshots I posted were done on a latop with a trackpad, no modifiers. I checked and it is the same for groups of objects, single objects, multiple objects etc. I attached my user prefs file if you want to take a look.

druban wrote:I attached my user prefs file if you want to take a look.

thx - it is this setting:

• Inkscape Preferences > Tools > Selector
  When transforming, show:
  [ ] Objects
  [x] Box outline

which makes the difference for me.

~suv, you're amazing! You could find a needle in a field of haystacks!

Oh no, druban, the data flashes so fast that I can't even read it, much less have time to hit the print screen key! That's why I was wishing for video software. And I can only even see it if I scale or rotate extemely fast, much faster than one normally would scale or rotate. If I scale or rotate at normal speed, the usual descriptive info flashes or maybe flickers, but I don't see any angle or dimension info unless I move the mouse very fast. And then, it's only because the tiny circle (degree sign) in the case of rotation, or X in the case of scaling, are repeated with every flash/flicker (while the numbers associated with them are different every time).

As I said before, I wasn't even aware that info was shown at all. Because I normally would scale or rotate slowly.

I'm not on the same machine that I tested on before, at the moment. So are you saying that I could use that setting, to see the rotation angle or dimension info, as long as I'm holding the mouse button? Well, at least until the bug is fixed?

I'll test on other machine as soon as I can (and report)

PS -- On this, XP with Inkscape version 0.47, it works as druban describes, without having to change the transformation indicator changed to box style. So that means that for Windows 7, this is a regression? (if I'm using the right terminology)