powerstroke on closed path

Question

I'm trying to use Powerstroke to improve the joints in these paths using extrapolated arcs, but I find difficult to do it with closed paths.

This is what I'm experiencing

1. Before closing a path I see that extrapolated arc option correctly works;

2. Then I select the first and last nodes and join them

3. I obtain something different from what I'd like to obtain, as follows

I suspect that this is somehow expected, but I'd like to know why. What's happening?

Answer 1

The power stroke path effect doesn't seem to work on closed paths. Could be a bug or perhaps it was just never designed to do so, since a closed path has no start and end nodes. Perhaps you should report it as a bug. In any case, if it's a software issue then it's probably off-topic here.

However, it might be worthwhile considering a different method to get a variable stroke.

A work around might be not to use the path effect on closed paths, but instead perhaps use Path > Stroke to Path as a starting point, and then edit the paths and nodes manually.

Something like this for example:

Answer 2

From what I notice, the central pink dot (stroke width control point) at the bottom right has moved automatically to a different place when you join the nodes causing the weird shapes. If you manually join the nodes by moving one of the nodes to snap onto the other and then use join nodes, you can probably prevent this.

I couldn't reproduce what you were seeing so this is what I think is happening.