Just a status update: Having discovered what Boolean add actually does, I'm going about combining hundreds of shapes into distinct layers. Hopefully then, I might be able to run Boolean subtract and get the effect I'm looking for.
I am seeing, however, that AD balks if I try to add (i.e., combine) more than around 60 shapes or nodes at the same time. I've had a couple of complete hangs so far. Thank heaven for autosave!
The app is not particularly processor or RAM intensive when I'm doing this, or when it hangs. Mine is maybe an extreme situation (I'm guessing I literally have thousands of notes to combine, chunk by chunk), but it would certainly be great if AD was totally solid on this, without hangs. That way, I could just select X-thousand and go do something else while it works.
Right now, it hung, as I'm typing. But then I did get greedy and highlight around 100 shapes to combine with Boolean add.
ianrobertdouglas got a reaction from anon1 in Vector "Erase" effect on layers: possible yet, or any other strategy?