Geometry Tool -- what affects the settings?

[a2jc4life]

I've noticed that the geometry tool often has only some of the options available, with all the others greyed out.  I don't understand the pattern or logic behind this.  Can someone explain to me what causes these options to become available/unavailable (apart from issues that would make them all unavailable)?

[firstdefence]

Can you demonstrate/show an example?

[Pšenda]

Maybe this?

 

[a2jc4life]

 I want to cut the dark starburst out of the white starburst (so I essentially have a thick outline).  I can "add" or "divide." All the other options are greyed out.  I run into similar options with relative frequency -- and see people post about similar issues frequently -- and I thought thar rather than posting individually about a zillion different individual scenarios, it might be good to know what kinds of things affect those menu options.

[a2jc4life]

I think in this instance it's because only the white starburst is a vector object.  The black one is a pixel layer.  But I can't convert it to curves (that's also greyed out), and I don't understand why.  I created both of them with the shape tool, and I converted the white one to curves, but it won't let me convert the black one.  (Interestingly, I can rasterize the layer, but I can't convert it to curves.)

[Pšenda]

12 minutes ago, a2jc4life said:

Interestingly, I can rasterize the layer, but I can't convert it to curves

Affinity does not have a vectorization tool (see Autotrace on the forum).

 

14 minutes ago, a2jc4life said:

I think in this instance it's because only the white starburst is a vector object.  The black one is a pixel layer. 

This is exactly what is mentioned in the referenced thread.

[a2jc4life]

9 minutes ago, Pšenda said:

Affinity does not have a vectorization tool (see Autotrace on the forum).

That is not exactly true.  It doesn't have an image trace, no.  But it does have a "convert to curves" option (which, as noted, worked on the identical shape object in the other layer).  And it has vector-based tools within its options -- like the pen/node tool and (sort of) the shape tool.

[a2jc4life]

As a side note for anyone else reading this, I stumbled across this in a video about other things.  Starting at 12:50 is an alternate way to visually cut a shape from another shape, which apparently doesn't require that they be vector objects.  (This video attached by default and I'm not sure how to resize it.  Sorry.)

 

[R C-R]

2 hours ago, a2jc4life said:

That is not exactly true.  It doesn't have an image trace, no.  But it does have a "convert to curves" option (which, as noted, worked on the identical shape object in the other layer). 

"Convert to Curves" works only on shape objects. It 'bakes in' the shape parameters (number of points for stars, the curvature of hearts, etc.), converting the shape to a regular vector object defined by its nodes instead of by shape parameters.

So your problem is that your black starburst isn't really a shape; it is just a raster image (a pixel layer) of a starburst. If it originally was created as one of the star shape objects, you must have rasterized it, perhaps by accident.

All that aside, if all you want is a thick white starburst outline, you do not need the black pixel layer at all. Just set the stroke thickness of the white shape to the thickness you want, its color to white, & its fill color to none.

[a2jc4life]

I tried the stroke option.  It wasn't possible to find a combination of stroke settings that actually left the inner and outer points of the starburst pointy like they're supposed to be -- at least not at that stroke width.  

Perhaps I did rasterize it by accident.  In any event, I started over and was able to get everything converted the way it should be so I could subtract it.

[R C-R]

2 hours ago, a2jc4life said:

I tried the stroke option.  It wasn't possible to find a combination of stroke settings that actually left the inner and outer points of the starburst pointy like they're supposed to be -- at least not at that stroke width.  

You can make the star pointy by setting the stroke to use the Miter Join option & increasing the Miter value. There are only 3 objects in this Miter join.afdesign file, one star, one red curve, & one black rectangle behind the red curve.

[a2jc4life]

Thanks!  I'll try adjusting that value next time.