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Show HN: SVG Path Builder

anthonydugois.com

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Re: Show HN: SVG Path Builder

#2

Post by DanielStraight »

This is really cool and really well done. You should probably put the link to the GitHub page on it and add a LICENSE file to specify if it's open source though!

It would also be really nice to have a feature to hide the points and control points to see what you've made more clearly.

GitHub link for others: https://github.com/anthonydugois/svg-path-builder

Re: Show HN: SVG Path Builder

#4

Post by dheera »

This should just be the interface for path editing in Inkscape. Inkscape already has these features, but you have to randomly and madly left, right, and double-click various things along with some random keyboard modifiers until you get what you want.

On another note, Blender seriously needs a more intuitive interface like this.

Re: Show HN: SVG Path Builder

#5

Post by planfaster »

Look at what I managed to do with this tool:

http://imgur.com/hRJIKBW

You know what that means? That this tool understands Bezier curves better than Adobe Illustrator. Why? Because Adobe has never heard of the phrase "cusp node".

If you have Illustrator, I challenge you:

- Draw a box with 4 sides

- Try and curve the top line without causing the side lines to curve

- Welcome to insanity.

Kudos to the author of this tool. Shame on Adobe.

Re: Show HN: SVG Path Builder

#6

Post by dahart »

Awesome! Definitely using this to make icons. Way handy to have something simple and online, and not have to fire up Inkscape or Illustrator.

Issues I saw: Ctrl-click to add point doesn't work well on OSX, where ctrl-click doubles as right-click and brings up a context menu.

After ctrl-click and seeing the context menu, it gets stuck in add-point mode until I tap ctrl again.

Maybe it would be easiest to add-point when you click in the background, and select-point when you click on a point?

Having an insert-point function would be really handy. Maybe it would be easiest to make it so that add-point checks the selected point before adding, and joins the selected point to the new point.

Might be nice to allow the point type options on the first point, in the case where you close the path? I don't know SVG paths well enough to know if it supports that natively, but if the only way to close a path is with a straight line, it limits the usefulness of having a close path option, yes?

Re: Show HN: SVG Path Builder

#7

Post by dahart »

dahart wrote: post #6

Awesome! Definitely using this to make icons. Way handy to have something simple and online, and not have to fire up Inkscape or Illustrator. Issues I saw: Ctrl-click to add point doesn't work well on OSX, where ctrl-click doubles as right-click and brings up a context menu. After ctrl-click and seeing the context menu, it gets stuck in add-point mode until I tap ctrl again. Maybe it would be easiest to add-point whe…

Oh, and let the general options be collapsible, or at the bottom of the pane. Those are less often used than the point options.

Re: Show HN: SVG Path Builder

#8

Post by blt »

dheera wrote: post #4

This should just be the interface for path editing in Inkscape. Inkscape already has these features, but you have to randomly and madly left, right, and double-click various things along with some random keyboard modifiers until you get what you want. On another note, Blender seriously needs a more intuitive interface like this.

Inkscape could have had the world if they just copied Adobe Illustrator, but instead they came up with their own unfamiliar UI. I'm not saying their UI is worse that Illustrator (although I feel that way personally), but it's not better enough to justify the learning curve. I have to imagine Inkscape contributors were smart enough to realize this, so I guess they were afraid of getting sued. Same goes for Gimp/Photoshop.

Re: Show HN: SVG Path Builder

#9

Post by atonparker »

planfaster wrote: post #5

Look at what I managed to do with this tool: http://imgur.com/hRJIKBW You know what that means? That this tool understands Bezier curves better than Adobe Illustrator. Why? Because Adobe has never heard of the phrase "cusp node". If you have Illustrator, I challenge you: - Draw a box with 4 sides - Try and curve the top line without causing the side lines to curve - Welcome to insanity. Kudos to the author of this to…

Not to take away from how cool this site is, but that is actually really easy to do in Illustrator.

- Draw a box with 4 sides.

- Use the Anchor Point Tool (shift + c) to select the top line and drag it. The adjacent points will split their anchors.

You can use the Anchor Point Tool to convert points between corner mode, mirrored anchor mode, and split anchor mode. Not sure if those are the official terms.

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