Episode 067
Episode 067 – Intro to Spiro
by heathenx
In this episode I take a look at a semi-current development release of Inkscape to show off some of the new Spiro capabilities. Spiro is NOT included in the latest v0.46 stable release. I used Inkscape SVN Revision 19338.
Please review Andy Fitzsimon’s recent blog post on Spiro as well.
Update (10-13-09): If anyone is looking for Spiro then grab a pre-release of Inkscape 0.47 until 0.47 is officially released. The Spiro feature has changed a little but not so much that you cannot figure it out.
Tags: spiro
July 17th, 2008 at 9:45 pm
[...] Episode 067 is live. In it I take a look at an SVN release of Inkscape and show off the new Spiro path functionality. I hemmed and hawed over the idea of this screencast. I didn’t want to screencast features that are still be cooked but I had a change of heart during the last 3 days. Just too excited about Spiro to keep it under wraps I guess. Plus there aren’t many places that one can find Spiro tutorials on the net at this time…so…here’s mine until some one can make a nicer one. [...]
July 17th, 2008 at 10:23 pm
How can we get Inkscape SVN Revision 19338 for Windows?
July 18th, 2008 at 12:55 am
But… where is file? I can’t see download link.
July 18th, 2008 at 2:36 am
@Jarid google for inkscape windows snapshots, there used to be lots of them
@3stan Looks like Heathenx forgot to post a link to avi file, but it is on server: http://screencasters.heathenx.org/wp-content/videos/ep067.avi
July 18th, 2008 at 6:31 am
@Jarid
For Windows users they have it the easiest. Go to Inkscape W32 Snapshots and download a recent 7z archive. For instance, choose Inkscape0807171536.7z. Un-zip it somewhere on your local drive and just the run the inscape.exe inside of the root directory. Nothing to install.
If you want to keep up on the dev releases then you need to re-download a new version every so often. There is a new release every day. They are basically snapshots of that days SVN repo.
@Everyone else…
WordPress 2.6 has broken podpress. That is why my AVI didn’t show up after I posted it last night. @Inkscaper already figured out what needed to be done so thank-you for that. I didn’t even realize that it was broken until this morning. A new version of podpress should be released in the next few days. Until then we’ll get by with directly linking to the AVI’s if needed. Sorry for the inconvenience.
July 18th, 2008 at 7:41 am
Re: Podpress being broken.
Update: I blame heathenx.
July 18th, 2008 at 11:18 am
HOLY CRAP!!! 0_0
I had no idea it was that easy to install the snapshots!! The entire time I was watching I was trying to come up with a “Inkscape+Spiro >= Sex” joke, but none of them did it justice.
SOOOO AWESOME!!
July 18th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
That is an fantastic feature ! It is very less work to create this kind of shapes, so i can drink my beer earlier
). Thanks for your great Screencast.
July 18th, 2008 at 2:15 pm
@SureWhyNot – do beware though. I’ve downloaded nightly builds before that had half the toolbar with invisible buttons.. they worked but you couldn’t see ‘em.
It is a nice easy way to check out the latest work if you’re on Windows though.
July 19th, 2008 at 3:03 pm
this indeed is a very handy feature. can see it being put to use a lot. it’s development like this that keeps inkscape well within the forefront of other programs. this feature still has bugs though. if i make a custom shape, it begins to act oddly. but i can’t reproduce this with a your standard shapes,.. ie square, circle, star. perhaps it is something on my system messing it up. anyway. great feature and thanks for making a screencast for it. have you guys made any big plans for episode 100? can’t wait to see more. thanks for all the help so far.
July 19th, 2008 at 4:28 pm
pretty sure you upgraded to wordpress 2.6 which breaks podpress. i found the problem and the quick fix until an updated podpress can be released. the issue lies with the new wikipedia-style revision tracking system. if you turn them off everything will work like a champ.
add this line to wp-config.php:
define(‘WP_POST_REVISIONS’,0);
i’ve learned a lot since i found your tutorials (just a few days ago). hope this helps…
July 19th, 2008 at 5:39 pm
This is great! I never thought about trying the development versions until this episode. I was watching your screencast & downloading in another tab.
July 19th, 2008 at 6:28 pm
@rudeboy
sweet! I hope that little fix helps. The podpress developer says that he’ll likely have a fix in a little over a week. I doubt I’ll get a new screencast out in that time (maybe Richard will). In case I do I’ll try your workaround. Thank-you for sharing that with us.
July 19th, 2008 at 7:49 pm
it’ll work for the current post as well. the bug just prevents the media file from being attached to the post. after adding the line to your wp-config.php to disable revision tracking you just need to edit this post and re-add your media. worked perfectly on my local music podcasting site.
thanks for the awesome tutorials…
July 20th, 2008 at 8:52 am
@rudeboy
Great! I used your workaround. Podpress now working again. I appreciate this.
