: Create and Edit parallel "bus" lines in Inkscape Of course I've seen Create and Edit Parallel Paths in Inkscape - Graphic Design Stack Exchange, but the "Stroke to Path" answer there doesn't

@Angela777

Posted in: #Diagram #Inkscape

Of course I've seen Create and Edit Parallel Paths in Inkscape - Graphic Design Stack Exchange, but the "Stroke to Path" answer there doesn't cut it for me - because I want to draw "parallel lines" as "bus connections" in technical diagrams, like this poor fellow:

Inkscape-User - Parallel lines brush?



I would like to have a sort of "hatched" parallel line brush (useful for representing busses in diagrams). This is what I could get to:
* Draw three parallel lines [...]


Can you show a sample image of what you want? Your description is
somewhat confusing.


Well, here is an image then (using inkscape 0.48.1 on Ubuntu):



I basically want a single path (stroke), which is "styled" with parallel lines (strokes), and which still allows for editing through the nodes; as it can be seen on the image, I'm almost there - except the "styling" lines are not parallel, as there is a distortion (widening towards the ends of the master path). This distortion is a known issue, apparently:

InkscapeForum.com • View topic - Non-destructive Pattern Along Path ?


Both Pattern Along Path, and its LPE version, skew the objects/paths after aligning them to each node. While this is desirable in maintaining continuity when applying a single shape to a curve, it results in distorting repeated objects at corners.


OK, here is a step by step of what I've tried so far (for full size of the images, copy their imgur link, open it in another tab, and then remove the last m from the filename, so e.g. wHTbjm.png becomes wHTbj.png):


Draw a simple line with pen tool - a horizontal path:

Copy this line three times - that is my "parallel" pattern:

Select all three lines, and choose Path / Combine:

Now all three lines are considered as a single path with 6 nodes:

Start drawing a "master" line with the Pen tool:

The final "master" line, that I want to make a "parallel bus", is now made of three segments with right angle corners:

Select the "parallel pattern" path, and then Object / Raise to Top:

Then choose Extensions / Generate from path / Pattern along Path:

Having set up the resulting window as shown below, I simply cannot get anything resembling the parallel line styling of the master line I had in mind:

So, dropping that approach - and trying the other Pattern along Path; for this, we need to copy the "parallel pattern" first:

Then choose Path / Path effect editor:

Then from the Path effect editor window, choose Pattern along path from the Apply new effect dropdown, and click Add:

Once the effect is added, click on Link to path button in the Pattern source row (the link refers to the object currently in clipboard, which is the parallel pattern that we copied previously)

There we go - almost parallel lines styling of the master line, if there wasn't for the distortion towards the ends:

At least the nodes of the master line are still editable, and the effect follows:



Actually, since here the "parallel pattern" path is linked - you can edit that one too (with the pen tool), and the master line style will update accordingly; and I tried turning the parallel pattern lines into curves (so as to compensate for the distortion manually) - needless to say, that works very poorly...

Well - anyone know how to get proper parallel "bus" lines in Inkscape?

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