Changing the scale direction of a line path.

[boo_kai]

Hello, good day and salutations! I am somewhat new to the world of inkscape though I do know somewhat past the basics. There is an issue I have run into. When I create a line naturally the top of the screen displays H: [Height of the selected line]. I would like to be able to scale the bottom end of the line DOWN but instead when I increase the size in the specified value box the line scales UP. My question is if there is a way to scale the line down. I am attempting to implement inkscape as a program to draft clothing patterns, which requires precision movements of nodes. Any help would be appreciated! Thank you!

-Boo

[Lazur]

Hi.

Just guessing, your line is a path with a stroke.
Try switching from visual to geometric bounding box in the preferences (Shift+Ctrl+P).
Also see if untoggling the icon helps.
And/or use the transformation panel (Shift+Ctrl+M) for scaling.

[brynn]

Welcome to the forum!

Yes, when you scale something using the W or H values in the Selection control bar, it scales up and to the right.  If you scale using Object menu > Transform > Scale, it will scale from the center.

But if you want to do it by moving nodes, you can place the nodes to the exact coordinates, by using the Node tool and the Node tool control bar.

Would that work, to move the node, instead of scaling the whole line?

Another thing that might help you with getting sizes precise, is to use Snapping.  Have you sorted that out  yet?  I would probably use a pixel grid and snapping, if I were making clothing patterns.  Although I guess nodes will not always fall on whole pixel values.....but if it was patterns only for myself, I'd probably fudge it over to a whole pixel.

I know other people also use Inkscape to draw clothing patterns.  But I don't know how they handle the situation  you described.