GSoC2009 Node Tool Rewrite

This page tracks the progress of the node tool rewrite project which is a part of the Google Summer of Code 2009. This project is being implemented by Krzysztof Kosiński, and the mentor is Bulia Byak. This page will be kept updated with the current status of the student's code (it may not reflect the code in the trunk).

Implementation details

(Work in progress)

Control points (Knots) will be represented by a new class called ControlPoint, based on SPKnot, but with a slightly different set of signals. A set of control points will be managed in a Manipulator. Manipulators can be added and removed from a ManipulatorGroup, which takes care of routing events to them.

A subclass of ControlPoint, SelectableControlPoint, can belong to a ControlPointSelection.

ControlPoint signals

• signal_dragged - emitted when the point is dragged to a new position
• signal_grabbed - start of drag. Emitted when there was a click and a move larger than drag tolerance.
• signal_ungrabbed - end of drag
• signal_moved - knot was moved to new position using the move() method.

Order of emission of drag signals:

• signal_grabbed
• signal_dragged
• signal_dragged
• signal_dragged
• ...
• signal_dragged
• signal_ungrabbed

Examples of implementation

• Dragging out handles: the manipulator connects to signal_clicked, and intercepts it if Shift is held. It then creates a new ControlPoint for the dragged out handle and connects to signal_moved, which is only emitted when the drag is finished. in response to signal_moved, the distance between the node and the handle is checked against the drag tolerance; if it's smaller, the handle is deleted and the path is not updated. If it's larger, repr is updated.

• Constrained dragging: the manipulator connects to signal_dragged. In response to it, it calculates the constrained position, calls setPosition (which doesn't emit any signals) and returns true, which prevents the position from being updated. The events still flow only to the control point due to a pointer grab.

• Handle dragging: A control point representing a node will be subclassed, and will know about its handles. Handles will also be subclassed and know about their nodes. There will be an additional handler for signal_dragged, which will update the position of the other handle appropriately.

Feature Checklist

Selection

Feature	Description	Old tool	New tool
Object selection	Selecting objects to node-edit (incl. Shift-click, Alt-click); ignores groups	Yes	Yes
Shape editors	Selecting objects that are not paths shows their manipulators. This is unlikely to get fixed during GSoC, as doing this properly requires at least partially rewriting the shape tools	Yes	No
Selecting single nodes	Whether selecting single nodes with left-click works correctly.	Yes	Yes
Select segment	Click on a path segment to select adjacent nodes. Also works with Shift	Yes	Yes
Selecting multiple nodes	Shift-click to toggle selection of a node	Yes	Yes
Select all	Ctrl+A selects all nodes in subpaths that have something selected, Ctrl+Alt+A selects all nodes	Yes	Yes
Deselect	Esc or click outside of selected paths to deselect	Yes	Yes
Multi-path selection	Selecting nodes in two or more different paths; all per-node actions work on all selected nodes	No	Yes
Rubberband selector	Selecting nodes by dragging anywhere to draw a selection rectangle	Yes	Yes
Prev/Next node	Tab to select next node, Shift+Tab to select previous	Yes	No
Invert selection	! key inverts node selection in selected subpaths, Alt+! in the whole path	Yes	No
Grow selection	Scrolling the mouse wheel when a selected node is hovered over causes the selection to propagate from this node to adjacent nodes in the path (without Ctrl) or to geometrically closest nodes (with Ctrl)	Yes	No
Preserve selection on undo	An attempt is made to preserve the node selection when undoing / redoing	Yes	No
Transform handles	Whether transform handles can be toggled for sets of nodes (needs sensible behavior when one node is selected). Should have 3 settings: never show handles, show for 2+ nodes (default), always show	No	always on

Node transforms

Feature	Description	Old tool	New tool
Move	Moving selections of nodes	Yes	Yes
Move with keyboard	arrows, Shift+arrows, Alt+arrows, Shift+Alt+arrows	Yes	Yes
Scale with mouse	Scaling node sets with the mouse	No	Yes
Scale with keyboard	Scaling nodes with >, <; Alt scales by one pixel	Yes	Yes
Scale handles with keyboard	When only one node is selected, > and < scale its handles	Yes	partial
Rotate with mouse	Rotating node sets with the mouse	No	Yes
Rotate with keyboard	Rotate nodes with [, ]; Alt rotates by one pixel	Yes	Yes
Rotate handles with keyboard	When only one node is selected, [, ] rotate its handles	Yes	partial
Skew with mouse	Skewing node sets with the mouse	No	Yes
Skew with keyboard	Tentative keybinding: / and \ to skew horizontally (corners move by nudgedistance), Ctrl skews vertically, Shift = x10, Alt = one pixel	No	No
Flip nodes	v for vertical flip, h for horizontal, mouseovered node is the center	Yes	Yes
Constrained dragging	Ctrl to restrict movement to axes	Yes	No
Sculpting	Alt to move selected nodes depending on their distance from the cursor and tablet pen pressure	Yes	No
Affect handles	Ability to specify whether handles should be transformed (toggle button)	No	No

