"Parametric" design in inkscape

I don’t use Inkscape … but, think you were very clear and concise. Think there will be many who will appreciate this!

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I appreciate your liberation from the tyranny of closed shapes. I need some mental reprogramming to allow over-cuts to be “okay”, seems like a great pathway to more flexible design files.

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I agree. I’ve gotten a lot better in F360 since I realized that I can do what people who sketch on paper do. Make lines too long, draw an ellipse only to trim away 90% of it. Draw a rectangle for the start of something that won’t be anything like a rectangle when finished…

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Exactly this. The overcuts that go “into” the notches are necessary to accomodate things if you make your notches narrower in the future. If you don’t extend the paths to overcut, you can end up with partially cut pieces which would be bad.

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This is a masterpiece of explanation and a great use of Inkscape. I’ve thought about using the clone tool more productively to use it as parts of a bigger assembly, but sometimes getting over that initial hump to figure it out just makes me do the easy thing, even though I know I’d have to redesign the whole thing if I wanted to use different material or make it a bigger size.

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Soooo, that’s the other thing to watch out for.

Once you get to too many parts, the GFUI panics and won’t let you separate the clones from the originals – it groups things. So for those cases, I save out a new cutsheet, and destroy the off-screen bits so that all that remains is the grid of parts. Deleting the original paths instantly de-clones them, so it might take a minute or two when you do it while inkscape reconsiders its life choices.

This was the case when I posted that recent 400+ part de-masking.

This is a cloned sheet, but I had to make a copy of the file and unclone them. Just too many paths for the poor gfui.

Of course I kept the cloned sheet, because that’s the point, but when cutting you may have to undo your cool clone array to get it done.

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That’s very clever, it’s the overcut bit that really opens up the possibilities.
Re spliting out the clones there is an option to do that somewhere.
I have a bunch of things I sell where there are four identical shapes on the sheet and I use clones for those, sometimes they are great, sometimes it’s just easier to copy out four items again. But cloning is really powerful.

But, the idea of breaking the object and over-cutting - that is the real trick here.
Excellent idea and write-up

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It’s under Edit->clones->unlink clone.

Or if you’re doing a one-off cut sheet, it’s “delete key” on the original objects :slight_smile:

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You mind is beyond compare figuring this stuff out!:astonished:

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Not at all, not at all. This is just me trying to hack my way to a more adjustable way of doing things, given my complete inability to get familiar with F360. I just find it so cumbersome, so I did this out of desperation.

The funny thing is that we all have different ways of approaching these sorts of actions that to us, whatever we’re doing is “normal”. This always seemed like the obvious way to do things, but I know that is a completely subjective concept. Almost everyone has a trick or two that seems simple to them that other people will think is pure genius.

Like, I bet @rbtdanforth reads this and is like “you’re doing it all wrong!” :). He uses Inkscape to great effect, but often comes at a problem from a very different direction from mine, right down to using different commands to get the same results on some of the more granular actions. This is why I love reading other people’s process descriptions, you get a ton of perspective and new ideas.

BTW, for a direct rbtdanforth influence here, he was the first person to tell me “look at the arrange dialog”. Now I use it on almost everything. Seriously, if you use Inkscape and don’t know about arrange, go check it out.

Anyway, this is me trying to give back, hopefully some of you get some use out of it.

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Okay, you are no dullard in any way, I think this shows just how different we can be internally and still seem pretty much the same species when talking to each other.

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I also struggle when trying to design with that tool… I think I’m unconsciously fighting too hard to make it work like it “should”. But it certainly doesn’t provide a garden path to success!

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I’ve had that problem with other softwares until I learned to bend with code.

After my first real project with F360, during which I cussed, started over, threw things at the monitor, etc. and took days instead of the hour and a half it should have taken, well after that, F360 has come relatively easy for me.

Maybe too easy as I’ll often go there for something simple that I should just do in a vector program.

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I sure appreciate being able to follow along your train of thought. Always learn something! Yes, I’m familiar with the arrange dialog. You mean Align and Distribute right? Or is there something else I missed. A year ago I downloaded Inkscape for the first time and didn’t know how to design a simple keychain. I’ve learned a lot over the last year - with great enjoyment.

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I am a leaf in the wind…

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Wait! I just ran into the Arrange menu! I’ll have to investigate for sure…

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This was exactly my train of thought at the time.

Arrange is really powerful, works hand in hand with align/distribute.

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Last week I invested in this course:
https://logosbynick.com/inkscape/
I’ve only gotten through a little bit; but so far I’ve learned a lot already. He goes in depth into all the features.

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This is my second screen that you might find some useful bits…


Most of the time there is information that just a glance to that screen can tell a lot even when I am not picking on it specifically.

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Just wow! My screen is not that big. :crazy_face:
I downloaded the pic and will scrutinize it!

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