Remember how we were taught in school that we can draw circles, ellipses and ovals with a fixed-length loop of string and pins? With one pin you draw a circle, with two pins an ellipse and with three pins an egg-shaped oval... See link here:
Can this somehow be conveniently reproduced in Inkscape? I know there are other ways to draw ellipses and ovals, but what I want is to give the position of the pins and the length of the loop of string and obtain the resulting shape.
No, Inkscape does not have anything like that. But someone who is smarter than I am with geometry, can probably tell you how to acquire the position of the imaginary pins, after you draw the ellipse. I guess the loop of string could be found from the position of the pins and the ellipse. But whoever can tell you that, will know better than me!
It is easy to find the center of a circle, since it has a crosshair at the rotation center (click twice on the circle to see it - not double-click, slow click twice).
It could be made as an extension though. Select a triangle shape and have it converted to an egg. (I wonder if some of the lpe or other path tools also do similar things)
The closest thing is probably the spiro effect which resembles what we used to use as a kid (spirogram). Not quite the same, but worth taking a look at. Extensions>render>spirograph
You can do an ellipse with the spirograph, but not an arbitrary oval. The LPE's can do ellipses passing through given points (which is neat), but not the "pins and string" method.
Writing this extension is a nice little challenge which I might take up if I find the time, but I have a lot on my plate at the moment.
Beginners' Questions Drawing with "pins and string"
Inkscape.org
Remember how we were taught in school that we can draw circles, ellipses and ovals with a fixed-length loop of string and pins? With one pin you draw a circle, with two pins an ellipse and with three pins an egg-shaped oval... See link here:
https://www.robertdickau.com/oval.html
Can this somehow be conveniently reproduced in Inkscape? I know there are other ways to draw ellipses and ovals, but what I want is to give the position of the pins and the length of the loop of string and obtain the resulting shape.
I searched but did not find until now.
Welcome to the forum!
No, Inkscape does not have anything like that. But someone who is smarter than I am with geometry, can probably tell you how to acquire the position of the imaginary pins, after you draw the ellipse. I guess the loop of string could be found from the position of the pins and the ellipse. But whoever can tell you that, will know better than me!
It is easy to find the center of a circle, since it has a crosshair at the rotation center (click twice on the circle to see it - not double-click, slow click twice).
It could be made as an extension though. Select a triangle shape and have it converted to an egg. (I wonder if some of the lpe or other path tools also do similar things)
The closest thing is probably the spiro effect which resembles what we used to use as a kid (spirogram). Not quite the same, but worth taking a look at. Extensions>render>spirograph
There are indeed LPEs for this. Multiple, even, in the 1.0 beta. Check out: https://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/Release_notes/1.0#Ellipse_from_Points
and some more below that.
You can find that (not yet released) Inkscape version at https://inkscape.org/release/master/
You can do an ellipse with the spirograph, but not an arbitrary oval. The LPE's can do ellipses passing through given points (which is neat), but not the "pins and string" method.
Writing this extension is a nice little challenge which I might take up if I find the time, but I have a lot on my plate at the moment.