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 use the offset command to achieve my result.

Specifically, I have a letter that I put down as text, and then converted to a path. The outline of the letter is a single line. I want to make the outline of the letter a double line.

What I mean by single line:


What I mean by double line:


Thanks for any hints as to which tools to apply.

I'd try making the single stroke wide, then use Menu: Path>Stroke to path.

You could also use path offsets.
Menubar | Path | Inset or Outset or Dynamic Offset or Linked Offset
For all (except "Linked Offset") you need to duplicate (Ctrl+D) your character beforehand and then apply the offset.

Why Inset and Outset do get strange deformations I don't know.
You can easily adjust Dynamic and Linked Offsets which gives you rounded edges.
And of course @tylerdurden's method with Stroke to Path, probably the best if you want sharp corners.

I don't have any different suggestions. But wanted to comment on

drteeter wrote:I am brand new to Inkscape. My only other CAD experience....

Inkscape is not a CAD program. I realize Computer Aided Design is a rather generic label, which could apply to any computer graphics editor. But typically CAD is used as a drafting tool. Inkscape is used by many various different professions. Perhaps it's most used by artists or graphic artists.....arguably....but it's not a drafting tool.

However, there have been countless many requests for more CAD-like features for Inkscape.

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 it might be just right.

Thanks for all this input! I'm working through it all now.

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, make the two paths whatever inset/outset serves my purpose, make their fill invisible, and make their strokes a visible color (e.g. black) such that they convert to laser instructions via DXF or whatever.

...agree, not that easy to find...
Menubar | Edit | Preferences | Behaviour | Steps | Inset/Outset by:

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.

All of the path offsets will curve sharp corners. So if you need to keep corners sharp, you'll need to use Stroke to Path. If the corners don't come out sharp with stroke to path, you probably need to adjust the miter value for the Stroke Join (Fill and Stroke dialog > Stroke Style tab) before stroke to path.

Or you could probably find a font with that kind of double line. Then you just have to type the text.

Although now that you mention a star, maybe you're working on more than just text?

maybe this helps...