Not possible: Snap center - not corners bounding box

Same could be asked for other from/to snap targets, like
- "Snap from and to centers of objects"
- "Snap from and to an item's rotation center"
- "Snap from and to midpoints of line segments"
- …

Closing as 'Won't Fix' - please see Diederik van Lierop's answer (comment #11) in the discussion of bug #731141 <https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/731141> for the reasons:

<quote>
 > Actually there's no way to ask Inkscape to snap only
 > objects' (rotation) centers

Correct; it would be impossible to provide options for controlling each combination of snap source and snap target individually. It would probably require a 30x30 matrix of radio buttons ;-). Therefore some choices had to be made, and as a consequence you cannot distinguish between all of the various snap sources. So you will have to turn on "snap to/from rotation center", and turn on "snap nodes", which will include all smooth and cusp nodes, all special points such as corners of a (rounded) rectangle and center of arcs, etc.
</quote>

I've read the tread you linked to.

It's ok. I'll continue zoom in every time I need to center snap a circle. It's not a bug, but it sure would be a nice fix :)

@~suv: you didn't comment the answer to Diederik's comment... ;)

<quote>
Agreed. But in this case the buttons are already present :)
I was just proposing to "logically" move them outside the "node" group so, for example, we'll be able to snap a center to a bounding box corner or to a grid, having all else disabled (nodes in particular, which tend to be so many all around...). Would this be a problem or difficoult to realize?
</quote>

Again: would this be a problem or difficoult to realize?

Please, consider seriously this feature because it's not simply one-of-the-many in the 30x30 group: the center point (or better, the rotation center) is really a special point for any object. And you can't directly grab the object near it's center if that particular area happens to be empty (I already know the proposed workaround to temporary fill it: it makes me feel as a tool for my computer, I hope it will never consider upgrading to a new release :).

> proposing to "logically" move them outside the "node" group (…)
> we'll be able to snap a center to a bounding box corner or to a grid

How do you then snap a bounding box corner or node/handle to an object or bbox center without adding additional buttons?

Forget my last comment (it would imply though that bbox corners can snap to 'node-like' targets and vice versa, which currently is not supported - guides, grid and page borders being neither).

Subscribing Diederik to this feature request with the hope for additional insights into what can and can't be done with the current implementation of snapping.

I believe that all points made above are valid, and anything could have been implemented. It's all about finding an acceptable compromise though, which is difficult.

@pRototype: have you discovered the quick-zoom feature already (i.e. first select your tiny object, and then press-and-hold the Q-key)? That will speed things up for you; you can then easily grab the object close to the center, and make sure that it's the center that snaps.

The rotation center should indeed really be moved out of the logical node group; I will fix that.

In revision 10372 I've added a third group of snap sources/targets, called "Others" (we only had "Bounding boxes" and "Nodes/paths" before). This group now contains the item centers, and the rotation centers, as you will notice in the snap toolbar. It also controls the snapping of guide origins, gradient handles*, etc. In the future it will also have a button for snapping the text anchor/baseline, and maybe more.

Please remember that bounding boxes will not snap to nodes/paths, and vice versa. The group "Others" should snap to anything.

It might take some time to get used to, I don't know. It should make things clearer in the end, but please try it out and let me know what you think of it.

* gradient snapping on creation of a gradient still needs to be fixed

The distinction between snap sources and snap targets has been removed from the snap buttons (as of rev >= #10571). Now each group of snap buttons simply has a single toggle button, which turns all sources and targets in that group on/off. That's now all there is to it.

I will close this bug, but don't hesitate to comment anyway if needed.