The logic of shape boolean

[posceve]

Hi, everybody, I'm a new customer! I took advantage of the "homeworking" discount this period! I had already tried Designer but now I can finally work on it. I'm trying to understand how he thinks in the combination of shapes, since I'm not a Master in graphics, I can't understand how to create this simple pencil shape so that it's 1 shape only! I attach a gif, I'm stuck, I can't figure out what to do so that the two vertical lines of the pencil remain (the ones in the middle). I've tried dozens of different ways, with curves without curves, with shapes, booleans...😰

Where am I wrong? Thank you very much.

pencil.afdesign

[Old Bruce]

Group the green curves, don't join them. Command + G after moving them together and selecting all three.

[posceve]

Thank you very much for your answer, but do you think it is the best solution? in this way I have twice as many lines crossed in the middle (4 against 2). You can't really with the Booleans, I wish it was just one object.

[Old Bruce]

1 minute ago, posceve said:

Thank you very much for your answer, but do you think it is the best solution? in this way I have twice as many lines crossed in the middle (4 against 2). You can't really with the Booleans, I wish it was just one object.

Put all your lines (stroke panel) on the insides of the objects?

Do as you are doing but first duplicate the middle rectangle and have that on the top, then you have two objects?

Do as you are doing but draw two lines on top of the one object?

Many ways of achieving what you want....

[posceve]

Yes I know, but the problem with grouping objects is that you can't select nodes with the selection window but you have to touch all the objects after double-clicking on the group, this is uncomfortable. How would you make this shape from scratch?

here I would like to understand how it is better to behave with objects that share a side with others

Edited May 8, 2020 by posceve

[Old Bruce]

17 minutes ago, posceve said:

How would you make this shape from scratch?

I would toss down some guides and do three objects with the pen tool.

Screen Shot.afdesign

[posceve]

Thjank you soo much, i think I know what you mean!

[thomaso]

26 minutes ago, posceve said:

here I would like to understand how it is better to behave with objects that share a side with others

It is more or less a matter of the mathematics and vector object geometry: A single edge of a vector shape object never can belong to a second object, too. Each single edge can be only part of 1 shape object. For your sample: A rectangle has 4 edges. None of them can belong to another rectangle.

Furthermore a vector object has exactly 1 start + 1 end node in its shape. And: no node can belong to two lines. Therefore you can't create a vector stroke object in the shape of an X or H for instance.

That is why you loose the mid edges of your rectangles with a boolean operation even if 2 have 1 edge at common coordinates.

[posceve]

Thank you Thomaso, i picked the wrong project to start with! 😀

Edited May 8, 2020 by posceve

[thomaso]

> "i picked the wrong project to start with!"

I don't think so. I'd rather say it was a good project to see how it works. Just get familiar with the difference between boolean joined (reduced to 1 layer) versus grouped (nested inside 1 layer).

[posceve]

Thank you all guys, so much different approach to this project and now its crystal clear for me!!! Thank you all

Edited May 8, 2020 by posceve

[R C-R]

20 hours ago, posceve said:

I'm trying to understand how he thinks in the combination of shapes, since I'm not a Master in graphics, I can't understand how to create this simple pencil shape so that it's 1 shape only!

If you really, really, really want to have just one shape, it is possible, but there is usually no good reason to do that.

For example, this 1 curve pencil side.afdesign is a closed curve with a single start/end node. The two interior vertical stroke edges are visible because their stroke segments each use the same path twice. Their two lowest nodes are slightly higher than the nearest ones on the outer part of the shape to prevent their sharp edges from showing below the outline.

Not only is this a lot more work than using three separate shapes, because it is one shape it can have only one fill color, although again with a lot more work you could use a gradient fill with lots of color stops to shade it.

This 1 curve pie.afdesign is another example of the same technique. It shows how a gradient fill can (almost!) get it to look like a normal multi-color pie chart.

[posceve]

Interesting approach R C-R! I think its more complex to manage the gradient tool instead of the flat fill color but it's an alternative.

Thank you so much

[PixelPest]

Or so:

1 curve pencil 4U.afdesign

No doubled line segments needed.

[posceve]

How do you do that PixelPest?????? it's my goal!!!

[R C-R]

23 minutes ago, posceve said:

How do you do that PixelPest?????? it's my goal!!!

It is a "(Curves)" object consisting of two open curves on one layer.

[PixelPest]

50 minutes ago, posceve said:

How do you do that PixelPest?????? it's my goal!!!

Like so:

or so - but most likely one part of the 2 needs to reversed curve:

[R C-R]

7 hours ago, PixelPest said:

or so - but most likely one part of the 2 needs to reversed curve:

FWIW, your second gif demonstrates a minor bug in the Layers panel, that being the layer type does not immediately update to show that the layer has become a "(Curves)" layer when adding a second curve to it. That only happened in that gif after you finished adding the gradient to it.

There are other ways to force the panel to update (like by choosing "Expand Selection" on the right-click popup menu in the Layers panel), but it is a potential source of confusion about the difference between a "(Curve)" & a "(Curves)" layer we could do without.

[PixelPest]

I noticed that very well, but I thought the tool must be completely finished (by taking the next tool e.g.) first before an update should appear. Makes sense to me.

[R C-R]

12 minutes ago, PixelPest said:

I noticed that very well, but I thought the tool must be completely finished (by taking the next tool e.g.) first before an update should appear. Makes sense to me.

At least for me, the panel may not update after switching tools or doing other things. Also, after it does update, try stepping backwards in the History panel -- I can go all the way back to when I started with a single two node curve & it still says it is a "(Curves)" object.

So I think it is definitely a bug, one I believe the staff have said has been submitted to the QA team or developers for review.

[thomaso]

9 hours ago, PixelPest said:

Like so:

How do you finish a pen line and get able to start a new without switching tool or deselecting the object first? In your clip you point after the first curve with the cursor at the "Add...curves" button and start drawing the second curve while the first is still selected. – How did you prevent the second object to continue at the end of the first one?

[PixelPest]

6 hours ago, thomaso said:

How did you prevent the second object to continue at the end of the first one?

I hit "esc" button after finishing 1 part. 😉

[posceve]

Guys, I found another way to complete the shape in one piece. Look at the gif. What you think?

[PixelPest]

If you somehow after economics I´d prefer this approach:

 😀