July 20th, 2008 at 10:04 am
“… semi-current development release… ”
Nice you want to be on the cutting edge and be the first out of the gate, but if things change in the mean time until the new stable release? I do appreciate your work but no thanks, I’ll pass on this screencast.
Cheers
July 20th, 2008 at 10:26 am
This reminds me of NURBS. Indeed, very nice designs can be made with this. Thanks for lifting a corner of the veil of 0.47!
July 20th, 2008 at 11:08 am
No he didn’t!! Everything that’s in the development snapshots won’t necessarily be in .47
July 20th, 2008 at 11:45 am
@Jaws
Fair enough but I am neither interested in being cutting edge nor the first one out of the gate. I love using Spiro. It’s a brilliant feature worth showing off.
July 21st, 2008 at 11:49 am
fantastic stuff! can’t live without Spiro now that I’ve seen it! wonderful work!
anxiously awaiting .47 – somehow missed release date – do you know when we can get the full version?
truly enjoyed tutorials, very informative – sure made me want .47!
Thanks!
k
July 22nd, 2008 at 7:08 pm
I have no idea when release 0.47 will be released. Rumored maybe later this year but can’t be certain. I’m not in the loop on official release dates.
July 23rd, 2008 at 12:35 pm
Formidable,
Merci beaucoup
cordialement
JFT
July 25th, 2008 at 8:19 pm
Man dudes, I really appreciate your great work. Please keep on doing this you guys are outstanding. I hope this pays you a little bit for your work.
Greetings from Germany
Shiloh
August 1st, 2008 at 5:54 pm
Hello guys,
I have downloaded all your episodes and i have seen them in two days. It is not because i have nothing else to do but because it is very inspiring. Now i am using Inkscape like i know it for i year (i’m using it for a last couple of months)
Anyway thank you for doing this. It is very helpful the beginners like me.
I didn’t try spiro yet but i will do that A.S.A.P. Do you know where is the name from or why spiro?
Take care.
Greetings from Serbia,
August 2nd, 2008 at 9:49 am
Hi Sasa,
That’s great. The quality of our early videos aren’t up to the same standards that we presently use since we made those before the Screencasters even existed.That’s why many of those are on YouTube as well.
If you can get a devel version of Inkscape and try Spiro then great. Don’t worry about it if you can’t. Ep067 was meant to be a preview for future features.
I think one of the Inkscape developers told me that the name Spiro might have originated from the word spirograph. Not sure if that is true but I have no reason to doubt it. Plus it makes sense. Once Tav adds that to his Inkscape Guide (0.47) then we’ll all get the low down on it.
August 2nd, 2008 at 10:01 am
Thanks mate for quick reply. Continue with a great work.
Cheers,
August 10th, 2008 at 6:53 am
Wow this is amaizing, I downloaded 0.47 dev version few weeks ago and I was bit dissapionted because I didnt noticed spiro until now, now I`ve experimented with 0.47 dev and I`m pretty amaized with spiro its so cool and option which make from clipboard “brushes” is pritty fresh for inkscape. I cant wait 0.47 to be relaesed form development.
I didnt knew for screencasters.heathenx.org till now, now its in my opera`s speed dail, and since now I will look on every next episode.
PS. maybe it will be good if you add option for viewing tutorials in low quality video, becaose not every one have fast internet conncetion, eg like me
.
Greetings form Bijeljina.
August 10th, 2008 at 9:58 am
@Dare
Hmm…I’m not really up on all things Opera. Not sure I know about the “speed dial”.
We’re glad that you enjoy our videos unfortunately we’re a pretty small operation and do not have the means to have several more video formats. We really do understand that many of our viewers do not have the best Internet connection. However, we had to make a choice and went with higher quality videos that serve the majority of us. I hope that doesn’t scare you away but maybe you can understand where we’re coming from. If we are able to make lower quality versions in the future then we will.
August 14th, 2008 at 1:46 am
[...] Episode 067 – Intro to Spiro por heathenx (screencast en inglés) [...]
August 15th, 2008 at 1:36 pm
[...] Heathenx en fait une vidéo. [...]
September 2nd, 2008 at 2:53 pm
[...] – Heathenx en a fait une vidéo [...]
October 1st, 2008 at 5:59 pm
[...] Sehr interessant ist das Tutorial über Spiro. [...]
October 4th, 2008 at 8:32 pm
[...] SVN de inkscape, porque quería probar la funcionalidad «spiro» (que había visto ya en el screencast de Heathernx. Me he descargado el código, lo he configurado y lo he compilado sin [...]
