Hello.

Has anyone else found the path tool hard to use?

IMHO, the usability is very low there. If I choose to make first a polyline and then adjust the curve, the curve type seems to be unsuitable. The curve goes easily to serpent. If I choose to make the curve progressively, I have to switch between the new point and edit mode -- and still the curve is hard to control.

Here is a list of my foundings: -Points are can be invisible against a scanned pencil drawing (greyscale) -No indication if something can be done to the points when the pointer is near them
-No indication what operation is applied when shift or ctrl is held down -When making a closed path, there is no indication when pointer is on the first point
-Has to switch to separate edit point mode for moving the earlier points -Has to switch to separate edit point mode for adjusting curvatures of the earlier points
-Edit point mode changes to the new point mode even I would like to continue editing
-A square anchor point may appear when one closes the path (should it come only after one starts the second path?) -First point of the path is often invisible, making it difficult to place the second point
-Placing new points to the path is difficult without accidentally adjusting curvature (making the path becomes slow task); moreover, the curve becomes out as boozer's walk
Because the curve type is so difficult, I only make polylines. But as said, the tool is not well suited to that either.

My suggestions if I choose to make polyline first: -mb1 places new point
-mb1 if near an earlier point, moves the earlier point -shift+mb1 if near the first point closes the polyline -Pointer pixmap indicates when an earlier point is near enough for picking
-New point would appear at button release (so that curvature is not adjusted accidentally)
As said, there is no point to edit the curvatures after this because the curve type seems to be wrong. Traditional Bezier curve could be better, i.e., the plain polyline would be all what controls the curve.

When I choose to make the curve progressively, the problem is that I cannot adjust earlier points without going to the edit mode. -mb1, shift+mb1, ctrl+mb1 if near an earlier point, adjust the earlier point
-Pointer pixmap indicates when an earlier point is near enough for adjustment
-New point would appear at button release (so that curvature is not adjusted accidentally)

Regards, Juhana