I hope this is the right place to post this. It is essentially a feature request unless someone knows how I can edit the config files to make this happen. I asked this on the Inkscape reddit and was encouraged to post on the inkscape forum. using Inkscape 1.2 on Ubuntu 24.04.
First, please, no metric preaching. My current project IS in decimal inches and will remain that way forever and ever. Metric is NOT an option no matter how strong the urge of metric users to proselytize.
The X, Y, Width, and Height box in the control bar only go to three decimal places. Is there any way to make it go to four places? I realize I could do a virtual workaround by simply multiplying all dimensions by 10 and then reducing the final product by a factor of 10, but I am hoping that somewhere there is a program setting that will give me that ten-thousandths place so I can at least accurately and precisely show 1/16" in decimal. My mill has handwheels marked in 62 and a half 0.001" increments so a full turn is exactly 1/16" which makes milling operations much easier to track in my head. Similar on my lathe. Half a turn = 1/32", quarter turn 1/64", eighth turn 1/128", etc.and I also have .001 increments available, and my measuring tools are all in decimal inches including micrometers. Again, metric fanboys, please understand the sillymeter is not a relevant unit of measurement in this project or on any of my machinery without laboriously multiplying and dividing 25.4 and there is no reason for it. No offense but this is the way it is done in my home and my workshop. If nobody can actually help, that's okay.
So, can it be done? Am I missing something obvious? Inkscape is a very busy program and I have face palmed more than once when what I had searched for for weeks suddenly found my attention right in front of my face. All I am looking for is one more decimal place.
A workaround was suggested that involves adding the "mills" unit to the unit list, by editing the "units.xml" configuration file. I found the units.xml file in /usr/share/inkscape/ui/, made a backup copy which the girl in the video didn't bother to recommend, a bit irresponsible if you ask me, and then I moved the file with terminal and sudo privileges to a working directory, used text editor to add mills and feet and barleycorns and fathoms and rods and chains and furlongs and cubits and hands, (okay just kidding on the last few there) to the xml code, saved, went back to the same terminal window and moved the edited file back into the ui directory. Started inkscape and walah... you reeka, it works!
I went back and did some minor changes and also Inkscape could not save templates because of user permissions and file ownership issues. I changed the "templates" directory and the "ui" directory file permissions to 666 and now both me and Inkscape can edit the files therein, without using sudo or root. I understand why I can't directly write to those files from my user account, but I don't see why Ikscape can't save the templates since it is a menu specified operation. Well, I can do it, now.
I can now use mills and now have micro-inch precision, 100x more than I need. But if the user could specify another decimal place or two of precision, that would be really cool.
Inkscape is a great tool for drawing, but maybe Inkscape is not the proper tool for your job where you're asking for high precision.
Have you considered using LibreCAD for your job. Alternatively FreeCAD (for 3D jobs, but also have a built-in 2D cad tool called Sketcher normally used to lay the foundation for a 3D figure) ?
Adding 4 or even 5 decimal places to Inkscape shouldn't be that difficult for Inkscape developers to implement. Currently, the grid dialog allows 5 decimal places. Step behavior allows 4 decimal places. Maybe if they add a user preference to uniformily set the decimal places throughout Inkscape would help users such as yourself that use Inkscape for other applications beyond creating cute little web graphics.
I went back and did some minor changes and also Inkscape could not save templates because of user permissions and file ownership issues. I changed the "templates" directory and the "ui" directory file permissions to 666 and now both me and Inkscape can edit the files therein, without using sudo or root. I understand why I can't directly write to those files from my user account, but I don't see why Ikscape can't save the templates since it is a menu specified operation. Well, I can do it, now.
You shouldn't need to change any permissions. There's actually two directories inkscape will look into for ALL of it's files, from ui, to templates to configurations. One is the system folder, which is usually owned by root and is expected to be replaced on upgrade. Changing these files can actually break updates as some update systems fail when they detect user edited files. The second is the user's config directory. Usually `~/.config/inkscape/` the same folders and files which exist in the system share folder can be copied into this folder and will over-ride the system ones.
So I was led to believe, but nothing every gets saved in ~/.config/inkscape even as a hidden file. The expected directory and subdirectories are there, but nothing in them. And when I tried to save a template it would always tell me can't be saved, no permissions or something like that. But changing permissions for those two directories didn't seem to break anything, knock on wood. Since I do an incremental backup every day and I would find having to re-install Inkscape only a very minor irritation, I gave it a go and in my case, it worked. I still don't have use of that extra decimal place when working in inches, but using mills is sort of an acceptable workaround, in lieu of another digit in the inches unit. And now, when I open a new file in Inkscape, the default settings are my own. Before, they were not and I had to change several things before beginning to draw.
