I’m new to Seamly2D, but I have been really enjoying creating patterns with it so far.
I realized today that when I go on 100% zoom level (fit 1:1), my drawings won’t have their real measurements on screen.
For example, with a 5 centimeters line, with a 100% zoom level, it will only measure 4 centimeters on my screen for some reason.
Since sometimes I use my screen to copy some patterns on white paper, this is kinda a problem for me.
I searched everywhere on the configurations and on this forum but couldn’t find any solution. I am using centimeters and set seam allowance to 0.
Since I’m new with it, I’m not sure if this is intended or not.
I think that the 100% zoom is relative to the drafting screen available, not to the actual measurements of the draft, although, when you print the pattern, it will print in actual size.
I think that the easiest would be to load an image & size it on your screen to reflect the exact dimensions and then to draft over the lines of the image.
If you place a 5x5cm test square on the image and draft one in your drawing board, you’ll be able to match the size of the test square to the drafted one to get them idential.
And even without an image, you can simply draw a square on the screen and cut the same square out of paper in the real world, superpose it with your screen so you can adjust the zoom level so that they are the same size.
Another solution, more widely spread, is to use a credit card:
You create a rectangle in Seamly that has the dimensions of a credit card, and you superpose a credit card over your screen to adjust the zoom level. This way you don’t have to cut anything out of paper.
Yes, I will put some square in order to double check the ratio.
I tried other zoom values, and when I try with 132%, it seems that the measurements are the closest to be 1:1.
I’m still kinda confused, because in all the others drawing/sketching tools I used in the past, the 100% zoom displays as a 1:1 on screen, but I suppose that there must be a reason for that behavior.
Anyway, thanks for the very fast replies and for this great tool that is seamly.
I having been looking at zoom 1:1 as part of the zoom features and thought the very same thing, it looks too small. Using Grace’s credit card approach you need to have a zoom of about 115% to get the drawn credit card size to match the actual size of a credit card.
Because it’s a screen. You would need to calibrate your monitor resolution to match 100% in Seamly or vice versa so objects measure the real size.
For example…I just checked on my laptop and in seamly 100% zoom is a bit smaller… In Inkscape it’s a bit larger.
Aside from that… what’s the pojnt of measuring something on your screen? When you draw a line 2" long… it prints 2" long in the pattern piece, and that’s what counts.
I agree with you that a 2 inch line on the screen means a 2 inch line on your pattern is the important thing and the size rendered on the screen is neither here nor there really. You only want to view something at a particular zoom suited to the task at hand, which can be done with zoom in, zoom out and fit to window.
It appears that 1:1 is really 100 percent zoom shortcut (which the tool tip already says) so maybe the button just needs to be relabelled as 100 percent zoom and make every other reference match that. 1:1 infers that 2 inches on the screen equals 2 inches on the pattern which is just misleading.
What’s the difference if 1:1 = 100… does it really matter what the UI text is? It’s just a ZOOM factor not a SCALE factor.
That being said… I will not only change it to 100%, but will also add menu options for 50% and 200%. I will not add it to the Zoom toolbar as it’s already too big. I can do this along with swapping the zoom in / out shortcuts.
I was looking at other screen functions for another issue… and I can’t guarantee it, but it may be possible to calibrate the Seamly screen to be more accurate to real world measurement. The app is hardcoded to use 96.0 DPI . The API provides a couple methods to read the device’s screen geometry, so instead of relying on the constant 96.0, I might be able to grab the screen’s real DPI and use that to get a more accurate screen display.
