Welcome back to Lesson 3 as we learn to use Inkscape to make scroll saw patterns. In this lesson, we'll be aligning our objects. This will play an important role in designing our patterns as we line elements up for symmetry or distribute them equally across our pattern.

Inkscape offers layers much the same way GIMP does. Each layer can hold any number of elements. The visibility can be toggled on and off and you can lock the layers from being edited. This is a very useful tool if you are working with large and complex graphic art illustrations. However, for our needs, we'll only use the default layer (layer 1) to put together our designs.

We won't be discussing Layers in this class, but if you wanted to play around with them, you'll find the Layers menu at the top. There you can create new layers, delete them, reorder them, rename them, and more.

You can choose which layer you're working on at the bottom of the screen. You can also lock the layer, and toggle visibility in this section as well.

Within a layer, we can have multiple objects. These objects have an order. One object will stack (or cover) another object. By default, the object order depends on the order in which you create them. So your first object will be on the bottom, your second will be on top, and your third object will be on top of all 3. We'll be needing a way to change this order when we create our patterns.

Create 3 shapes to experiment with (a square, a circle, and a star). Move each object so that it overlaps the other two. Choose your Selector Tool from the Tool Box and select an object. In the Options Bar, you'll see an object order selection. By clicking one of these buttons, you can raise or lower your selected object's order. The first button will send the selected object all the way to the bottom. The next button will move your selected object down one level. So if you want the top object in the middle, you'd select the top object and push this button once. Now it will be in the middle. The next two buttons work the same way but will raise the selected object instead.

I prefer using keyboard shortcuts. Page Up and Page Down will raise the object one level above or one below respectively. Home and End will either raise the object to the top level or the bottom level respectively.

Grouping is a way to organize elements and makes manipulation of those elements easy. When several objects are grouped, those objects act as a single object. When you ungroup them, they become separate objects once again.

To create a group, select several objects. At the top of your screen in the Tool Bar, you'll find a Group and Ungroup button. I prefer using the keyboard shortcut, Ctrl+G for group and Ctrl+Shift+G for ungrouping.

When you have a group, you can manipulate that group as if it was one object. You can change the fill and stroke color of all of the objects within that group. You can resize and rotate the entire group. Their same relative position remains the same within the group without coming out of alignment. Groups also make it easy to organize elements. Perhaps several shapes will make up a more complicated shape. You can group these objects into one object, then duplicate them for use in another part of your design. Moving the objects and manipulating them as a group will make your life so much easier.

You can use horizontal and vertical guidelines to line up objects and for reference points. You can add guidelines by moving your mouse into the rulers on the top and left side of your work area and dragging them out. To move an existing guideline, hover over the guideline. When it turns red, it means you can click and drag the guideline to where you need it. If you need the guideline at a specific area, double-click the guideline and a pop-up dialog box appears where you can type in the specific location. To remove a guideline, simply drag the guideline back into the ruler.

Objects will automatically snap to the guidelines, so you can use them to align objects pretty easily. You can also use a horizontal guideline as a reference for placing objects. If you need to rotate a pattern so that two points meet a horizontal surface for stability (a puzzle, car, or word art), a horizontal guideline is a great reference.

The Align and Distribute tool will take all the guesswork out of lining up your objects. It will place items in a precise area relative to other objects. You'l be using this tool constantly. So take some time and get familiar with it.

To use this tool, click the Align & Distribute button on your Tool Bar. This will pop up a docked dialog box with your options. You'll notice the Align & Distribute dialog is broken up into 4 sections. The first two sections are where we'll focus our attention.

The Align box starts with a pulldown menu next to Relative To: When aligning objects, you must tell the program what to reference when aligning. You have several options. First Selected and Last Selected refer to an anchor object. This is the object to which the other elements will align themselves to. So if you chose First Selected, the first object you select becomes your anchor object. Likewise, Last Selected, the last object you select becomes your anchor object. We'll discuss how this works in a moment.

Biggest and Smallest will choose the object in your selection that is the biggest or smallest (depending on which you chose) as your anchor object. All other items selected will position themselves relative to this anchor object. I've never used these options, but on rare occasions, they could prove useful.

Page is nice when you want to center your pattern on your page before printing. Group your pattern and center on the horizontal and vertical axis. Now you're ready to print!

Drawing refers to the entire drawing. This includes elements inside and outside your paper. It figures the perimeter based on objects on the outer edges of all of the elements (top, bottom, left, and right), based on that, it will align your object relative to this calculated perimeter. I've never used this option and really don't see the value. But it is available if the time arises.

Selection is the option I use most of the time. When you select multiple objects, it will position those objects relative to one another. So if you want to center everything, you select your objects and align them to the center. This works especially well when working with small groups of objects.

Below the Relative To pulldown menu, you'll see a row of buttons. These are the horizontal alignment buttons. The first button requires an anchor. This is where the Relative To First Selected (or Last Selected) comes into play. First you select your anchor object, then select any other objects you wish to align. When you click this first button, it will align the right side of your objects to the left side of your anchor.

The next three buttons are pretty straightforward and work similarly to word processors. The first button will align all of your selected objects to the left side (left-justified). The next button will center all of your selected objects (center). Then we have aligned all of your selected objects to the right side (right-justified).

The next button is the reverse of the first button that requires an anchor object. But this one will align the left side of your selected objects to the right side of your anchor.

Finally, the last button is for text only and does not work with objects. This will align all of your selected text objects along the left side.

The next row of buttons is the same as the ones above, but instead of horizontal alignment, they modify vertical alignment.

The next box is the Distribute section. This will distribute objects evenly within a selection. To calculate how to distribute your selected objects, you must first have the two outside objects (right and left or top and bottom) in the correct place. All other elements will be distributed relative to these two objects. The first row of buttons distributes objects horizontally. The first button takes the left edge of all the objects and evenly spaces them. The next takes the center of each object and evenly spaces them. The third button takes the right edge of the object and evenly spaces them. The fourth button will calculate the gaps between each object and makes them even across your selection. And lastly, the final button is used only for text. This will distribute text objects evenly between two objects, much the same way as objects.

The next row of buttons is similar to the first, however, they distribute vertically instead of horizontally.

We also have one last row of buttons. The first one will randomize the placement. The second button will distribute the items equally from one another. I don't really use this tool, so I'm not familiar with the application. We won't be using them in this class.

• Play with each of these tools until you understand how they work.
• Try designing an American flag. This is a great way to use simple shapes and use what you've learned in this lesson. If you do it right, you'll only have to draw 3 shapes; a square, a rectangle, and a star. You'll have to rely on grouping, duplicating, and distributing objects to make it look correct. Here's a hint: Duplicate the red rectangle, and change the fill color to white to get your white stripe. Give it a try and see how well you do.

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