Also, these two tutorials are great for figuring out alignment tricks:
http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/MANUAL/html/Align.html
http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/MANUAL/html/Snapping.html
I believe they’re from a slightly older version of Inkscape, but still 100% relevant.
Oh, that DOES help - I didn’t know you could move the point of rotation!! Thank you!
It is - because ultimately I want to have a short ledge above the front face. This first round, however, I’m using chipboard (target will be acrylic)…
Angles and dimensions are arbitrary - it’s a bird feeder. Wanting to go thru the entire process then start over using what I’ve learned.
That I can do, but it was taking longer than I thought it should, hence the question.
I mean, isn’t it kind of intuitive to be able to align parts along a plane, vs. only vertically or horizontally?
Yes… I was using the manual. In fact, I still have the browser tab open.
The reason I was a little cagey about what it is for is that I have started building a store and expect to be able to sell these. Yes there are similar items out there but I’m incorporating some features that make mine different (and better) than what’s out there. The better mouse trap…
One thing not mentioned is guides. You can pull a guide fro the top side or corner and use snap to guide to set everything horizontal vertical or forty five degrees to those . you can also make objects and turn them into guides so off you want something say 37 degrees you can make a line, rotate it and then turn it into a guide.
There is another very useful tool called transform that you can type specifics of move scale or rotate using specific numbers.
Thank you. Transform I’m familiar with but not the concept of guides.
… except that I mentioned them twice, and even provided a picture. That being said, deep understanding of guides would be handy here, albeit not necessary. You can do all this with relative geometry, which is often simpler and less clutter than using guides. Things get overly snappy to guides pretty quickly when you have a ton of them laying around. Get familiar with edit->delete all guides, it’ll dig you out of a guide jungle.
I second @rbtdanforth. Guides are very helpful too. You can rotate them to any degree you need and use them as the snapping point.
Using nodes for snapping and align is more precise, but getting familiar with all those shortcut icons and understanding their effects takes a bit of practice.
Guides are dragged onto the artboard from a ruler and plopped down. Double clicked and you can edit position.
Haven’t been able to get back to this, but looking forward to this weekend!