I am still on ver. 1.2 so I'll see what happens when I upgrade.
Beyond the Basics Need 0.0001" Resolution, NOT going to use metric.
Inkscape.org
I hope this is the right place to post this. It is essentially a feature request unless someone knows how I can edit the config files to make this happen. I asked this on the Inkscape reddit and was encouraged to post on the inkscape forum. using Inkscape 1.2 on Ubuntu 24.04.
First, please, no metric preaching. My current project IS in decimal inches and will remain that way forever and ever. Metric is NOT an option no matter how strong the urge of metric users to proselytize.
The X, Y, Width, and Height box in the control bar only go to three decimal places. Is there any way to make it go to four places? I realize I could do a virtual workaround by simply multiplying all dimensions by 10 and then reducing the final product by a factor of 10, but I am hoping that somewhere there is a program setting that will give me that ten-thousandths place so I can at least accurately and precisely show 1/16" in decimal. My mill has handwheels marked in 62 and a half 0.001" increments so a full turn is exactly 1/16" which makes milling operations much easier to track in my head. Similar on my lathe. Half a turn = 1/32", quarter turn 1/64", eighth turn 1/128", etc.and I also have .001 increments available, and my measuring tools are all in decimal inches including micrometers. Again, metric fanboys, please understand the sillymeter is not a relevant unit of measurement in this project or on any of my machinery without laboriously multiplying and dividing 25.4 and there is no reason for it. No offense but this is the way it is done in my home and my workshop. If nobody can actually help, that's okay.
So, can it be done? Am I missing something obvious? Inkscape is a very busy program and I have face palmed more than once when what I had searched for for weeks suddenly found my attention right in front of my face. All I am looking for is one more decimal place.
A workaround was suggested that involves adding the "mills" unit to the unit list, by editing the "units.xml" configuration file. I found the units.xml file in /usr/share/inkscape/ui/, made a backup copy which the girl in the video didn't bother to recommend, a bit irresponsible if you ask me, and then I moved the file with terminal and sudo privileges to a working directory, used text editor to add mills and feet and barleycorns and fathoms and rods and chains and furlongs and cubits and hands, (okay just kidding on the last few there) to the xml code, saved, went back to the same terminal window and moved the edited file back into the ui directory. Started inkscape and walah... you reeka, it works!
I went back and did some minor changes and also Inkscape could not save templates because of user permissions and file ownership issues. I changed the "templates" directory and the "ui" directory file permissions to 666 and now both me and Inkscape can edit the files therein, without using sudo or root. I understand why I can't directly write to those files from my user account, but I don't see why Ikscape can't save the templates since it is a menu specified operation. Well, I can do it, now.
I can now use mills and now have micro-inch precision, 100x more than I need. But if the user could specify another decimal place or two of precision, that would be really cool.
Inkscape is a great tool for drawing, but maybe Inkscape is not the proper tool for your job where you're asking for high precision.
Have you considered using LibreCAD for your job. Alternatively FreeCAD (for 3D jobs, but also have a built-in 2D cad tool called Sketcher normally used to lay the foundation for a 3D figure) ?
Adding 4 or even 5 decimal places to Inkscape shouldn't be that difficult for Inkscape developers to implement. Currently, the grid dialog allows 5 decimal places. Step behavior allows 4 decimal places. Maybe if they add a user preference to uniformily set the decimal places throughout Inkscape would help users such as yourself that use Inkscape for other applications beyond creating cute little web graphics.
You shouldn't need to change any permissions. There's actually two directories inkscape will look into for ALL of it's files, from ui, to templates to configurations. One is the system folder, which is usually owned by root and is expected to be replaced on upgrade. Changing these files can actually break updates as some update systems fail when they detect user edited files. The second is the user's config directory. Usually `~/.config/inkscape/` the same folders and files which exist in the system share folder can be copied into this folder and will over-ride the system ones.
So I was led to believe, but nothing every gets saved in ~/.config/inkscape even as a hidden file. The expected directory and subdirectories are there, but nothing in them. And when I tried to save a template it would always tell me can't be saved, no permissions or something like that. But changing permissions for those two directories didn't seem to break anything, knock on wood. Since I do an incremental backup every day and I would find having to re-install Inkscape only a very minor irritation, I gave it a go and in my case, it worked. I still don't have use of that extra decimal place when working in inches, but using mills is sort of an acceptable workaround, in lieu of another digit in the inches unit. And now, when I open a new file in Inkscape, the default settings are my own. Before, they were not and I had to change several things before beginning to draw.
I am still on ver. 1.2 so I'll see what happens when I upgrade.