Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by marcodiego 1518 days ago
I'd love if Inkscape implemented Xfig technical drawing features.
3 comments

So, I've had inkscape (1.0.2-4 on up to date debian testing) crash on me so many times in the last week, in ways that cost me several minutes of work each time. So I've stopped using it for anything.

I appreciate the exhausting amount of work that goes into something like Inkscape, but holy crap. Segfaulting on me. Or leaving a foregrounded window open with no content in it that I can't close and that blocks the rest of the program until I kill -9 it. Very frustrating when I was trying to get real work done.

You're using an old version. there were 3 release after that (1.1, 1.1.1, and 1.1.2).

The 1.2 release is expected in a few days (and it has many features with a ton of bug fixes).

This is not a reason to crash. Last i looked, fvwm 1.24 runed just fine.
I have tried Inkscape a few times over the years, but the extreme instability kept me from adopting it for regular use.
Nowadays Inkscape is really getting better. I rarely encounter any crashes (on Linux or Windows).
Could you mention some CAD features that are available in Xfig but are missing in Inkscape?
Arc from 3 points, add tangent/normal to a curve on a determined point, measure length of polylines and splines, measure area of polygons arcs and ellipses, measure angles, library of elements, all the 8 snapping modes and indication of what each mouse button will do.
* Arc from 3 points: There is a Live Path Effect for that.

* tangent/normal to a curve: there is an experimental Live Path Effect for tangent (You can get the normal by just rotating the tangent 90 degrees)

* Measure length: Many ways to get that: e.g. the measure tool. or you can use the Measure segments Live Path Effect.

* Measuring the area: There is an extension: Extensions > Visualize Path > Measure Path.

* Measuring angles: again, you can use the measure tool.

* Library of elements: Inkscape has symbols Objects > Symbols. You can also add you own symbols. See also https://github.com/PanderMusubi/inkscape-open-symbols

* Inkscape snapping is way better (See the new smart alignement snapping in version 1.2).

* Inkscape also prints instructions on how to use tools on the status bar

Nice! So, I think the UI must make these features more obvious.

Another thing I miss in inkscape (in case you know): I sometimes did some very interesting interactive live geometric demonstrations with Kig. Had inkscape had the same features, I'd use it.

Sorry, I don't know anything about Kig. It seems that it is similar to GeoGebra?

Anyway. You may find this post interesting: https://castel.dev/post/lecture-notes-2/

I am just curious to know. You need to know how to do that in Inkscape or just for the sake of sharing the link?
I just would like something that allowed me the get "the feel" of a technical drawing software.
Yes, this.

Also, I wrote a small library that lets me programmatically generate SVGs with Python. This lets me create very precise vector images. This fills some of the same needs.

There you go, 2d openscad. I want that.
What I really want: wings2d.