Is my path effect glitching out? "pattern on path" width not working

[brian sansone]

I am learning to make vector flourishes. I have been following a pretty simple tutorial. I am running into a problem adjusting the widths of the paths.
1.  Use the bezier tool to draw out a path
2. Choose the "triangle in"  as the shape
3. open path effects, and add the "pattern along path" effect
4. adjust the width option

so far so good. Except I got it to work for only 2 of the paths I drew out.  Other paths I draw, using the same procedure , dont respond to the width value  ??
Im totally confused.  Here is a screen shot showing the paths that worked out , and the other paths, one selected, and showing the width value at 20; obviously
not communicating that to the path.     What in the world am I missing?  I have been trying for too long to get it working.

Also, is there no way to change the path shape , ie triangle in, triangle out, ellipse,..., after drawing the path ?
Thanks inkscape pros!
Brian

[brynn]

Welcome to the forum!

Which tutorial are you following?  Some of those features you're using have been changed in some relatively recent versions of Inkscape.  And if the tutorial you're following is older than those versions, you might be seeing a conflict related to that.

You probably don't need to use Pattern Along Path, to be honest.  You could use it, for sure.  But if you're using the Triangle In option, then the Pen tool is automatically applying a different path effect, called Powerstroke, which you can see in the the Path Effect dialog in your screenshot.  And it probably will do what you need, for flourishes.

I'm not sure why you want to adjust the width.  I mean, I understand why you would want to, it's just there could be different reasons, and I don't know what your specific intent is.  So if you could explain that, and if I don't already give you a way to do it, with my next comments, we can tell you how.

For now, I want to tell you about the powerstroke LPE, and that might give you everything you need.  First, click on the Pattern Along Path item in the Path Effects dialog, and then click the minus sign.  That will remove that path effect from the object.

Next, switch to the Node tool (if not already using it), and look closely at the path.  Do you notice at least 1 or 2 nodes which are pinkish rather than gray?  Grab one and drag it.  Ta-daaaa!

If you need some more pink nodes, place the Node tool pointer over an existing pink node.  Hold the Ctrl key while you click once.  Yes, it looks like nothing happened.  But grab that pink node and drag it away, and you'll see that the original node is underneath.  So it did make a new pink node, and you can just drag it along the path to place it where you need it. 

If you ever need to remove a pink node, put the mouse over it, then Ctrl + Alt + click once.

If you really want to use Pattern Along Path, then I would remove the Powerstroke LPE.  Here are the instructions for PAP:  http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/MANUAL/html/Paths-LivePathEffects-PatternAlongPath.html

Let us know how it goes

[flamingolady]

EDIT:  disregard, posted in wrong thread, sorry.

Not sure this is helpful, but I'll throw my 2 cents in.  I did a few tests (won't share them all), and the PAP worked, except that I didn't know how to do the code to tell it the size of the space between the dashes.... (I started with a 2.30 cm), did a few tests with doing a dash of 2.30, and space of 2.30. Would have been great except it didn't recognize the end space (I set the last dash to no stroke and no fill thinking it would create a gap).  Wondering if you could start with the 2.30 dash and then set the spacing size to 2.30 in code, then it'd be perfect, well the line would look perfect, so idea if the cutter would like it. 

[brynn]

flamingolady, could you have accidentally posted in the wrong topic?  I know there's another topic about making a dashed line where PAP is a suggested solution.

[flamingolady]

whoops, yep, wrong thread. sorry.