Node types

Feature	Description	Old tool	New tool
Read node types	Read and store node type information	Yes	Yes
Basic (cusp, smooth, symmetric)	The second handle is modified according to the node type	Yes	Yes
Auto nodes		Yes	Yes
Smooth nodes at ends of linear segments	When a smooth node appears on the end of a linear segment, its handle should remain colinear with the segment when the node or the handle are dragged	Yes	Yes
Set node type	Node type can be set and the handles are updated	Yes	Yes

Node actions

Feature	Description	Old tool	New tool
Add node with mouse	Double-click on a path segment to add node	Yes	Yes
Insert nodes	Insert a node in the middle of each selected segment (Insert, Shift+I, toolbar)	Yes	Yes
Delete nodes	Del to remove nodes while trying to preserve shape; hold Control to leave adjacent handles alone	Yes	Yes
Join nodes	Join two end nodes into one	Yes	Yes
Weld nodes	Joining non-end nodes welds them into one with averaged position	No	Yes
Mouseover join	If a node is mouseovered when joining nodes, its position is used as the position for the joined node	Yes	does not work with welding
Multi-path node join	Joining nodes in different paths works sensibly	No	Yes
Break nodes	Break subpaths into pieces at the selected nodes	Yes	Yes
Align nodes	Alignment actions in Align and Distribute dialog	Yes	No
Snap nodes	Nodes snap according to snap settings when transformed	Yes	No
Copy / paste subpaths	Ability to add a subpath by pasting it into the selected path	No	No

Segment actions

Feature	Description	Old tool	New tool
Curve drag	Dragging a segment changes its appearance	Yes	Yes
Join segment	Connect two end nodes with a segment	Yes	Yes
Weld segments	Joining segments when non-end nodes are selected replaces each contiguous segment selection with one segment	No	No
Multi-path segment join	Join between subpaths in different paths	No	Yes
Delete segment	Remove a path segment between two nodes	Yes	Yes
Improved segment deletion	Arbitrary number of segments can be deleted at once; selected segments at the start and end of subpath are trimmed	No	Yes

Display

Feature	Description	Old tool	New tool
Unselected path outline	Outline promptly flashes when hovering over a unselected path	Yes	No
Selected path outline	Outline of the selected path is drawn when the "show outline" toggle button is on	Yes	Yes
Curve drag cursor	The cursor changes when hovering over a curve to indicate that it will be dragged	Yes	Yes
Smooth redraws	Dragging doesn't cause excessive tearing or other artifacts	Yes	Yes
Statusbar information	Display the number of selected nodes and useful tips in the statusbar	Yes	No
Path direction	Small arrows on the outline optionally visualize the direction of the path	No	always on, does not update on zooming

Handles

Feature	Description	Old tool	New tool
Handle display	Handles are displayed on the selected nodes and their neighbors	Yes	Yes
Flip handles	v for vertical flip, h for horizontal	Yes	Yes
Lock handle length	Alt to move handles while preserving length	Yes	No
Move along handles	Ctrl+Alt to restrict node movement to the handle lines	Yes	No
Drag out handles	Shift + mouse drag to drag out a handle that coincides with a node	Yes	Yes
Retract handles by dragging	Drag a handle near its node to hide it; Retracting both handles of a Bezier segment makes it a line	No	Yes
Retract handles with click	Ctrl+click retracts a handle	Yes	Yes
Restrict movement	Ctrl to restrict handle movements to ~15 degree angle increments from axis-aligned and the original angle	Yes	No
Snap handles	Handles can be snapped to other snap targets	No	No
Copy / paste handles	Ability to copy and paste handles between nodes	No	No

Extras

Feature	Description	Old tool	New tool
Drag tolerance	Drags shorter than a configurable distance are regarded as clicks	Yes	Yes
Clip / mask editing	Buttons to edit the clipping and masking paths in place	Yes	Yes
Multi mask edit	Can edit the clipping and masking paths of several items at once	No	Yes
Grouped masks	Can handle groups used as clipping paths or masks	No	Yes
Path effect param editing	Button to to edit the next path parameter of the selected live path effect	Yes	No
Prefs page	Node tool preferences page with various settings	Yes	No

Inkscape key guide for the node tool - more detailed description of the old node tool's features