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Author Topic: rotate  (Read 525 times)

January 04, 2019, 06:34:55 PM
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Brockenflabel

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 :b1:
I'm fairly new to Inkscape.  I followed a Tutorial on youtube about creating a Spider Web.
I said to use object, transform, rotate, ctrl-d.

I created the center lines, 15 degrees seperation, all same length.
Then I created one piece of web, put center axis in center of of web lines.
Then transformed, ctrl-d , rotate,  but as you can see, the web piece do not
match up or snap to the ends of the lines?  as they go around center?

Thanks.
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January 05, 2019, 11:23:41 AM
Reply #1

brynn

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Welcome to the forum!

I can't see enough of the canvas or image in your screenshot, to be able to gather all the info I would need to find the problem.  Can you share the SVG file?

Briefly, what I want to look for, is whether you have all the "spokes" crossed over at the center of each line.  And I would also want to confirm that they are all at 15 degrees rotated from each other.

A simple solution to your problem would be to extend the spokes outward, which makes the ends further apart, and the arcs would fit.  Since I can't see the whole image, I'm only guessing here.  But I'm guessing that the arcs did fit on one side of the web, but they aren't fitting on the other.  If that's the case, then extending the spokes longer won't fix the whole problem.

Or another simple solution would be to just scale the arcs smaller until they fit.  Still not ideal though.

However, as we often find with Inkscape, there are a few, or sometimes even several ways to approach a particular goal.  Here's how I would make a spider web.

1 -- Enable the Star/Polygon tool
2 -- Set it for 24 Corners (on the control bar)  (24 corners makes 15° angles)
3 -- Draw the star to whatever diameter or width you want
4 -- Adjust the Spoke Ratio, until it's pretty close to the shape you want for the arcs, even though they will be sharp and not curved (probably it will be something like 0.920 to 0.960)
5 -- When the whole thing is as close as you can get it, except for the sharp corner of the arcs, do Path menu > Object to Path.  (Make sure everything is right, because after this, you can't adjust it as a star shape anymore.)
6 -- Switch to the Node tool, and you will see that there is a node at each corner around the original star
7 -- While holding the Shift key, click once on each of the internal or concave corner nodes
8 -- When they are all selected, change them to smooth nodes, which is this button on the Node tool control bar  :sn:
9 -- Ta-Daaaah!
10 -- Now switch to the Pen or Pencil tool, and draw the spoke lines.  If you use Snapping, it will be easy to make sure they are all placed well.  Do you need info on snapping?  You can draw a line from one outer or convex point, to the one on the opposite side or the original star.  That will cause them to automatically cross in the middle.
11 -- Now switch to the Selection tool and select the outer web line
12 -- Duplicate
13 -- While holding Shift and Ctrl keys at the same time, grab one of the arrows with the mouse and drag inward
14 -- When that line is where you want it, just stop dragging and release the mouse
(Edit - if you want these lines to be some specific distance apart, you'll want to use Object menu > Transform > Scale, so that you can scale them by some particular amount, rather just visually estimate the size)
15 -- Repeat #11 through #14, until you have enough lines
16 -- I would select the whole thing, in the end, and Group everything together, to make sure it doesn't come apart when you move it.  But really, it's optional.  Or you could use Path menu > Combine instead.  There's a little difference between grouping and combining, but in this case, the main point is to keep all the pieces together.

I realize that spiders don't make webs exactly like this.  It would make a much more complicated tutorial to make a web in the way the spiders actually make them.  It could be done, for sure, but it would take a lot more time and details.
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January 05, 2019, 05:58:45 PM
Reply #2

Brockenflabel

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I followed your instructions exactly.  This is what it looks like.... I can't seem to figure out
how to get rid of the middle white fill area now?
Thanks.
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January 05, 2019, 06:20:48 PM
Reply #3

brynn

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Oh, you just have a white fill.  Since you're just learning, I should say that the formal way of removing the fill is this.  Object menu > Fill and Stroke > Fill tab, and then click the big X button in the top-left corner of the dialog.  It looks like this  :rem:  You can also remove a stroke that way, if you didn't want one, but you'd have to switch to the Stroke Paint tab (in the same Fill and Stroke dialog).

The Fill and Stroke dialog is where you can configure custom colors, in case you can't find the color you want in the palette (or a different palette).

However, there are a few shortcuts for removing the fill.  For example, notice on the far left end of the palette (along the bottom of the window) is a small chip (well, usually it's small, but the size of those color chips can be changed) with an X in it, instead of a color.  Clicking that will remove the fill.  Holding Shift while you click it will remove the stroke.

And you'll probably want to read this little tutorial too.  It seems like most newbies run into the problem it fixes.  Your problem with the white fill is probably explained by it (even though it's not exactly the same problem) in case you're wondering where it came from.   https://forum.inkscapecommunity.com/index.php?action=articles;sa=view;article=18
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January 05, 2019, 07:18:45 PM
Reply #4

Brockenflabel

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Thanks.

I really need to go thru a lot of tutorials I think.  Inkscape reminds me when I tried learning
Blender without any tutorials. :b1:
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