Hello. I am brand new to inskape. I feel foolish for even asking this question. I have spent several hours trying to locate the answer myself, and cannot find it - hence my really basic question...

I need to draw lines that are a specific length (i.e. 5" from end to end). Told you it was basic -

I am drawing out patterns for dog clothes for my business and I need to have exact line lengths and then be able to scale the entire object. This way I can have sizes XXS - XXL that are all scaled accurately. I have been able to do the initial drawing using the , but I have not been able to get it the right dimensions.

Thanks so much for your understanding!

Hello and welcome to the forum!

I suggest you first set your default document units to inches - open Document Properties (Shift + Ctrl + D) and set Default units: to in. Rulers will automatically use the default units.

While you're in the Document Properties window click on the Grid tab and create a new Rectangular grid, set its units to in and change the spacing to what makes the most sense for this drawing (maybe spacing of 0.5 and Major grid line every 2 lines would help).

Now with snapping on you can create object with precise measures very quickly, I usually use Pen (Bezier) tool for this.

Since creating lines is actually creating objects with strokes you'll end up with slightly wider objects (stroke protrudes outside of object) if you use Visual bounding box option. So changing that option to Geometric bounding box might help, or create thin rectangles instead of lines to avoid the problem. You can change bounding box option under Inkscape Preferences (Shift + Ctrl + P) > Tools. You can see your object's size and position on the Selector toolbar (when Selector tool is active).

One more tip:

You can avoid the line thickness scaling by unmarking the firs of this option (see the attachment) when you select the object.

Thank you both so much for your help! I was absolutely stumped!