How to subtract shapes exterior to lines or other shapes?

[JLAustin]

Hi all!

I am considering making the switch from Adobe Illustrator to Affinity Designer. I am wondering how I can replicate a similar result with Illustrator's shapes tool in Designer.

In Illustrator, I had the following workflow:

1. Add two lines.
2. Add a circle.
3. Select all shapes.
4. Activate the shapes tool (shortcut shift-M on a Mac).
5. Hold alt, hover and select the exterior of the circle to "cut" away that portion, thus leaving two lines with an angle (arc) in between.

I would like to know how I can "cut" away a circle in Designer, leaving just the arc/angle between the two rays. I am trying to make some mathematics diagrams. The image below was created with two lines using the pen tool and then adding an ellipse. Unfortunately, when I select all 3 items, I get strange results when messing around with the geometry tools (subtract, xor, divide, etc.).

Any assistance is greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance!

[jmwellborn]

Welcome to the Forums @JLAustin😊  I may be really out in left field, but I wonder whether this is what you want?  I used the pen tool to draw the two angled lines.  I then switched to the Move tool and chose the Pie shape (you will find it by clicking on the little arrow at the bottom of your blue rectangle shape (other other shape icon) in the tool bar.  I then drew a pie shape with the same stroke thickness as the two lines, and placed it over the lines.  With the pie shape layer highlighted, I then used the various angle sliders up on the Context toolbar to match the angle of the lines.  And then I clicked on "Invert Angles" on the Context Toolbar.  That left me with what I think is what you want?  If the result is not quite right, just click on "Invert Angles" again, and it goes back to the pie shape so you can work with it again.   I hope this helps?🤔

 

 

[JLAustin]

55 minutes ago, jmwellborn said:

Welcome to the Forums @JLAustin😊  I may be really out in left field, but I wonder whether this is what you want?  I used the pen tool to draw the two angled lines.  I then switched to the Move tool and chose the Pie shape (you will find it by clicking on the little arrow at the bottom of your blue rectangle shape (other other shape icon) in the tool bar.  I then drew a pie shape with the same stroke thickness as the two lines, and placed it over the lines.  With the pie shape layer highlighted, I then used the various angle sliders up on the Context toolbar to match the angle of the lines.  And then I clicked on "Invert Angles" on the Context Toolbar.  That left me with what I think is what you want?  If the result is not quite right, just click on "Invert Angles" again, and it goes back to the pie shape so you can work with it again.   I hope this helps?🤔

 

 

Thank you @jmwellborn. While that technically works, it feels like a lot of steps. I suppose for this particular task that it is simply easier to stroke a curve in between the two lines with the Pen Tool.

[lepr]

Nest an Ellipse object inside a Curve object with two "arms" as shown below.

angle.afdesign

 

[JLAustin]

4 minutes ago, anon2 said:

Nest an Ellipse object inside a Curve object with two "arms" as shown below.

angle.afdesign

 

Hi @anon2, could you please explain your steps?

[lepr]

15 minutes ago, JLAustin said:

could you please explain your steps?

I was hoping the AD document that was provided along with the screenshot would be self-explanatory.

1. use Pen Tool to draw the Curve object by placing three sharp nodes

2. use Ellipse Tool to draw a circle with its centre at the bottom right of the Curve object

3. nest the Ellipse inside the Curve

 

[loukash]

45 minutes ago, anon2 said:

Nest an Ellipse object inside a Curve object with two "arms" as shown below.

That will only work as long as the open side of the triangle doesn't tangent the circle, i.e. at this proportions ca <100°. If you open up the angle to 180°, there will be no circle visible at all.

For more flexibility and wider angles, I'd use the pie tool as already noted above, align the prolonged angles manually and group both objects.
 

[v_kyr]

[lepr]

21 minutes ago, loukash said:

That will only work as long as the open side of the triangle doesn't tangent the circle, i.e. at this proportions ca <100°. If you open up the angle to 180°, there will be no circle visible at all.

For more flexibility and wider angles, I'd use the pie tool as already noted above, align the prolonged angles manually and group both objects.
 

My suggestion was intended only as a simple solution to the specific example shown by the OP. Seemed harmless to me.