Re: basics

Hi Sosman

The shape you are trying to make will be difficult to accomplish until 
SodiPodi 0.34 is
released, which (according to Lauris) will incorporate boolean drawing 
tools.

That will allow you to create a disc, and cut two half-discs out of it 
to make the
vector shape you are searching for. According to what I've seen most 
printing
shops do, however, your "workaround" should be fine because they will 
print it
out and manually cut a vinyl template from it anyway. I have yet to see 
a printing
shop than can accept .SVG files, they often take a high-resultion JPEG 
or TIFF
image rendering of your SVG. (Export to PNG with SodiPodi, and convert 
to TIFF with
whatever app you like, e.g. GIMP, Photoshop)

Though the SVG format does support many nice features, SodiPodi is 
still quite immature and does
not provide user interface features do to many things, and this 
includes arcs. (If it
can create arcs, somebody correct me :-/)

It does support the display and editing of them though, so if you're
not scared of a bit of hand-editing, then open your SVG file and paste 
the following
in the <svg> node:

<path d="M275,175 v-150 a150,150 0 0,0 -150,150 z" />

Which creates a basic arc (90 degrees) - read more about this command 
at:
http://www.w3.org/TR/SVG11/paths.html#PathDataEllipticalArcCommands


Joining the ends of an arc (or any two nodes, for that matter) is 
simple:

- Select your 2 nodes using the node tool (F2): Shift-click to
   select multiple (They turn blue)
- In the "Nodes" toolset (bottom of toolbox) click the "Join lines
   at selected nodes with new segment" command.


Centering concentric circles:

- Create your circles (of different sizes, I presume) and select them
   all (drag box around them with Select Tool (F1)) or shift+click.
- Right-click -> Dialogs -> Align and Distribute
- Select the "Center Horizontally" and "Center Vertically" icons.


regards

Dawid Loubser

Solms Training, Consulting and Development
www.solms.co.za



On 04 Feb 2004, at 11:05, sosman wrote:

> I am having difficulty with even the most basic things with sodi podi.
> I am sure it can do what I want judging by pics people have done with 
> it
> but I have almost zero experience with vector drawing packages.
>
> The kind of graphic I want to make is embarassingly simple, in fact I
> got something looking like what I want at http://metrak.com/tmp/no.svg
> but I cheated by just using a circle and line then adjusting the stroke
> width.
>
> I suspect when I send this to my print shop to cut out a vinyl mask the
> result won't be what I would like.  I guess I really need to make the
> outline of the shape into vectors.
>
> Some basic things I haven't figured out:
>
> - how to construct an arc with the "circle, ellipse and arc" tool.
> - how to join the ends of an arc with a straight line.
> - how to centre concentric circles and then make sure the line is
> symmetrical.
>
> If any one could point me at a basic tutorial or give me a heads up on
> these newbie questions that would be most appreciated.
>
> cheers
>
>
>
>
>
>
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