Object on path in ver 1.13

[wyndham (Wyndham Dennison)]

I have tried to create a box and have a circle follow the path of the box and even though i have zero offset, set the circle does not follow on the line. It’s as if there is a hidden offset being applied to the small circle. This is for making cut hole for leather stitching. I start by making either a rectangle or oval .I select it then convert to path. I make a small circle, place it on the rectangle line, select both the choose follow path and choose the mm size but it offsets the path of the rectangle. Is this a bug in this feature that may have been solved in the current version

[berainlb (PY)]

This is explored fairly in depth in this Topic. Take a look.

Copy along path bug

I’m making a small drawstring bag. I created a rectangle 100mm x 140mm. I then put a radius of 50mm on the bottom 2 corners making a cup or shield sort of shape (rounded bottom of the bag). Then I created a tool layer (T2) by using the Offset Shapes tool and shrinking by 4 to create my stitch line. Using the Edit Nodes tool, I deleted the top line leaving a “U” shape as my stitch line. I create a 1mm circle and positioned it (centered) on the top left corner of the stitch line. I then selected…

[jbrown123 (James)]

Wyndham, it has to do with where the “start” of the path that defines the box is located. You need to place your circle near or on top of that start point for it to do the right thing.

There is a “hidden” (ok, I think it’s “hidden” because it’s not on the tools menu) tool on the left side that will show you where LB thinks the box starts. The tool causes an arrow to appear on the path at the start that shows the “direction” of the path.

So, for this same square path, starting at the upper left hand corner (opposite the “start” arrow) produces the following:

But, if I move that same circle to the top right corner, you get the expected output.

If you read the thread that Berainlb pointed you to, you’ll see there are also some bugs / anomalies as well (mostly having to do with non-closed shapes) but this has generally fixed the problems I was having.

Hope this helps!

PS. I forgot to mention, you can also do “offset” points and it will follow the path as well, as long as you understand how the algorithm works.

Here’s an “outside” set of holes.

And an “inside” set.

As you can see, they aren’t necessarily “evenly” spaced by what you might expect. It does actually make sense if you understand how the algorithm is placing them. I’ve found it easier to just create the path I want (using, for example, the outline tool and a tool layer) and place the circles directly on the path rather than try to figure out how the tool is going to interpret what I’m asking for.

Here’s an example of an “inside” set of holes using that technique.

I converted that inner line to a tool layer (T2), and then followed that path.

There we go, that’s what I wanted!

[wyndham (Wyndham Dennison)]

Thanks, that will solve my head scratching

[wyndham (Wyndham Dennison)]

Just tested it out and it works great. The tool to indicate direction is the next to the bottom tool on the left hand side