Hello Everyone,

I'm a noob Inkscape user and have only had time to scan the docs so far, but I can't work out how to make a simple object - a point with three lines coming out of it as per the attachment.

Just to be clear, the problem is that I want a single object in which the centre node is connected to the three outlying nodes. (What you see in the image is a fake.)

Any thoughts, solutions, links?

BTW I think I am using an old version of the program because the Winders installer is still broken - see http://www.inkscapeforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=3564.

661

Paths cannot branch. This is a limitation of SVG. There are various ways to fake it, of course, depending on what you're trying to achieve.

Thanks for the confirmation. What I am trying to achieve is a floor plan that doesn't need a lot of messing about when I want to move walls.

Imagine the top two lines horizontal (so it looks like a T not a Y). The top of the T is an outside wall and the stalk of the T is an interior wall. The free ends of all the segments that make up the T will be attached to other paths (or other T shapes). I'd like to move the outside wall and have the interior wall move with it, and to slide the interior wall left and right whilst remaining perpendicular and attached to the top of the T.

The image above was made by making a path with three nodes for the top of the T and another path for the stalk. I simply moved the top of the stalk so that it was coincident with the middle node of the top. Of course what I'd like to do is to tell Inkscape that the top of the stalk and the middle of the top are the same node. I guess grouping the two paths will help a little. I have also thought of making the top into an object and the stalk into a connector.

Any ideas greatfully received.

661

Unfortunately there isn't a solution. You have to do it exactly as you are doing now.

Granted there is no "proper" solution to your problem -- as was stated, the SVG format doesn't do branching, and as far as I know it might be all the better for it (who knows what mess could result if it did).

Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to 'game the system' so to speak, with only varying degrees of minor inconvenience.

If you want this to be a single object, for example, you should be aware that you can safely draw over your own strokes. This is much easier to do with the grid enabled, since you can draw your nodes "snapped to specific points in space, thus making it very easy and precise to retrace your steps.

[besides, if you're doing floor plans you should be using some kind of grid]

For example, if you can imagine the below diagram representing a 5x5 section on the grid:



I could draw your Y by clicking on A1 first, then C3, then A5, then back to C3 again, and then finally to E3. I would remove any Fills, and probably enable Round Joins and Round Caps in my stroke (in the Stroke Style tab) to ensure the shape looks perfectly smooth (although Bevel Joins and Square Caps look okay too).

And voila! Granted you can't just click and drag the center node to change the shape since there are technically TWO center nodes -- nonetheless, moving two nodes isn't really a problem. At worst you move them one at a time, at best you draw a selection box around them and move them together.

The above method also lets you draw other complex shapes using only a single Stroke. An "E" shape for example can be achieved pretty much the same way:

A5 >> A1 >> C1 >> C5 >> C1 >> E1 >> E5

Try this and see if helps you.

Thanks for your help people.

c-quel wrote:[besides, if you're doing floor plans you should be using some kind of grid]

Not if the building was built in the 17th Century

661

D'oh! ><

lol, well in that case check this post out for an example of stroke backtracing using curved lines.

http://www.inkscapeforum.com/viewtopic.php?p=20063#p20063

It's tricky, but not impossible.