Hello,
I am using this program and LOVE IT so far! However, I think I may have messed a setting up accidentally. I used the Circle tool and everything was going fine. Then I decided to experiment with the "ellipse, arc" tool. Now all of the circles I create have an arc or ellipse node instead of the regular circle default. How do I get it back to where it was? I even went so far as to uninstall and reinstall to get the defaults back but even that didn't do the trick. PLEASE HELP I am trying to create a circle then grab a node and deform the circle. I've even tried clicking on the icon that says "make the shape a ellipse, not an arc or segment" and it's not doing anything.
Thank you for any insight!

Hi Salton1046,

Welcome to InkscapeForum!

I'm not sure this is the problem, and if not, we will just gather some more info and try again. So go ahead and draw a circle/ellipse. Click that same button (make shape a whole ellipse, not arc or segment) to make sure it IS a whole circle or ellipse. Next do Path menu > Object to Path. This will convert it from shape to path. Then switch to the Node tool, and you will see the nodes, which you can grab with the mouse and drag around. (Depending on what version of Inkscape you have, the nodes will either be all Smooth Nodes, which are square shaped; or Smooth and Cusp (or Corner) Nodes, which are diamond shaped.)

As I said, please let us know if this does not solve the problem, and we will gather more info and try again. Either way, don't forget to use the Help menu. Help menu > Tutorials are well-written for complete novices. And Help menu > Inkscape Manual (requires internet connection) is also very helpful for all levels of users.

Salton1046 wrote:(…) Now all of the circles I create have an arc or ellipse node instead of the regular circle default. How do I get it back to where it was? (…) I've even tried clicking on the icon that says "make the shape a ellipse, not an arc or segment" and it's not doing anything.

Which Inkscape version do you use? (Please look at the full version information in Inkscape's 'Help > About Inkscape' screen). This sounds like an old bug that was fixed some releases ago...

Salton1046 wrote:I even went so far as to uninstall and reinstall to get the defaults back but even that didn't do the trick.

Reinstalling - on whatever OS/platform you are working - never resets your personal Inkscape settings back to default values (the settings are stored in a different place than the program files, for each user separately, and intentionally preserved when installing Inkscape (as most other applications I know do)).

To reset the preferences, you have quit Inkscape and remove or rename the file 'preferences.xml' - its location varies depending on your platform (and possibly on your Inkscape version). We can provide more help once we know which OS and Inkscape version you use.

Hi ~suv,
I'm not clear what the bug is? Maybe I have misunderstood the problem?

brynn wrote:I'm not clear what the bug is? Maybe I have misunderstood the problem?

What I was referring to (as originally described):

~suv wrote:

Salton1046 wrote:Now all of the circles I create have an arc or ellipse node instead of the regular circle default. (…) I've even tried clicking on the icon that says "make the shape a ellipse, not an arc or segment" and it's not doing anything.

i.e. with the options available on the controls bar of the ellipse tool, the mode cannot be reset to draw a full circle. This was a bug which was fixed for the stable 0.47 release a long time ago:

• Bug #459811 in Inkscape: “Can't switch ellipse (circle) mode to whole ellipse”

Possibly Salton1046 is using an old prerelease version of Inkscape (there are some (older) linux distributions which install 0.47pre4 (IIRC) as stable version, and don't offer newer versions).

[Edit] … but maybe it was me who misinterpreted what Salton1046 described and intends to do ;)
Hopefully there will be a clarifying reply (maybe with a screenshot, or sample drawing) [/Edit]