Let's say we draw some figures/objects, eg circle or rectangle. Make sure either "Fill" is not used or "Fill" is used but "A" is set to 0.

Now it's hard to "grab" such figures: we have to accurately click on the edge of the figures if the "stroke" is thick enough. Otherwise, we have to zoom in to make the edge thicker and easier to grab.

I found this very annoying but I don't know if this behaviour is intended and why it's is intended in this way.

I'm using Inkscape 0.48.2 r9819

Horus wrote:Now it's hard to "grab" such figures: we have to accurately click on the edge of the figures if the "stroke" is thick enough. Otherwise, we have to zoom in to make the edge thicker and easier to grab.

You can adjust the grab sensitivity in 'Inkscape Preferences > Mouse > Grab sensitivity' (default setting is '8'). The value is in screen pixels.

Horus wrote:I found this very annoying but I don't know if this behaviour is intended and why it's is intended in this way.

I usually work with the grab sensitivity reduced to '4' (to be able to select with more precision). AFAIU the current default ('8') is intentional (maybe as a compromise (?)), and personally I would consider it annoying if Inkscape would no longer let me select with the precision I prefer.

Hi Horus,
I'm not sure how you use Inkscape. But in my experience, zooming is an integral part of both intensive and extensive use of Inkscape, especially professionally. I think most users don't think of zooming as a burden.

But leave it to ~suv to have an excellent alternative! If in your use of Inkscape, you normally don't zoom much, then changing the grab sensitivity is an ideal solution

If you like to leave your grab sensitivity low, as ~suv mentions, which I too find convenient, but sometimes need to select a thinly- stroked object as you describe, I have found the alt-drag with (selecting by touch) feature a useful method.

brynn wrote:Hi Horus,
I'm not sure how you use Inkscape. But in my experience, zooming is an integral part of both intensive and extensive use of Inkscape, especially professionally. I think most users don't think of zooming as a burden.

Hi. No, I didn't say zooming is a burden in general situation. But in my situation (and in some situation), the line is so thin that I have to zoom in a lot to have a "grab" and move the object. But the view is so zoomed that I don't see most neighboring objects! So I have to zoom out to see how the object is placed with respect to its neighbours. If it's not good, I have to zoom in, moved again and zoom out, and so on and so forth. This is what I consider as annoying.

Thanks for the "grab sensitivity" option. I didn't know this thing exists

But I'd rather like a "hollow" object can be grabbed just the same way as a "filled" object.

Could you temporarily fill it? You could still leave it 99% transparent, and grab it normally.

Yes, of course. I sometimes use this workaround as well.

I just don't understand why transparency has anything to do with grabbing. I mean, I don't see this behaviour in other graphic editor. Could you reconsider this in the next version? Thanks

Horus wrote:I just don't understand why transparency has anything to do with grabbing. I mean, I don't see this behaviour in other graphic editor. Could you reconsider this in the next version? Thanks

Unlikely to happen (this was discussed at length years ago, and refused by the driving developers at the time). The select tool acts on visible parts in the drawing document (i.e. opacity > 0) only. If you ask why: consider for example more complex drawings or illustrations with many overlapping objects (both filled and unfilled): if you then e.g. create a frame (a stroked, unfilled rectangle) around the drawing, or e.g. a final shading based on a large shape with a precisely positioned gradient [2], you will not be able to select a single shape besides that framing rectangle (or top-most large object) without cycling through all stacked objects below (with <Tab> or 'Alt+click'). What a pain would this be to work with? The current mode of selection allows you easy access (aka to select) any object that's at least partially visible (not overlapped by a filled region with opacity > 0).

[edit]
Someone recently dug out the old bug report with a long discussion about this subject (please don't reopen that discussion unless you have new arguments not already made - though this wish is probably way too much based on 'IMHO' ;) )
-> Bug #196453 “items with 0% opacity are not click-sensitive”
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[edit 2]
[2] oops ;) - I was obviously wrong with this example.
But what about open unfilled curves and paths drawn on top or overlapping other objects below? Following your proposal, they would be selected when clicking on the area which is enclosed when closing the path (connecting start and end node with a straight line segment), i.e. the area that would render filled if a fill color would be assigned.
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