[Designer] Remove everything behind fill?

[haski]

Hey guys,

I'm not quite sure how to achieve this. I'd like an objects fill to be transparent, but remove all the intersecting paths/lines behind where the fill of the front objects would otherwise cover up. You can see below (attached image), the desired outcome is on the left, but when I make the fill transparent, you get the result on the right. This is probably simple but I can't think of the right tool or technique to use. So I'd like to keep the strokes shown on the left but have the fill transparent without any strokes behind appearing.

Any help is much appreciated!

[AndyDent]

That was a fun one.

Yes it is possible and not actually difficult, but not obvious

1. Select one of your background oval shapes
2. Choose Layer - Convert to Curves
3. Use the Node tool (little arrowhead, shortcut A) to click on the intersection points where your selected oval crosses over and you want to cut it
4. Click to add a node there
5. Select the added node
6. Choose Action - Break Curve on the toolbar - see help
7. Repeat at the other side of the intersection - now your curve is all still there but has been cut into two pieces
8. Select the bit of the curve you want to delete and just hit delete.

Ovals_TrimmedAsCurves.afdesign

Ovals.afdesign

Edited February 2, 2020 by AndyDent
added before and after doc

[firstdefence]

You need to select the Nodes Tool and add nodes at the right points and then create the curve with those nodes and remove the the bits you don't want. See video below.

[GarryP]

The method shown by firstdefence above is a good one but it requires a lot of editing and you are then quite limited if you want to adjust the curves later on.
Another method – see attached file, image and video – gives you the same result but leaves you in a position where each part of the design can still be easily modified.
The technique relies on using the Erase Blend Mode on filled duplicate shapes.
I haven’t checked what happens when this sort of thing is exported so it’s probably best to do some testing before you use it for production work.

erase-to-remove-background-lines.afdesign

[haski]

Absolute legends, thank you all! Some really good techniques I’ll be adding to my toolkit here.

Appreciated, guys.

[GarryP]

You're welcome.

[Jens Schmidt]

There is also a Erase blend mode for Fill and Stroke respectively but they don't seem to work for me but maybe they do for you.