Does Liberation trace out an SVG in a specific order? And where within a path does it start? When writing out letters and I want to control where it starts on each letter, should I have the whole thing be one path and mask over the line between letters? (Similar to neon signs in the real world)
Hi @Brian_Dadin,
Good question!
The draw order is by layer order, effectively bottom to top. In Inkscape you can open the Layers and Objects panel to see the exact order the paths will be drawn in, as Liberation follows that structure when importing SVGs. You can reorder them in that panel or else use the Object → Raise / Lower functions.
Each individual path also has a direction, which determines where the laser starts and which way it travels along the path. Select the node tool, then click on a shape. You’ll see little half
arrows along the path. If you don’t see them, try changing to View→Outline mode. You can then use Path → Reverse if you also need to flip the draw direction.
If you have a closed loop and want to control where it starts, you need to explicitly break it at the desired start point:
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Select the path.
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Switch to the Node tool (‘n’ key or F2).
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Add or select a node where you want the laser to start.
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With that node selected, click Break path at selected nodes button, it looks like this :
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You will now have two open ends.
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Select the two other ends that you want to reconnect, then click the Join Selected Nodes button :
This effectively moves the start point of the path to the location you chose, without changing the visible shape. This approach gives you precise control over start position on closed shapes, which is especially useful for lettering and continuous line work.
Hope this helps!
Seb
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Thanks. I’m using Illustrator which does not have the nice path direction view. However, I figured out that in Illustrator you can add arrow heads to the strokes and determine direction and starting/ending point from that.