Thought I was writing this before

[q_x]

1. To make automated timed screenshots in bitmap form, even in 0,5s intervals (only vector is now supported)
2. To delete the old parts of sketch to reveal the new, that was obscured untill removal.

[Karl DD]

1. To make automated timed screenshots in bitmap form, even in 0,5s intervals (only vector is now supported)

Do you have anything specific in mind? Like doing animation? Or is the PDF format to much of a pain to use?
I'm quite keen on outputting saved images as sort of a film strip/test sheet, a single bitmap file with a large grid on it containing all the small thumbnails. A bit like wallasaurus has done manually here:

2. To delete the old parts of sketch to reveal the new, that was obscured untill removal.

Not sure I get what you mean here, care to explain a bit?

[q_x]

Sorry for the absence here.
1. Yes, to make films. Some tools are very nice while drawing. I know there is some software to make desktop-capture, I can also save PDF with short intervals, but it would be just cute to have timed export to bitmap. Everything is OK with the PDF export so far.
The contact-sheet feature could be available with PDFCreator or other advanced print-to-bitmap tool with "n pages on one page" option. I don't know if there is such option in library you use.
My workflow is rather different - I make few just-started figures and later some huge mashup with hundreds of shapes and untangle/glue/combine this with Inkscape.
2. I was thinking of deleting the objects from the bottom. Just imagine: you press the magic button. Everything but last few shapes disappears. From chaos to cosmos, forming new beginning from huge piece of yesterday's shit.

BTW - Alchemy is side-by-side with Inkscape on flossmanuals. Be prepared for the riot here
Cheers,
Luke

[Karl DD]

Thanks for the ideas.

1. I guess the easiest way would be to have an option to convert the PDF to a bitmap sequence/contact sheet.

I am not so sure the save PDF function would work very well at less than 5 sec. Even at 5 secs it starts to slow up after 30-45 mins of continuous work. The nice thing about the PDF, is that it is a single file and everything is scalable vector format.

To use a bitmap sequence could be faster (no need to open and stitch a new page on to the session PDF), but it also would create a whole bunch of sequence files (unless you save it as a video file in which case it may well be slower), and there is the problem of it loosing it's vector scaleability.


2. I get what you mean, yeah this could be interesting. No so difficult to implement (hopefully!).

[q_x]

I am not so sure the save PDF function would work very well at less than 5 sec. Even at 5 secs it starts to slow up after 30-45 mins of continuous work. The nice thing about the PDF, is that it is a single file and everything is scalable vector format.

Saving the whole thing into separate PDFs (each for one page, each for ten pages...) and joining them (is there java version of PDFTK?) could probably help with slow up feature. It is not good idea in any other situation.

To use a bitmap sequence could be faster (no need to open and stitch a new page on to the session PDF), but it also would create a whole bunch of sequence files (unless you save it as a video file in which case it may well be slower), and there is the problem of it loosing it's vector scaleability.

It was always user's choice if he wants to have vector or bitmap. Or if he wants to have lots of files or not. As I said before - there is always open way to use some kind of desktop recorder to do the shots (and even video!).

Still don't have easy idea how to make "contact sheet" in the short way from PDF. Older photoshop had the ready batch for it, but will the newer one parse through each page of PDF separately? Don't think so

Cheers,
Luke