November 20th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
I download the latest development version(Inkscape20225-0811201443 – windows). Spiro is not working at all…Can you tell me current working version ?
November 20th, 2008 at 2:14 pm
@saravanan
At certain points in the development phase the application becomes broken. Spiro is definitely broken in today’s build. You’ll need to try an older SVN version or be patient until a newer version arrives.
I’m using SVN version 19921-0809241546.7z and Spiro works just fine. I can post it for you if you need it.
January 23rd, 2009 at 11:23 am
hello heathenx..i have the same problem with saravanan..would love if you can help me by sending other version..maybe your svn version that you use..
btw,i really like this site..keep the goodjob
greeting from malaysia
January 23rd, 2009 at 11:44 am
What operating system are you using? I just compiled a recent devel version for Richard last weekend for Ubuntu. If installed though it will overwrite your stable version.
January 23rd, 2009 at 12:10 pm
thanks heathenx for your email…i have manage to solve the problem by myself..:)
anyway..i’m really enjoying the video..:)
January 26th, 2009 at 10:37 pm
Thanx for the reply
starlight86 >> what you did to solve the problem ?
heathenx >> can you please me give the link to download 19921-0809241546.7z version ?
January 27th, 2009 at 6:52 am
@saravanan
I’m not sure where to find “19921-0809241546.7z”. Have a look at http://inkscape.modevia.com/win32/?M=D to find a recent version.
April 14th, 2009 at 11:45 am
Hi all,
first of all I would like to thank you for your work. It helps me in various situations.
I downloaded the latest 0.46-devel version from this source: http://inkscape.modevia.com/win32/?M=D, version 21115-0904101557.
I can’t follow your tutorial because the behaviour of my release is different from yours. Drawing the first “S” with the pencil in the spiro splines mode (Smoothing 100, Shape None) I’m obtaining a line from initial point to ending point of the “S”!
How can I “set” (if possible) my Inkscape to behave just like yours?
Thanks,
vince.
April 14th, 2009 at 12:12 pm
@vince
“How can I “set” (if possible) my Inkscape to behave just like yours?”
You can’t (unless you use SVN version 19338). The developers changed some things so it isn’t the same anymore. They did this on purpose because they think my tutorials are dumb and because I give Inkscape a bad name…just kidding.
Not all is lost. I use SVN version 20932 and spiro works great in that release. Things won’t work exactly like they did in my tutorial but they are not that much different.
April 16th, 2009 at 3:32 pm
Thanks for your reply heathenx.
I think I can’t obtain SVN version 19338 or SVN version 20932 because these versions aren’t still available in win32 repository.
Do you know any other place where download these (or one of these) versions?
I hope developers will re-arrange things like they were in SVN version 19338 on the 0.47 version…
vince.
April 16th, 2009 at 5:10 pm
@vince
Please tell me what operating system you’re using so that I may help you. I have a deb package for 19338 and a win32 archive for 20932. Really though, I’m not sure why you would want a much older dev release like 19338 anyway. They have made so much progress since then.
June 8th, 2009 at 12:08 am
i have a problem with inkscape dev, when i draw an “s” with the pencil tool or the bezier, the shape close itself by connecting the first and the last control point with a rect line, and filling the shape, how can i deactivate this function? i just want to try the spiro but cant pass this point.
June 8th, 2009 at 12:11 am
oh sorry, i didnt see the coment above, just…unread my last post.
June 16th, 2009 at 12:25 pm
[...] las nuevas caracteristicas encontramos la implementación de libSpiro (video tutorial), autosave (predeterminado cada 10 minutos, hay que editar las preferencias para elevar la [...]
June 17th, 2009 at 9:14 pm
It is June 17th, 2009. I’ve seen this tutorial and I can say I was eagerly looking forward to the release of 0.47. However, this tutorial was made July 17th, 2008 — 11 months ago. And much has changed. I’ve installed the pre-release on Jaunty Jackalope… and things do not work as described in the video.
Naturally, it isn’t fair to ask that this tutorial be updated with each change in the beta releases. However, I have the impression version 0.47 will not resemble the tutorial. The crescendo option is gone and many of the “effects” applicable to lines are gone, leaving 13. Granted, the developers were probably eager to add many new and exciting effects. But they probably proved too unstable for Inkscape in the last 11 months, and found themselves removed.
I hope you will revisit this tutorial when 0.47 is finally released.
June 18th, 2009 at 6:05 am
@BobSongs
Honestly, I didn’t think it would take this long to release 0.47 but I cannot fault any of the Inkscape developers. It was my fault for choosing to demonstrate a feature early in the development cycle. Crescendo and Decrescendo are still there. They have been renamed to Triangle In and Triangle Out.
