Hi,

I'm trying to create a "3d shaded look" for drawing cables and wires with a plastic coating on them. I think this can be achieved by drawing a path and shading the edges of the path to be darker than the centre.

This is shown (for drawing pipes) nicely in an Illustrator here, although I'm having difficulty recreating this effect in Inkscape.

So far, I've been following the discussion at: viewtopic.php?t=10242, where it is shown that a pattern can be applied to a path. However, when I try to do this with a pattern that only varies radially (not longitudinally), it doesn't attach properly to the path (using the Extensions -> Generate from Path -> Pattern along Path option).

My example concept is attached. The alternating red and yellow squares are taken from the aforementioned link and attach nicely to any path. When I draw a new pattern (the red path containing a thinner yellow path), I cannot attach this to the path properly.

Could anyone help please? Either to get the method above working, or by suggestion other tutorials for nice-looking cables and wires?

Many thanks

Hi.

By the look of your svg it seems you are using the pattern along path extension, which has a "feature" of not bending straight segments. If you change the original pattern path to have curved segments on its long sides it will be stretched right.

To be fair probably filtering can give you a more straightforward shading, with all its limitations.

See
viewtopic.php?t=16369

This file is actually included in Inkscape, if you lose track of this link: https://inkscape.org/en/~inkscape/%E2%9 ... le-rope-3d

It's just another way to do it. There are at least a few ways to create a shading effect, and maybe even several to many. It kind of depends on the style of your drawing, and your own preference, as to how you want to approach it.

Are you looking for something realistic? While that Rope tutorial is fairly realistic, there's a way to use Inkscape's Markers to achieve a very realistic look. But it's not a newbie skill. It will take some study for a newbie. But we're here to answer questions, if you get stuck.

This tutorial shows the basic concept: Fake a Curved Gradient Using Inkscape

And then Lazur picked up on it, and really perfected it for bending a chrome rail. Not exactly the same as wires, but probably close enough that it would work. Bending a Chrome Rail

And for yet another way, you may have seen some cartoons that use a different kind of shading style. I can't refer you to one specifc tutorial, but somewhere among the first of Chris Hildenbrand's series of tutorials, is probably a single tutorial which explains it. But he really uses it throughout the series: http://2dgameartguru.com/ (Basically, this approach is to draw separate objects which become the shadows. Sometimes this style uses blur and sometimes not, depending on the style of the artist or the art.)

I'd say the cartoon/comic shading style is probably the easiest to learn. But is probably the least realistic (of course, being cartoons/comics).

On this page is a section called "Cartoons - Comics - Game Art" which has links to a couple of different series (plural of series is series, right?) of tutorials that use a cartoon/comic style. https://forum.inkscapecommunity.com/index.php