I've played with offsets. As you say, deformations.

Stroke to Path is as easy enough command to find but I haven't figured yet how to use it for an effective offset without deformation. Say on a star object.

I have not been able find where to adjust the nudge value, so that path inset and outset can be adjusted. The Help seems written for version 0.48 while I'm running 0.92. I'd like to adjust the effect of Ctl-( and Ctl-) . I presume that correct method then is to convert a letter to a path, clone it, ...

Yes, I'm discovering it's not CAD. I'm using it because it is the tool they use in a laser-cutter training class. I guess they use this tool because it's relatively easy and the average Joe doesn't have CAD experience. So I'm kind of backing into it. However, I can think of a lot of projects where i...

I am brand new to Inkscape. My only other CAD experience (outside of printed circuit board layout) is with AutoCAD 2D. Suppose I have an arbitrary line of 10 px thickness, and I want to turn it into an outline, which is to say two lines 10 px apart that are say 2 px in thickness. In AutoCAD I might ...