Currently, there are some things that I dislike about the latest spiro and bezier curve features in 0.47pre0 but I’m hoping those things will be hammered out before the release. For instance, we cannot even draw a straight line or single segment anymore without it disappearing and applying a stroke color afterward. That’s a bit of a step backwards in my opinion.
Even though this tutorial is quite dated I think it’s still somewhat useful, especially the ending. In the very least it gives a viewer a peek-a-boo at what is coming. Nevertheless, perhaps you are right. Maybe I should do a spiro part two episode when Inkscape 0.47 is released.
Thanks for your input.
June 18th, 2009 at 11:40 am
“…but I cannot fault any of the Inskcape developers…”
Agreed. When it comes to Free OpenSource Software the best we Muggles can do is offer some pizza money or help test the latest version to help bug squashing.
“…there are some things that I dislike about the latest spiro… step backwards in my opinion.”
I hear you. And the more I tried to compare the tutorial to the near-final product, the more I thought “golly, heathenx will have to do something with that older tutorial. I’d better comment on it if no-one else has by now.”
“Maybe I should do a spiro part two episode when Inkscape 0.47 is released.”
Voilà. The goal of my post. I imagined that the release of Inkscape 0.47 would bring on a whole fresh set of tutorials with a fresh enthusiasm about the product. This would not be surprising considering your fine work to date.
A word of thanks for your patient tutorials. Each tutorials brings out some aspect of Inkscape with which I was unfamiliar. This better equips us to serve our customers’ graphic needs. I am grateful for your teaching skills.
June 18th, 2009 at 12:26 pm
@BobSongs
Thank-you. I appreciate that (and so does Richard, I’m sure).
Indeed, I have some new ideas for 0.47 screencasts. However, what I could really use is more time to screencast. Dipping my toes in too many other Inkscape (and Blender) fronts. Hard to keep up sometimes.
October 13th, 2009 at 5:06 pm
I just download 0.47 development build 22040 and have the following observations.
First, the “From clipboard” option is not really that much like a brush, per se. It is, more accurately, a thickness scheme. For example, if you make a small square, rotate it 45 degrees, copy it to the clipboard, and use that for a pencil or bezier object, the result will start thin, be thickest halfway through, then go thin again. This is the same as the thickness of the rotated square, viewed from the left side moving towards the right side. Sometimes you can’t exactly see this if the Spiro smoothing does weird things, so set the smoothing to a fairly low value when trying this.
Second, why doesn’t the bezier tool have a smooting setting??
October 13th, 2009 at 6:04 pm
@Aurelian Design
The bezier tool does have a smoothing option. It ls called auto-smooth and it’s a node type. It doesn’t and shouldn’t work the same way as the pencil tool because beziers only lays down one node at a time whereas the pencil tool can lay down a bunch of nodes as you move your cursor. With that many nodes one would find a smoothing option rather handy. At least it makes sense to me.
October 13th, 2009 at 7:31 pm
Thanks for the quick reply. But I don’t get it. When I select the Smoothing “Mode” for the Bezier tool, and then draw a polygon, nothing interesting happens. The nodes are connected by straight lines, and the node types are not the new auto-smooth node type. The hover text for the Smoothing Mode says it will create a Sprio path, but that doesn’t seem to happen.
October 14th, 2009 at 7:03 am
@Aurelian Design
Perhaps you misunderstood what I was trying to explain. Draw a jagged bezier curve first. Something that looks like a heartbeat graph. Make sure you are not using the spiro option. There is a zig-zag option but it isn’t necessary to use to illustrate my point. Anyway, once you lay down a heartbeat looking graph, select the path with your node tool and highlight one of the corner nodes…doesn’t matter which node. Just make sure you don’t select your starting or ending node. Then click your auto-smooth node option from the dynamic node button toolbar. You should get a nicely rounded path where you once had sharp corners.
I understand that this may not be exactly what you were looking for with the bezier tool, nervertheless, I wanted to point out the new smoothing node type that is not the same but similar to smoothing with the pencil tool.
October 14th, 2009 at 12:25 pm
I did understand about the auto-smooth nodes. But I don’t understand why there is a Spiro mode for the bezier tool if it doesn’t do anything. I realize you didn’t write Inkscape, and appreciate all the help you’ve given everyone!!
February 27th, 2010 at 3:40 am
Forgive my sporadic comments; I would *gladly* download and or view online any of your blender tutorials. Four major software products for FOSS in my mind are: Blender3D, Inkscape, GIMP and Scribus, among many other projects.
Note to Richard: Yes, indeed! Many thanks for your valuable input in making these tutorials as well, and to the good folks who help in any unseen way (even if it’s someone who generously donates a casserole as you record). You folks are nearing tutorial 100. I thank you for your patient work.