Overlapping vector shapes create holes for some reason?

[amergin]

I've searched for days, watched countless videos, gone down many black holes... Can anyone please tell me why this is so counter-intuitive and what I am supposed to do (other than botching it every time). There are three filled vector shapes here, it's the middle one I am referring to. It would appear that a vector shape overlapping itself does an XOR on the content and leaves a transparent hole. I understand how this happens in code having been a programmer for decades. What I cannot understand is why this remains in a commercial application. Is there some edge case that I cannot see that would suggest this is a good idea? Surely anyone trying to create a vector would want it to appear solid? Many thanks for either a solution (which has evaded me) or for some message from the developers explaining its existence. Same thing happens in Photo and Designer.

 

[retrograde]

Try this. Select the geometry and go to Layers > Geometry > Fill Holes

[amergin]

Yep, I did. It filled in big chunks of the centre of the logo as well. The point is, why on earth is it necessary to fill in these artificially created holes? Why are these left in by the developers? Who would want a vector they had drawn to have this "feature"? Can anyone give me an example of where a designer would want this to happen?

[pbasdf]

There are two different ways to work out what's "inside" a given curve, which give different results (particularly where there are overlaps).

Try Layer --> Fill mode --> Winding (Non-Zero).

 

[amergin]

Great, thanks pbasdf, that was exactly what I was looking for. I don't see this option in Photo, am I right? And is there a way to make this the default behaviour?

[pbasdf]

1 hour ago, amergin said:

I don't see this option in Photo, am I right?

I don't use Photo so much, so I hadn't noticed the absence of the fill mode option - but I agree, I can't see it myself.

Likewise, I can't help with any way to change the default fill mode.

Sorry.

[amergin]

4 minutes ago, pbasdf said:

I don't use Photo so much, so I hadn't noticed the absence of the fill mode option - but I agree, I can't see it myself.

Likewise, I can't help with any way to change the default fill mode.

Sorry.

No problem, I appreciate the help 👍