Hi Friends,
I'm having a heck of a time finding the handles for a pattern. I have a compound path, a series of open 2-node segments. I want stripes in the stokes that are perpendicular to the direction of the paths. So I've applied one of the built-in stripe patterns. But selecting them and switching to the Node tool does NOT reveal the handles.

I'm about to give up, and make a custom pattern, which I'm hoping will make finding the handles easier (they'll be with the object to which I apply Object to Pattern).

In the past, I've typically found the handles for the built-in patterns at the top left corner of the page border. But maybe there's something about applying patterns to strokes that is different? I haven't found any solution in the manual.

Here's a sample file with a simple path, and stripe pattern applied to the stroke. It's from version 0.48.1 on Win7, 64-bit. Can any of you find the handles? (I thought that for some reason, having a 2-node path might make it hard to find the handles. So on in this file, I've made a 3 node path. But it's not helping find the handles.) Also, you'll see that the path is in a 2nd layer, with the 1st layer locked, which is to avoid a known bug which might cause the handles to be located in a weird place. But that hasn't made the patterns handles show up anywhere

Thanks for any help

Edit -- oops, forgot the file:



Edit
Honestly, I think I may have a corrupt Inkscape. I made a custom pattern, and I can find the handles of the pattern in the Object converted to pattern, and I can adjust that, but I can't find the handles to adjust the pattern in my compound path/strokes!

Hi

Found them!!
I had the same problem - took me a while to figure it out. (Pulled out a lot of hair in the process )
Make sure the "Show Bezier handles of selected nodes" on the toolbar is "active".

Use F2 to edit path by nodes.
Then hold the shift key down while left mouse click (and hold) on the node - move mouse pointer to "pull" the handle out of the node.

Comparing (in a text editor) the SVG file without the handles and the same files after the handles are "pulled out" shows a lot of additional data in the path statement. Someone with more knowledge of the SVG specification might tell you more about this.

A programmer would not call this a "bug" but rather an "undocumented feature".
(Technically it's not a bug either as there are no info in the SVG file to tell Inkscape to display the node handles.)

Good Luck

RGDS Ragnar

Give your path a pattern fill and you'll see the control nodes. The same nodes adjust fill and stroke afaict. You might have to switch from the to and back to see them or deselect and reselect. When you're finished adjusting just remove the fill.
Note that if you do pattern to objects on a stroked only object you get a message that says....

Hi.
Hmm druban - can not get this to work on my version of Inkscape (Inkscape 0.48+devel r11909).
Might be a case of PEBKAC - ( Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair )
RGDS Ragnar

ragstian wrote:Hi.
Hmm druban - can not get this to work on my version of Inkscape (Inkscape 0.48+devel r11909).
Might be a case of PEBKAC - ( Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair )
RGDS Ragnar

Hi R I just tested it on the v you are using and it worked for me. I did have to switch to the selector and back to the nodetool as I mentioned above after giving the object a fill in order to see the controls. If I am in the nodetool and give it a pattern fill the control nodes do not become visible without this switch back and forth!

See if you can get Inkscape to shut down without announcement by doing this:
Give the pattern stroked object a pattern fill, switch to selector, switch to nodetool, see the controls, drag them around a bit... now still in nodetool, remove the pattern fill (leaving the pattern stroke), I use the palette bar... the controls should still be visible where you last used them... now try to adjust the controls! Ha! What fun!

Gosh, I appreciate both of your help. But I still can't find handles.

I have "Show Bezier handles of selected nodes" always engaged, and double-checked that it is, in test file. I tried dragging out one handle to make a curve, but still no pattern handles. I even closed the path with a new segment, just in case the open path might be the problem. But still no pattern handles.

Then I tried druban's suggestion and added a fill. Normally I expect that I have to first select with Selection tool, then switch to Node tool to see the pattern handles. So after adding fill, I deselect, then select with Selection tool and switch to Node tool. But sill no pattern handles

I'll avoid testing for the crash, druban, at least for now. Unless it might fix the pattern handles, lol.

Oh, but maybe I have found a new bug after all. I tried adding a pattern fill (used flat color before). I DO find pattern handles, but they adjust the pattern fill. And not only that, but as soon as I try to move the square or circle handles, the stroke disappears entirely! I can move the X handle without this problem.

Ok, so after stroke disappears, I added a new stroke and give it a pattern. However, only pattern fill handles show up. No handles for stroke pattern. And as before, as soon as I adjust the fill pattern, boom, stroke disappears again.

I'm headed over to Launchpad to search bugs. I'll report what I find. Thanks again

Ok, I found this, druban, which might be related to the problem you found. I don't know what a "paint server" is, so I'm not sure. https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/1086881
(If you happen to add a comment, say hi to ~suv. We miss her.)

A couple others that are related:

1 - https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/486192
2 - https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/604025

Apparently the fill pattern and stroke pattern share the same handles, which is silly, because you can't have a different pattern on stroke as on fill.
I''ll add my support to #1, which is in Wishlist.

I could add a comment to #2, since I have the stroke disapearing, which is different than the current reports. But since I'm still using 0.48.1, I'm hesitant to add comments. The tests on current and/or dev versions would be more helpful.

And meanwhile, I'll just make some skinny rectangles for my image, instead of using strokes. Luckily they are straight paths, so skinny rectangle will work quite well.

Thanks again for your help, ragstian and druban