Affinity Designer: Cut Out Vector Graphics that Fall Outside of the Canvas

[andren]

Is there a way to cut out the parts of vector graphics that fall outside of the canvas (or make them invisible)?

It helps to see the design without being distracted by anything that falls outside of the canvas.

Additionally, it can be helpful to clip off the parts outside of the canvas if I'm creating vector patterns that I want to tile, without having to export them as a flattened image.

I have attached an image to show you what I mean. I drew red circles on the canvas, and some of those circles fall outside of the canvas. What I'm trying to do is trim off the parts of the circles that fall outside of the canvas.

Is there a way to accomplish this on Affinity Designer? (I'm using the Mac OS version btw)

Thank you

[R C-R]

See the reply in your other topic.

P.S. Please don't post the same thing to 2 different topics.

[andren]

1 hour ago, R C-R said:

See the reply in your other topic.

P.S. Please don't post the same thing to 2 different topics.

I definitely didn't post the same thing. Read both of my questions and look at the pictures I attached in each one. You'll see that they're different questions and they are asking about different things.

[pbasdf]

I think what you’re looking for is “clip to canvas”.

From the View menu, select View Mode and then select Clip to Canvas.

https://affinity.help/designer/English.lproj/pages/DesignAids/clipToCanvas.html

 

[andren]

1 hour ago, pbasdf said:

I think what you’re looking for is “clip to canvas”.

From the View menu, select View Mode and then select Clip to Canvas.

https://affinity.help/designer/English.lproj/pages/DesignAids/clipToCanvas.html

 

That's helpful to know! It doesn't cut off the parts of the graphics that fall outside of the canvas, but it makes them invisible, which also helps. Thank you for your help

[G13RL]

@andren, you may select all circles that straddle the sides of the rectangle, "Add". Then select these circles and the rectangle, "Divide". Finish by deleting the parts outside the rectangle.

[andren]

On 7/23/2022 at 5:02 AM, G13RL said:

@andren, you may select all circles that straddle the sides of the rectangle, "Add". Then select these circles and the rectangle, "Divide". Finish by deleting the parts outside the rectangle.

Thank you for the tip! I tried it out and it works with certain kinds of designs. For this to work, I had to create a background layer, which I didn't have earlier because I wanted to have a transparent background. But it helps to create a temporary background layer, and then select both the circles and the background, and afterwards press "Divide". This would separate the parts, and then I would just delete the background layer and extra parts that fall outside of the canvas.

I skipped the "Add" step because it was problematic when my circles were different colors, since it would turn them into the same color.

Also, "Divide" is a useful technique but it works best if the shapes are a solid color. It did not work very well on shapes that had both a fill & outline on them. It also didn't work for shapes that only had an outline, but no fill. If it was only an outline of a circle (without a fill), then pressing "Divide" would cut the circle in half, and Affinity Designer would just create an extra line to connect the two sides of the semi-circle, so that it would be a closed shape. I don't want to create any extra line though when I'm only trying to slice a shape.

Additionally, this technique doesn't work for anything that's not a closed shape. I tried drawing lines instead of shapes, but my lines would automatically be turned into closed shapes when I tried to perform any of these functions.

This is still a very useful technique though. I would definitely use "Divide" to cut out shapes that only have a fill. Thank you for your help