This is a read-only archive of the inkscapeforum.com site. You can search for info here or post new questions and comments at As an engineer and scientist I prefer to have full control over my drawing and get precise alignments or parametric design. while InkScape provides a rather nice GUI, there is no possibility to expand the features using a type of native macro language. there are plenty of programming languages out there PostScript/PsTricks, Metapost/Asymptote, PGF/TikZ, XML/SVG ... they all can be integrated into the InkScape. For example a button could be there to start recording the actions, and then interpret every user's move into the equivalent action of any of the mentioned languages. or add the ability to see the code equivalent of the drawing in those languages. This feature already exists in SVG-Edit, where you can see the XML/SVG code at any point and edit it.
This will open the door to many other possibilities such as generative design.
indirective design with macro/scripting
Re: indirective design with macro/scripting
Uhm... have you seen the extensions?...
https://inkscape.org/en/develop/extensions/
Or read the man page?
https://inkscape.org/doc/inkscape-man.html
Postscript and TikZ already are used in some extensions.
https://inkscape.org/gallery/=extension/
http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php ... Extensions (follow the links in the text to find even more)
https://inkscape.org/en/develop/extensions/
Or read the man page?
https://inkscape.org/doc/inkscape-man.html
Postscript and TikZ already are used in some extensions.
https://inkscape.org/gallery/=extension/
http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php ... Extensions (follow the links in the text to find even more)
Something doesn't work? - Keeping an eye on the status bar can save you a lot of time!
Inkscape FAQ - Learning Resources - Website with tutorials (German and English)
Inkscape FAQ - Learning Resources - Website with tutorials (German and English)
Re: indirective design with macro/scripting
Or the XML editor? (Ctrl+Shift+X)
Something doesn't work? - Keeping an eye on the status bar can save you a lot of time!
Inkscape FAQ - Learning Resources - Website with tutorials (German and English)
Inkscape FAQ - Learning Resources - Website with tutorials (German and English)
Re: indirective design with macro/scripting
Welcome aboard!
I'm all for parametric designing, however I have serious doubts it will ever happen with inkscape.
"Verbs cannot take arguments" is the common catchphrase if someone wants to script manual actions.
For "on-screen" scripting it's either an extension or a path effect's job. Where only the latter would update with the parametres.
One concern why it won't happen is "inkscape is not a cad program".
There is a limit hardcoded somewhere around 2^15 -Suv may correct me with the details- so we are even lucky the ghosting issue is only present after the 80000 px coordinates.
Contrary affinity designer. Had only seen their video and feature list. Judged by that they are spot on for making responsive panels as you can add in constraints and they have a much larger zooming range.
My guess is for parametric designing it'd be better building on a cad software, and pulling in the visual fancyness of a graphic editor into that.
(I'm using archicad time to time, and they have some connection to rhinoceros which has grasshopper. So many places to be explored. Like freecad vs openscad, which could take in such a concept?)
I'm all for parametric designing, however I have serious doubts it will ever happen with inkscape.
"Verbs cannot take arguments" is the common catchphrase if someone wants to script manual actions.
For "on-screen" scripting it's either an extension or a path effect's job. Where only the latter would update with the parametres.
One concern why it won't happen is "inkscape is not a cad program".
There is a limit hardcoded somewhere around 2^15 -Suv may correct me with the details- so we are even lucky the ghosting issue is only present after the 80000 px coordinates.
Contrary affinity designer. Had only seen their video and feature list. Judged by that they are spot on for making responsive panels as you can add in constraints and they have a much larger zooming range.
My guess is for parametric designing it'd be better building on a cad software, and pulling in the visual fancyness of a graphic editor into that.
(I'm using archicad time to time, and they have some connection to rhinoceros which has grasshopper. So many places to be explored. Like freecad vs openscad, which could take in such a concept?)