Submitted By: brynnDate: March 09, 2014, 11:09:55 AM Views: 22839 til December 11, 2019
What To Do When A Tool Stops Working
(Or Tools are Drawing Invisible Objects)
By default, whenever you draw a new object with Inkscape, that object takes the style (color, stroke width, transparency, etc.) of the object which was last drawn with that tool.
Usually we find that someone has made an object transparent, and thus, the next object they draw with that tool will also be transparent.
There are a few places to control transparency:
Fill and Stroke dialog on both the Fill tab and Stroke Paint tab, look at the A: slider (alpha) which should be all the way to the right, with a value of 255
Fill and Stroke Dialog at the bottom, the Opacity slider should be all the way to the right, with a value of 100%
Layers can be made transparent as well. Layers menu > Layers opens the Layers dialog. Check Opacity slider for each layer (all the way to right, 100%)
Also in Layers dialog, make sure the eye icon is open , and the Blend Mode is Normal
If the non-working tool is a shape tool
(Rectangle , 3D Box , Ellipse , Star , or Spiral ) and it's drawing something,
but not what you want, chances are that the last time you used it, you moved one or more of the handles that control it's shape.
The handles appear when the shape tool is engaged, and the object is selected.
They are tiny squares and circles (and I think there are diamond shaped handles somewhere).
To return the shape to it's default, for Star and Spiral tools, click this button which is on the right end of the control bar.
For the Rectangle tool, this button makes rounded corners sharp again.
For the Ellipse tool, this button makes the ellipse whole again.
The 3D Box tool doesn't have a default button.
Another possibility is that you have turned the fill and/or stroke off completely.
After you draw a new object, and without deselecting it (and even though you might not be able to see it)
go to Object menu > Fill and Stroke > Fill tab, and/or Stroke Paint tab.
If you see this button is engaged, you've solved the problem, because that button turns off the fill (if you're on the Fill tab) or the stroke (if you're on the Stroke tab).
To replace the fill or stroke, click the solid blue button (assuming you want a solid fill or stroke). (The other buttons apply gradients, patterns or do other things.)
Once you know all these places to check, you'll be able to change the style of objects to your liking, as you draw.
However, there IS a way to set your tools to have custom styles, which will not change, no matter how much you may edit objects later.
(For example, I have all my tools set to draw in a 1 px black stroke, and no fills.)
the invisibility problem can have other reasons as well.
To name a few:
object is drawn inside a group, and this group's opacity was set to 0%
object is drawn inside a clipped group, outside the clipped area
object is drawn inside a masked group, outside the masking area
object has a filter applied which filter makes it appear transparent
object has a gradient fill containing a transparent section which covers the whole object -probably paired with an additional issue: the move gradients with objects option was not enabled.
object has a pattern fill which has either a transparent part rendered or the rendering of the fill is at fault
object has a mesh gradient fill set but the mesh gradient nodes are not covering the object's boundaries
Whichever be the case,
always look at the bottom indication line of the screen.
It will tell you what object you have selected, like rectangle inside a group (clipped), filtered (filter:transparent).
Also, without opening the fill and stroke tab (Shift+Ctrl+F), at the bottom left, next to the indication bar, there is a small part on the screen which displays the object's fill and stroke attributes.
If it has an alpha value in those, a checkerboard background is displayed.
If object opacity is set to 0, then 0% is displayed in the spinbox.
Additional tip:
switch to outlines only rendering mode for checking what's supposed to be appearing on the screen. Press Ctrl+5 on the numpad twice.
If it's a fill/opacity setting -except for layer visibility switched off) then the objects should appear drawn with their edges displayed as a hairline.
Clipping area is rendered with a green hairline, masking is rendered with a blue hairline.
Upon switching between rendering modes a filter resulting in transparent appearance can be revealed too,
as rendering with no filters view is right between the normal rendering and the outlines only rendering modes.
If you are having this problem the easiest solution I have found is to open the Selectors and CSS dialogue.
It lists all the rules applied to the object. Simply delete the rules that seem to be causing the problem. If you're unsure delete them all and reapply using the usual methods.
To open the dialogue use either Shift+Ctrl+Q or Object -> Selectors and CSS...
Tips, Tricks, and Tutorials What To Do When A Tool Stops Working
Inkscape.org
Tutorial mirrored from here.
What To Do When A Tool Stops Working
(Or Tools are Drawing Invisible Objects)
By default, whenever you draw a new object with Inkscape, that object takes the style (color, stroke width, transparency, etc.) of the object which was last drawn with that tool.
