Just learning

[tobbyluki]

Good evening.

I'm very new, but trying my best to become familiar with vector drawing (like this program, right?) I've seen over a dozen tutorials on youtube.com, and I feel like I will be able to get the hang of it before too long.  I know how to draw shapes, and arrange them by spacing.  That, however gives spacing between. For instance, lets say, I'm trying to arrange 4 circles, 1" diameter each, equally spaced around a center of a square. Now, when I draw this by hand at work, we ALWAYS refer to spacing center to center, not edge to edge.  So, for instance, to draw 4 circles, 1" each, spaced 7" on center, I have to set my spacing to 6".  THIS example isn't too bad, but I'd like to be able to equally space any number of objects, possibly different shapes and sizes (some .5", some .875", even down to .0625" accuracy) arranged by center of objects, rather than spacing between.  Is this possible?

[brynn]

Welcome to the forum!

I've heard that terminology "on center" when I watch home improvement shows on tv.  We've had a lot of requests for that, but I'm not sure if there is anything "in the pipes" for providing it. 

As far as I know, it's not possible with Inkscape....at least not very easily.  I guess it might be possible to use Guides for that.  You could set guide intersections at the centers, and snap the circles to the intersections.  It doesn't matter about the object's shape or size, as long as it's the center that matters.

Inkscape has the Align and Distribute dialog (Object menu) but it doesn't precisely place anything - it just spaces thing relative to each other (in my experience anyway).  Oh, I see you already found it, in your screenshot.

I see in your screenshot that you've also found the Arrange dialog.  I guess that's good for arranging things in rows and columns.  And then there's the Polar Coordinates tab of that same dialog, which will arrange things in circles. 

Have you been successful with Arrange? Or is that where you got stuck?

[Moini]

I'd make a circle with a radius of the distance to the center you need, and would then snap other objects to it - or use the polar arrangement (Object > Arrange > Polar coordinates) for it.

[tobbyluki]

Thank you Brynn and Moini. 

I think I've figured out the arrange dialog pretty well. I'll have to work on the guide intersections and snap scenario.  For my use, it'd be wonderful to select 2 objects, and have a 'set spacing' box where I could input a value, and it would move the 2 objects to that distance from center to center.  The problem with a polar array, is sometimes I need to set up equal spacing more linear (say, a rectangle plate, 14" x 8" with 4 holes along the top, and 4 along the bottom, with the 'outer' two 3" center to center on each side, and then 4" between the 2 center holes, all of which are centered horizontally on the plate, and mirrored on the bottom of the plate (I'll attach an example screenshot)  I can do the math, but I was just looking for a simple 'pre-programmed' way to lay out center-to-center.

[tobbyluki]

Here's an idea of what I often need to lay out...

[brynn]

Here's sort of a shortcut for Guides, which would help in that particular situation.  Well actually, you don't even need to use guides at all.

Draw one rectangle which is the proper size where each corner of the rectangle represents where a circle will be centered.  Since you already know the "on center" measurements, you should already know what size to make the first rectangle.

Enable Snapping and set it up appropriately:  http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/MANUAL/html/Snapping.html  (I would suggest converting the Rectangle to path, if you use the Rectangle tool, rather than Pen/Bezier tool, to draw it.  And then set up snapping to nodes and paths, rather than bounding boxes.)

Draw 1 circle.  Temporarily, the circles will need to have a fill color, or else snapping won't work.  So give that circle a fill color, then duplicate 3 times. 

Snap the 4 circles' centers to the corners of the rectangles.  Select all the circles, and then you can remove the fills all at once.  If this is for some kind of digital cutter, be sure to use Path menu > Object to Path, to convert the circles to paths.

Select the rectangle and 4 circles, then Duplicate once.

Move the 2nd set of rectangle/circles over, according to the proper spacing.

Delete the rectangles.

[Moini]

Wouldn't simple grouping, and then using the align+distribute dialog do what you need (e.g. distribute objects evenly, set spacing, ...)? From the image, I'm not sure which distances are known, and which aren't.