Inkscape Path Functions and selection tool

[Music] hello and welcome in this video we're going to be using inkscape a powerful free and open source vector graphics editor if you're new to inkscape and want to learn how to download and have a quick run through of some of the tools available to you click on the link in the top right hand corner and watch the inkscape basics video in today's video we're going to look at a few options that are available with the selection tool we're going to look at rotating an object by 90 degrees we can do this either clockwise or anti-clockwise we're going to look at flipping a selected object vertically or horizontally we're also going to look at how we can order our objects so as we build up an image we can adjust which order the objects are arranged on the page and we're going to look at a couple of scaling options we're also going to look at boolean operators for combining our shapes and paths so the first tool i want to take a look at is our rotation and flip tools which are available to us when we have our selection tool which is the arrow at the top left hand side of your screen i've made up a little man he's just made out of predefined shape so i've just used rectangles and ellipses and i've joined them together using union which we'll be covering shortly um if we select him by clicking on him we can use a rotation and flip tools at the top here so we can rotate by 90 degrees we can do this anti-clockwise or we can do it clockwise and we have the flip tools so we can flip horizontally and we can also flip vertically next along the line we have these tools which when we build up a picture we get several objects all stacked on top of each other and we can change the order by moving them up and down the stack using these ones i've got a few predefined shapes that i've already made so like i say these are just predefined shapes that i've drawn so when we put them on the page you can see they're stacked on top of each other if we want to change the order in which they're stacked we can go up and use these tools at the top we can either let's move it up a little bit so we can see so the first one is drop it to the bottom of the stack so if we click on that one it drops it right to the back we can then move it back up either by using the tool on the right hand side which takes it to the top of the stack or we can step them up and down one layer at a time so we can take it take it back that way back up another thing we can do with our objects is group them once you've grouped objects together they kind of behave like one object so you can scale them together you can move them about together so to group objects we can either click off and drag a box oops sorry drag a box over the top of the objects we want to select or we can select one then holding the shift key down we can select other objects and we can deselect them so once we've got the objects we want to group together selected we can go up the top here and we've got group objects and we've got ungroup objects so we click on group objects and as you can see the boundary box has now gone around both shapes so we can scale these together if we click on them we can rotate them we can move them and if we want to take them apart again then we can ungroup and then they're two separate objects again oh sorry they're both selected so they both move as one so if we click off and then click back on we can move one independently and the other independently um when we group objects the objects have to be next to each other so for example if we take the square and the triangle so we've got the triangle already selected so if i hold down shift and select the square when we group these they put them next to each other so they get brought forwards and put together so let's sorry let's go to the group and we group them and the square gets brought forwards so they're next to each other um it doesn't matter which way around you select them they'll always get brought forwards to the to the the front object and selected that way they stay in the same order so the square is still behind the triangle but they're next door to each other now just bear that in mind if you're making up a complex picture using lots of lots of objects and paths if you group ones that are set apart it may affect the appearance of your picture so just be aware of that so the next tools i want to look at are these scaling options we've got at the top here if we open up our square you can see i've got a stroked path around the outside which gives me a nice black outline now we can either scale this when we scale our object so if we click on it at the moment the stroke scales with the size of the object so as i make the object bigger the line around the outside gets bigger if we turn this off when we scale our object the line will stay the same width so as we bring it down it looks like it's scaling but when we release it or can recalculate so there we go is size the line back to the original size or the the stroke sorry back to the original size if we turn it back on as we drag it out it would it will scale with the size of the shape so the next tool i want to take a look at is the second one along which is uh scaling radius of the corners with the object for this i'm going to get rid of this one because this to lose that we're going to go over to our rectangle tool and we are just going to draw ourselves a nice rectangle if you watched the previous video you'll remember that we have two square handles which we can just use to manipulate the shape of our rectangle and we