If I create a circle and then Tile Clone it on a 2x2 grid with 100% X offset for the columns and 100% Y offset for the rows (a square grid), it works prefeclty.

However, if I try to tile clone a vertical line with the same settings, the line is cloned below itself, but the two shifted to the right are missing! (It produces a 2x1 grid instead of a 2x2 grid). I'm assuming it is because the line has 0 width? Is there a way to tile clone vertical lines?

Thanks,

David

daviddoria wrote:if I try to tile clone a vertical line with the same settings, the line is cloned below itself, but the two shifted to the right are missing! (It produces a 2x1 grid instead of a 2x2 grid). I'm assuming it is because the line has 0 width?

The width of the calculated tile bounding box is 0 (i.e. the stroke width of the object is not considered for the tile width).

daviddoria wrote:Is there a way to tile clone vertical lines?

Various methods, for example

1. workaround: temporarily switch to the geometric bounding box mode [1] (even though that's contradictory): when using the geometric bounding box mode, the 'Tiled Clones' dialog takes the stroke width into consideration, or
2. group the vertical line with a rectangle that defines the spacing (use 0% offset) and remove the rectangle from the group (aka the base tile) later, after creating the tiles (or hide it by removing its stroke and fill), or
3. use a rectangle as base tile, arrange the tiles, and when spacing and offset of the arranged tiled clones is as needed, node-edit the rectangle (aka base tile) and delete the unneeded segments/nodes, and/or
4. Make use of the 'Tiled Clones' dialog setting (see references below):
   [x] use saved size and position of the tile

References:

• Inkscape manual > Tiles -- «Checking the “Used saved size and position of the tile” forces the tiling to use the size and position of the base tile at the last time the tile was used in a tiling. This preserves the spacing between tiles if the bounding box has changed due to editing the base tile.»
• Inkscape manual > A Vine Design—A Tiling Example -- «Make sure Use saved size and position of the tile box is checked. The tiling will then use the saved dimensions of the base tile before it was decorated (the dimensions when the first tiling was made) rather than the current bounding box, which may include objects that extend outside the border. (Once an object has been tile cloned, Inkscape keeps a private record of the original tile size and position that can be used for later recloning.) »
  
• Bug #553912 in Inkscape: “Cannot create offset parallel tiled clones of vertical or horizontal lines”
• Recent discussion in 'inkscape-devel - Subject: Cloned Tiles interface rework proposal

[1] Inkscape preferences > Tools > Bounding box to use

Thank you for the incredibly thorough reply!

The problem with the first method seems to be that the maximum % it allows you to input is 10000.0 % . This only moves the line about an inch

Grouping a rectangle with a line worked well. However, I'm having trouble deleting the rectangle. I'm assuming by "node edit" you mean "edit an object in a group" which google says you can do by control+clicking. However, when I control+click the group, it doesn't seem to let me select the rectangle without the line. Would you be so kind as to detail the rectangle removal process?

Also, I noticed the "base tile" actually appears twice. That is, if I drag the base tile, it moves, but a copy of it stays in place. Is this the expected behavior?

Thanks!

David