DigitalMasquerade

More information, incase this can help someone in the future. I do not want to be able to still select the "M". I just want it to be one unit with it having a transparent "M" shape in the center of the black. For some reason on the shape I was working on it was not working. I tried the same "M" on just and ellipse and it would subtract it like it was supposed to. I also made and ellipse then had other ellipses cut out of the main one to kind of simulate my original images. I then took the "M" and subtracted it from that, and it worked. I then tried the pen tool and made a closed shape and was able to subtract the "M" from that one as well. The black shape I was working on, originally was imported from and ESP file, it was altered by removing a few nodes and then an ellipse was "add" to it. For some reason this shape was causing the subtract to not work properly. I tried setting the blend to erase, it also did not work on this shape. What I did to make it work. I selected the black shape and went to Layer>Fill Mode, it was on "Winding (Non-Zero)" I changed it to "Alternate"(Even-Odd). I then selected the black shape and the red "M" and clicked subtract and it worked. Thank you every one for your help!

Change fillmode worked!!! Thank you so much!

Hello, I am trying to subtract some text from a complex shape. I have converted text to curves. I need the object (black in the pictures) to have a void/be transparent in the middle of it, in the shape of the letter "M". However every time I try subtracting the red "M" (that is above) from black shape (on bottom), it just leaves the shape still completely filled with black and just adds nodes to the middle of the shape. For the sake of the pictures I have shown and example with the "A" next to it, and that works being over the edge of the shape. But the subtract was done with just the "M" and the black shape with out the "A", so it is not due to doing the "M" and "A" at the same time. I dont know what I am doing wrong... I checked with the node tool that the curves are closed before trying to subtract. In case that would cause a problem, but they are closed. I have tried the "subtract" button in the upper right, as well as the from the drop down menu. I also tied "merge curves" from the drop down menu. I did "divide" to see if I could just delete the "M" afterwards to get the void that way, but it does not work, the same thing is happening as with subtract. Also, I should add that in the picture examples where you see the nodes for the "M" in the Black shape, that "M" can not be selected by its self, it is attached to the shape. Thank you so much for your help.