Episode 034 - Circular Array/Pattern
August 21st, 2007 by heathenx
You know the drill. I uploaded my latest screencast, Episode 034, to the screencasters’ web site. This is a simple and quick tutorial illustrating how to array an object in a circular pattern. Easy stuff.
I actually clipped this from Tavmjong Bah’s tricks page on his online Inkscape manual. Tav’s manual is a valuable resource for any Inkscape user. Check it out.
August 22nd, 2007 at 4:00 pm
You can draw a simple star, ale drag center of circles to the end of her arms.
August 22nd, 2007 at 5:23 pm
Ah! That’s a great tip. Thank-you.
August 23rd, 2007 at 12:18 pm
Hi!
Just watched this screencast and have one small correction and a few comments.
While manually rotating, you stated that holding the ctrl key caused the shape to rotate about the center. The ctrl key will actually constrain the object to 15 degree (or whatever is specified in the properties) snaps when rotating.
One suggestion is while manually rotating (with the ctrl key or without) you can just use the space bar to stamp copies while rotating (or dragging, for that matter) rather than duplicating the object. This ends up much faster (and is a great technique).
Lastly (for both the clone copy or manual rotation) rather than drawing a bounding box or a bezier line, just click twice (to get the rotate handles) then drag the rotation center (the small plus sign that appears) wherever you want the shape to rotate about. Both manual rotation with the handles and cloned copy respect this center of rotation!
Hope these come in handy!
August 23rd, 2007 at 2:21 pm
Yes, those are great tips. Keep in mind though, I certainly do not show every imaginable way to illustrate something. There are just too many ways to go about things in Inkscape. That’s one of the reasons I love this program. It’s flexible.
Btw, I wasn’t even aware that one could drag the center point out from a circle. That is a fantastic tip. That is a much much better way to do it. I love learning new things.
Thanks, Rob