I'm following a tutorial, to create a banner. I've done it 2 or 3 times now, and it's not working how it should do. My problem is when I create a rectangle, add a stroke to it, then the tutorial says I should, path>stroke to path, then path>break apart, followed by path>union. I'm assuming this should leave me with an empy rectangle, but it doesn't. Have I got something set that I shouldn't have, that's stopping it from working? As I said, I have followed the tutorial, to the word, and can't get the result I should.
Be aware that there have been some changes to the Stroke to Path behaviour over the years, particularly with 1.0.x. This might be the source of your problems. Coincidentally it's also the subject of my tutorial article in Full Circle Magazine this month, which has just come out and which can be downloaded free-of-charge from here:
Does your rectangle have a fill? If so, try removing that and see if the remaining steps work.
The steps you've described won't work on a filled rectangle in 1.0, so I'm guessing that the tutorial is based on 0.92, or assumes a rectangle without a fill. Here's what those individual steps do:
Stroke to path will convert the stroke into a filled path consisting of two sub-paths.
Break apart on that will turn those two sub-paths into separate paths, one inside the other.
Union combines those paths in such a way that effectively only the outer path remains.
In other words, based on your description, I would expect the end result to be a filled rectangular path which matches the outer dimensions of the original stroke. If that's not what you're seeing then please provide more details, including your Inkscape version, a copy of the SVG file, and ideally a link to the tutorial in question (if it's a video tutorial, a link directly to the right timestamp would be best, or provide the timestamp in your comment).
Beginners' Questions Stroke to Path
Inkscape.org
I'm following a tutorial, to create a banner. I've done it 2 or 3 times now, and it's not working how it should do. My problem is when I create a rectangle, add a stroke to it, then the tutorial says I should, path>stroke to path, then path>break apart, followed by path>union. I'm assuming this should leave me with an empy rectangle, but it doesn't. Have I got something set that I shouldn't have, that's stopping it from working? As I said, I have followed the tutorial, to the word, and can't get the result I should.
Be aware that there have been some changes to the Stroke to Path behaviour over the years, particularly with 1.0.x. This might be the source of your problems. Coincidentally it's also the subject of my tutorial article in Full Circle Magazine this month, which has just come out and which can be downloaded free-of-charge from here:
https://fullcirclemagazine.org/issue-162/
Thanks. The tutorial was March this year, so I don't know.
Can you link to the tutorial in question?
Does your rectangle have a fill? If so, try removing that and see if the remaining steps work.
The steps you've described won't work on a filled rectangle in 1.0, so I'm guessing that the tutorial is based on 0.92, or assumes a rectangle without a fill. Here's what those individual steps do:
In other words, based on your description, I would expect the end result to be a filled rectangular path which matches the outer dimensions of the original stroke. If that's not what you're seeing then please provide more details, including your Inkscape version, a copy of the SVG file, and ideally a link to the tutorial in question (if it's a video tutorial, a link directly to the right timestamp would be best, or provide the timestamp in your comment).
Sorted thanks. He actual did an update tutorial, showing the new differences, which I have now watched.