Gimp exact sizes

[icosahedron]

To save me spending a long time looking for something that might not exist...

Is it possible in Gimp to draw a shape, rectangle, circle, etc, of an exact size (eg 5.25cm) and if so, how? I want to do a scale floorplan and I don't want to guesstimate with the rulers if there's a better way.

Thanks.

[Naeddyr]

GIMP has notoriously bad tools for that (to make a rectangle you have to make a selection with the rectangular selector, rotate it with the rotate tool if you want it rotated, do this and that and then you have to Stroke Selection or Fill Selection With Colour X etc. it's horrible), but Inkscape has a bunch of geometric tools, and you can easily change in what measurements you're working. I just checked this in Inkscape by choosing the Polygon/Star tool, making a star, selecting it with the selector and changing the measurements shown in the selector's toolbar. From there, you can easily modify it. And because Inkscape is a vector editor, it is easily scalable. If you need to use it in GIMP, just export it using the export dialog as a raster image, and then use GIMP to edit it. This is basically how I use Inkscape and GIMP: Inkscape to do stuff, and GIMP to do other stuff.

[Redrobes]

Just curious here cos thats exactly what ViewingDale is good at. It can take in any size image and scale it to the real world size you want and it rotates stuff easily and interactively.

So make an image of a decent res but of no exact size or dpi etc and import it. Create and icon for it and use the F7 to set a good rotation point for it. Then use F8 and interactively scale it to real world size like 8ft x 8ft or whatever you want. Then put into your map. On F2 there is a Set Scale menu option so if you are running a map for miniatures which is 1" = 5ft then set the scale to 60. I.e. 60 inches is 1 inch on screen. Then use the save screen image facility on F4 and set the dpi in the box for whatever your printer is - like 300. The app is designed to take out all that faffing with scaling each image to exact numbers of pixels etc.

[RobA]

To save me spending a long time looking for something that might not exist...

Is it possible in Gimp to draw a shape, rectangle, circle, etc, of an exact size (eg 5.25cm) and if so, how? I want to do a scale floorplan and I don't want to guesstimate with the rulers if there's a better way.

Thanks.

Yes and no

As mentioned there are no shape drawing tools. For regular shapes you must use the selection tools and then fill them.

You can specify an exact size or aspect ratio when making a selection. Combine that with setting guides and guide snap gives me pretty good control.

Inkscape is much better for gepmetric work, however, being a vector application. The only newbie caution is that stroke sizes are not included in shape sizes. So if you draw a 10x10 square using the dimensions in the rect tool, and it has a stroke, then using the selection tool you will see it is actually 10x10 plus 1/2 the stroke width.

-Rob A>

[icosahedron]

Ok, so Gimp might do it to some extent, if I can find these settings, but it'll be a pain and Inkscape would do it better.

Thanks guys.


To relieve your curiosity, Redrobes, I did make an abortive start in Viewingdale, but since this is for a modern indoor scene it would mean importing every wall, every floorcovering, every stick of furniture, every bathroom appliance, duplicating the few useable icons in metric sizes... Yes, I'll need all that stuff in the archives eventually, but it's too much all at once, especially as I'd have to draw each element in another application first, cos there's little or no ready-made modern stuff out there.

Viewingdale can scale objects but not draw or paint them. Likewise, it seems Gimp can paint objects beautifully, but can't draw them or scale them easily, and apparently Inkscape can do great drawings and scale them, but can't paint them with textures very well. <prepares for the onslaught from Inkscape users>.



I was planning to do a scale drawing from scratch for the April Lite Challenge. I was trying to avoid drawing an outline in one program, painting it in another and then scaling all the elements together in a third, with lots of messing about with importing, exporting and saving at least three different versions of the artwork in case I needed to revise it later. Especially if I'm a novice with all three.

EDIT: eg, that throne I did recently - I have a doc version that Word Draw understands, an xcf version that Gimp understands, a vmi version that Viewingdale understands, and a png version to communicate between the others and to share with anyone else who wants to use it - what a mess!

I'd love to get one comprehensible program that would actually create something in its entirety, but it seems I might have to use three programs after all - if I can summon the patience.

Actually, the best all-rounder I've ever seen was the Drawing element of Star Office. It was like Word Draw on steroids. It'd be great to get that as a stand-alone without the rest of the Office suite cluttering my hard drive. It did easy and intuitive geometric drawings with full scaling, pattern and gradient fill, boolean combinations and exports to common formats - about the only thing it didn't handle was transparency and layers, and the one I saw was quite old. Might be interesting to see what the latest version can do...

[RobA]

Sounds like you should try that there Xara software. It is a hybrid vector/raster application.

Regarding file types...it isn't in the interest of $oftware companies to encourage open file formats...so the industry standard defaults to the product with the largest market share.

Inkscape is an option, as you can use bitmap fills as well as vector fills. You can scale and rotate the fills with the shapes, or independently. It also has all the boolean operations for working with shapes. With the new filters, it can do all sorts of things like blurs, drop shadows, embossed, etc...BUT it gets real slow when doing that. My last challenge map was mostly inkscape with some gimp bitmap work.

And inkscape can't be used for editing raster images. (Well, except for super basic stuff)

Search google for "heathenx screencasters" to get several dozen great inkscape tutorials.

-Rob A>

[guyanonymous]

What was the program that came out, several years ago, that tried to blend features from vector and raster drawing? I want to say that "X" was part of it's title.

It kept raster components as separate items on your canvas etc...

[RobA]

Xara.

The current version features are here: http://www.xara.com/us/products/xtreme/features/

Another one I liked a lot was Deep Paint, though it seems to have changed corporate focus somewhat...

-Rob A>

[icosahedron]

Thanks for the ideas guys.

[jfrazierjr]

As others have alluded to, the selection tools will work in a pinch and can be made to work fairly well as long as you have simple requirements. As long as you don't have any diagonals, the selection tool will allow your to set your selection to a specific size and at a specific point, so you can get very precise with it as long as you only need to do stuff on the horizontal or vertical axis. It's when you need other angles that you get tripped up and GIMP is no longer easily able to deal...

I use this method quite frequently when making scale bars so I can get them precisely where I want them and have them be the correct size, even with multiple segments.