Remove Tangents Plugin

[akovia]

Joined up today to say thanks to ofnuts for his new Remove Tangents plugin.


If you've ever stroked a path you created and noticed that segments were mysteriously absent or not as thick as the rest, it's because of these tiny tangents. This has been a thorn in my side for years but it has never been fixed in the core. 




I swear I would have given up working with paths in gimp years ago if not for ofnuts. His tools and plugins have seriously overcome the deficiencies inherent in gimp. 

Couldn't find a :notworthy: emoticon, so I'll just settle for this. 

Cheers

[Ofnuts]

Ah, I was wondering why there were so many downloads for something I wrote for a specific person

Now that I have another victim of the problem, I may get an answer to the question: what produces these paths with these random small tangents? Is it Gimp's own Select>To path or do they come from an external source?

[akovia]

(01-27-2019, 08:07 PM)Ofnuts Wrote: Ah, I was wondering why there were so many downloads for something I wrote for a specific person

Now that I have another victim of the problem, I may get an answer to the question: what produces these paths with these random small tangents? Is it Gimp's own Select>To path or do they come from an external source?

I went round and round on the gimp-user-list going back nearly five years ago. I'm pretty sure it started when they introduced Cairo. I do know that there was a Before and After with the path tool. It never did it, then one day it always did it and has never changed since.

I always thought that the path tool was too sensitive. I could avoid the problem by...

• Move mouse to spot you want to place node
  
• Make sure the mouse is perfectly still
  
• Press the button to place the node
  
• Fully release the button
  
• Move mouse to next position
  

This is all easier said than done of course and could never do this perfectly in practice. You lay down nodes in a rhythm and it's hard to perfectly time that sequence without inevitably moving the mouse before the mouse button was fully released. Thus dragging a handle out if only slightly.

With you saying that this happens doing a Select>To path, where you aren't placing nodes at all, my world just upended.

I don't want to spam the forum with the email threads from before, but I'd be happy to forward them to you. Simon Budig responded and acknowledged the problem, but it died on the vine. I brought it up again a couple years later and Simon responded again..

Quote:Wow, that is bad.

I suspect that this is a bug in the Cairo library: the problematic
points have the property that the control handle is very short and goes
into the opposite direction than the actual path. Seems this triggers
some Cairo misfeatures...

How did you create that path?

Bye,
        Simon

I responded of course and forgot about this next part until I just read it again..

Quote:I did want to check for myself and went back and found an old xcf that I
had used a stoke on and still had that stroke on a layer. Then I stroked
it again on a new layer so you can see the difference between the old
and new gimp.

What I discovered is that the handles on the old gimp were pulled out as
well, but stroking didn't show those minor imperfections. Maybe this
will help get to the root of the problem.

Here is the xcf I referenced.

After that someone responded with my favorite...

Quote:Use Inkscape.

I then proceeded to ruffle some feathers and nothing ever happened again. I actually didn't think I was rude at all but apologized anyway.

So there's my story and I'm sticking to it.

[Ofnuts]

I do agree that this is likely a Cairo problem. I don't remember having the problem when doing path by hand., though. Maybe I'm slow

[Blighty]

(01-27-2019, 08:07 PM)Ofnuts Wrote: Now that I have another victim of the problem, I may get an answer to the question: what produces these paths with these random small tangents? Is it Gimp's own Select>To path or do they come from an external source?

I have just discovered what causes these tangents - the mouse.

My old mouse finally gave in. I had an unused one lying around. It came with a USB keyboard. So a year or two old, but unused. Absolutely terrible. Difficult to use at the best of times, and totally unusable for paths.

[Ofnuts]

You mean that when you click to create an anchor, there is a parasitic wiggle that creates small tangents?

[Blighty]

(03-01-2019, 05:44 PM)Ofnuts Wrote: You mean that when you click to create an anchor, there is a parasitic wiggle that creates small tangents?

Yes. I click, but it does a little drag instead. It is this new mouse. The mouse just discarded didn't do that.

I can remember on previous computer there was a setting to set the number of pixels before it is considered a drag, but this computer doesn't have anything like that.

[akovia]

(03-01-2019, 05:29 PM)Blighty Wrote: I have just discovered what causes these tangents - the mouse.

My old mouse finally gave in. I had an unused one lying around. It came with a USB keyboard. So a year or two old, but unused. Absolutely terrible. Difficult to use at the best of times, and totally unusable for paths.

I can see where a more sensitive mouse with higher precision could make the problem more noticeable, but it is definitely a problem in gimp that wasn't there prior to Cairo.

Blighty Wrote:I can remember on previous computer there was a setting to set the number of pixels before it is considered a drag, but this computer doesn't have anything like that.

I don't use windows but you might try adjusting the DPI of the mouse. I'd love to hear if it makes a difference.
https://www.howtogeek.com/321763/what-is...n-windows/

[Blighty]

(03-01-2019, 07:26 PM)akovia Wrote: [quote='Blighty' pid='12958' dateline='1551461390']
I don't use windows but you might try adjusting the DPI of the mouse. I'd love to hear if it makes a difference.

Too late to test that mouse. I threw it in the trash and got a new one. Problem solved.