Usually we find that someone has made an object transparent, and thus, the next object they draw with that tool will also be transparent.
There are a few places to control transparency:
Fill and Stroke dialog on both the Fill tab and Stroke Paint tab, look at the A: slider (alpha) which should be all the way to the right, with a value of 255
Fill and Stroke Dialog at the bottom, the Opacity slider should be all the way to the right, with a value of 100%
Layers can be made transparent as well. Layers menu > Layers opens the Layers dialog. Check Opacity slider for each layer (all the way to right, 100%)
Also in Layers dialog, make sure the eye icon is open
, and the Blend Mode is Normal
If the non-working tool is a shape tool
(Rectangle
, 3D Box 
, Ellipse 
, Star 
, or Spiral 
) and it's drawing something,
but not what you want, chances are that the last time you used it, you moved one or more of the handles that control it's shape.
The handles appear when the shape tool is engaged, and the object is selected.
They are tiny squares and circles (and I think there are diamond shaped handles somewhere).
To return the shape to it's default, for Star and Spiral tools, click this button
which is on the right end of the control bar.
For the Rectangle tool, this button
makes rounded corners sharp again.
For the Ellipse tool, this button
makes the ellipse whole again.
The 3D Box tool doesn't have a default button.
Another possibility is that you have turned the fill and/or stroke off completely.
After you draw a new object, and without deselecting it (and even though you might not be able to see it)
go to Object menu > Fill and Stroke > Fill tab, and/or Stroke Paint tab.
If you see this button
is engaged, you've solved the problem, because that button turns off the fill (if you're on the Fill tab) or the stroke (if you're on the Stroke tab).
To replace the fill or stroke, click the solid blue button
(assuming you want a solid fill or stroke). (The other buttons apply gradients, patterns or do other things.)
Once you know all these places to check, you'll be able to change the style of objects to your liking, as you draw.
However, there IS a way to set your tools to have custom styles, which will not change, no matter how much you may edit objects later.
(For example, I have all my tools set to draw in a 1 px black stroke, and no fills.)
Here's a tutorial: Customize Your Inkscape Tools' Styles.
And finally, if it's a key shortcut that doesn't seem to work, try clicking once on any open area of the canvas.
Sometimes you just need to bring Inkscape's attention back to the canvas. Of course, this will deselect anything that might be selected.
So if it's a difficult selection to make, and you don't want to lose it, try switching to the Node tool and click a node.
That brings Inkscape back to the canvas, and you can switch back to the Selection tool and try the key shortcut again.
So that's about all I can think of. If anyone has another tip to add under this subject, please feel free to comment, below.
And if you still can't solve the problem, please feel free to post it in the questions section of the forum.
Brynn
3-9-14
To clarify: the starting post was hosted at inkscape community forum as an article,
here
https://forum.inkscapecommunity.com/index.php?action=articles;sa=view;article=18
Quoting it with minor reformatting as that site will be down in the future.
On the article:
the invisibility problem can have other reasons as well.
To name a few:
Whichever be the case,
always look at the bottom indication line of the screen.
It will tell you what object you have selected, like rectangle inside a group (clipped), filtered (filter:transparent).
Also, without opening the fill and stroke tab (Shift+Ctrl+F), at the bottom left, next to the indication bar, there is a small part on the screen which displays the object's fill and stroke attributes.
If it has an alpha value in those, a checkerboard background is displayed.
If object opacity is set to 0, then 0% is displayed in the spinbox.
Additional tip:
switch to outlines only rendering mode for checking what's supposed to be appearing on the screen. Press Ctrl+5 on the numpad twice.
If it's a fill/opacity setting -except for layer visibility switched off) then the objects should appear drawn with their edges displayed as a hairline.
Clipping area is rendered with a green hairline, masking is rendered with a blue hairline.
Upon switching between rendering modes a filter resulting in transparent appearance can be revealed too,
as rendering with no filters view is right between the normal rendering and the outlines only rendering modes.
Hopefully I'll have these on the main website shortly.
Thank you so much!!!
If you are having this problem the easiest solution I have found is to open the Selectors and CSS dialogue.
It lists all the rules applied to the object. Simply delete the rules that seem to be causing the problem. If you're unsure delete them all and reapply using the usual methods.
To open the dialogue use either Shift+Ctrl+Q or Object -> Selectors and CSS...