Hey Everyone,

Could use your help here. We are working on an image for our science club, and even though I understand vector art programs Inkscape is stumping me in a few areas. Please see the image as I explain where I am running into problems.

First, I am trying to make a circle out of the two arrows, so in inkscape I tried to cut an ellipse in half and then I was going to take the path, duplicate it and make it 80% of the original, then group the two and flip them, and I would have my circle arrows. Well, I cannot find any way to cut a circle, so I took the path tool, and did my best at creating a circle, and as you can see it turned out to be more of a horseshoe.

Second, I tried to attach the text to the path. Unless I am doing something wrong, that is pretty much a catastrophe, and it takes a buttload of work arounds tryin to manipulate the text into postion. If anyone has any good workarounds where you can line that text up decently please pass them on.

The third area I am running into problems, is that I want the arrows to intersect the maroon box, and cut it out. I have tried the different path tools, union, difference etc. but none of them give me what I want, anyone have feedback on what I might be doing wrong here?

Thank you for your time,

Dave

Hi Dave,
There are probably different ways to approach all these issues. I'll give you my ideas, and probably others will join in with better/different ideas.

To cut the circle in half:

1. With the Ellipse tool ( ) and while you're holding the Ctrl key, draw the circle. (Ctrl keeps the ellipse as a circle.)
2. Path menu > Object to path
3. Switch to the Node tool ( ) while the new path is still selected.
4. Select the 2 side nodes of the circle (as opposed to top and bottom)
5. Click "Break path at selected nodes" button on node tool control bar (4th from left)
6. Path menu > Break apart

Now you have 2 half circles!

Regarding text on path, it looks like you have figured out the process. The problem probably is that the text does not end up in the place that you want it along the path, right? That's because the text is applied to the beginning of the path. So what you will need to do is a little planning ahead. And it depends on exactly how the project progresses, as to how you can do that. If the paths where the text will go will still be precisely circles, it will be simple enough to rotate the circles until the starting place is where it needs to be. Have a look at the info in the manual. Yours will be basically like the last example on this page (except for the amount of text):

Create the circle as a full circle, duplicate it (ctrl+D) scale the duplicate while holding shift and it will scale around the centre. (in fact duplicate it twice, may want another copy later)
select them individually in circle tool and change the settings to 0 to 160 or whatever works for the arrow you want. if needs be change the setting so they dont have the line across the top.
Select them both, and control K to make them one path. select the two nodes at the 0 point and use the join nodes button to connect them. draw the arrow head however you want it, and merge it in.
You should have one arrow now, duplicate it, then flip it in both H & V.
move the duplicate up so that its on the right place.

Take that extra circle from earlier, duplicate it, and then convert it to path.
Use the node tool to split it at the two nodes on the horizontal.
create your 2 bits of text, do text onto path for the top, then again for the bottom. One will be pointing the wrong way, select that curve and do path>reverse.
I tend to just add spaces to the start of the text to move it into place, you can mess with the path if you want.

The text on the bottom will be on the inside of the curve rather than the outside, You'll need to scale the curve up to make it the right size. if you move the rotation center to the top center before you resize then hold shift when you do it will stay around the circle center.

In terms of cutting out of the rectangle, if you just fill it with white and make sure its above the rectangle it will look the same, is there another reason you need it cutting out?

http://simarilius.webspace.virginmedia.com/logo.svg is my quick stab at it, the paths that the text is on have no style set but are still there. Open it and pick it apart a bit

Well, it looks like you have already gotten 2 really great responses. As with everything in life, there's more than one way to skin a cat, so to speak. So I'll only throw in a few addl hints of what I usually do.
When I making text, I usually draw an arc approx the width of the size I want to end up with, and hit path simplify. Next I type the text, select the text first, then select the arc, click on Text, put text on path, it places the text on the left side, hold down your ctrl key and hit the arrow key to center all the text, each letter can be kerned/moved individually. Once it's where you want it, click on Path, Object to path, that allows you to delete the arc If you select the arc before the text it won't work correctly (so duplicate the arc a few times and move it away, just in case something doesn't go right, you won't have to re-create it).

Also, looks like you need to put the arrows on one layer and the box on another, so your arrows will be on top. They need to be on top of the rectangle box in order to successfully perform the Path/Difference function. I suggest duplicating the arrows and rectangle box (to have in case of mistakes) before playing with Path, Difference.

I don't want to add confusion, so will stop here. Please come back and post your final logo so we can see it, or ask for more clarification! good luck.
dee

Hi dee

Also, looks like you need to put the arrows on one layer and the box on another, so your arrows will be on top. They need to be on top of the rectangle box in order to successfully perform the Path/Difference function.

Layers could be helpful, but not necessarily needed. As long as the arrow is on top in z-order, that's good enough. But some people find layers help keep things organized