have a round handle which you can round corners with so if we round the corner then we're going to go to our select tool to get our scaling options as we scale our object at the moment it scales the radius with the object so as we make the object bigger the radius of the corner scales but if we turn that off the radius should stay the same so we scale it up and when we release the radius should change back to its original size there we go so it's no longer in proportion to what it was before so the last thing i want to take a look at in this video are the boolean operators which work on parts and shapes you can find these if you go up to path at the top click on path you've got all your different options available down here so the first one we're going to look at is union this takes two shapes joins them together to form one shape so if we select both of our objects we can drag a box over so now we've got the two objects selected we're going to go up to path down to union click on union and that creates a single shape if we just use our nodes tool we can see that the path goes around the outside these are no longer predefined shapes these are now a path so if you move a node it warps the shape as it would with a path so if we just back step a couple of times to get back our two two shapes the next one i want to take a look at is difference this one we're going to chop a chunk out of our square using our circle as a tool so the circle needs to be on top we're going to select both of them so we drag a box over so they're both selected and if we go up to path difference it chops a chunk out the circle disappears completely uh just leaving the cut out or the square with the cut out corner so we're back step to get our shapes back if we wanted it to do it the other way around so we wanted to use the square to chop a corner out of the circle and what we'd need to do is put them in reverse order so if we got to our select tool again we're just going to drop the circle to the bottom so we're going to use the square so we're going to put that on top of the circle so we can cut a corner out there so we select both of them we go up path difference now it chops the corner out of the circle so if we just back step with ctrl z get our shapes back the next one we want to look at is intersection so as we can see from the symbol it takes the two shapes and just leaves the overlap in the middle so if we go up to sorry we need to select them let's select them go up to path sorry filter path intersection again because the circle was at the bottom we end up with the color of the circle but it's just the intersection between the two shapes next one is exclusion does the opposite this time it just removes the the center section so if we select both of them again when we go up to path exclusion and it's just removed any intersection between them and again the square takes on the color of the circle because the circle was the one that was getting worked on or is one at the bottom after circle we've got division this one works a little bit different what happens i think we just demonstrate it and then we can so we've got to path division this uses the top shape to cut the bottom shape into sections so we click off click on and then we've got two separate shapes so it's literally cut along the path of the second shape sorry just back step get back to the square the next one's cut path so if we select both of them again we go up to path cut path now what's happened is we have our path that goes around the circle but this time rather than cutting it into two separate shapes it's literally just sliced the path so if we click off and click on this we can drag it away so we can see we've literally just got the section of the original path it hasn't put in new lines for the shape you know new edges for the shape is literally just sliced through the the path the next two tools work slightly differently these the first one combine takes the two shapes and combined combines them together so the two parts are combined to create one object so if we go up to path oh sorry we need to select them don't we let's select them we got to path combine now when we move them around they're actually combined into one object if we want to take these apart again we can use the breaker part break apart works on objects that are made up of a selection of individual parts so this one's sorry let's get our selection tool so this one is one object that's made up of two individual paths so we can break those apart again by using breaker parts and we've got it selected go up to paths break apart and that separates out that separates out the two objects again as you can see it's kept the same colors as it was when it was combined i think we've covered everything i wanted to cover in this video in the next video we're going to use what we've learned in the previous two videos to create a simple vector graphic of an owl similar to this one i'll see you next time

Channel: Create For Free

Views: 12,111

Keywords: Inkscape tutorial, logo design tutorial, beginner inkscape tutorial, Illustrator tutorial, beginner illustrator tutorial, Inkscape 1.0.2 tutorial, Inkscape 1.0.2 tutorials, Inkscape 1.0.2 path functions boolean operations explained, path functions, boolean operations, free download, illustrator alternative, learn inkscape, vector program, svg editor, merge shapes, free illustrator, inkscape tutorials, edit path, adobe illustrator, drawing software, free software

Id: PDFsLwSPAiI

Length: 14min 13sec (853 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 25 2021