Defining lines with patterns

Try creating a text line like this: "++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++"
Create a bezier curve, select both elements and go to text>put text on path.

Guillermo Espertino (Gez) wrote:

> Try creating a text line like this: "++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++"
> Create a bezier curve, select both elements and go to text>put text on path.

Alas, cave symbol line patterns are usually not text characters. The '+' was just a convenient example I could draw here with my keyboard :(

See for instance the "Intermittent water course." line symbol in http://www.caves.org.au/m_stab-1d.html

This is what start-mid-end markers are for. See stroke style tab in Ctrl+Shift+F dialog.

Alas, these markers do not rotate when following a curved line. Ex. if you draw a T as the mid-marker, they will always appear as vertical Ts, no matter how the line curves. And such settings cannot be named, so you cannot refer to a given mid-marker style throughout a drawing :(

Scissors as mid-markers work fine and are aligned to path. So this is possible. Tried it out myself and it worked fine.

The scissors are indeed rotated to match the line angle where it's inserted. However the scissor image is not morphed to wrap along the line, which is what would be required here.

Moreover, the distance between scissors varies (one appears to be inserted at every control point). What is needed is a way to morph the image to the shape of the line, and have it repeat at a fixed interval. A more common example would be to try to reproduce railroad tracks on a map: you want a series of H on it's side put end-to-end, but you want them to touch each other; not overlap; and follow a smooth curve, not bend sharply between H's.