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Erasing part of a shape outline


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Hi Flamingo,

Welcome to Affinity Forums :)

Currently it's not possible to erase part of a vector object keeping it as a vector object, that is, changing its geometry. You can either:

- edit the shape or path nodes manually performing the changes you need with the Node Tool to keep the objects as vectors (everything will remain as vectors in this case); 

- use another vector object as a clipping object to hide the parts you any not interested (everything will remain as vectors in this case)

- or use the Erase Brush Tool is Pixel Persona to erase/hidden (mask) the parts you don't want to see (although the original object remain as a vector object, when exported the mask you painted will force its rasterisation).

 

In your case it's probably better to simply duplicate the circle, using one of them for the fill and the other for the stroke which you can then break using the Node Tool (check the Break Curve button in the Action section in the context toolbar with the Node Tool selected). You can set shortcuts for the Join Curves and Break Curve operation in the Preferences, Keyboard Shortcuts section if you want to speed up  these operations.

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On 8/4/2017 at 3:54 PM, MEB said:

Currently it's not possible to erase part of a vector object

 

Is this because technically it's very difficult to create this function, or for some other reason? There are many things Illustrator has that I wish Affinity Designer had, but this thing is more than a wish, and as someone who has used AD for around two years now, I'm bemused that vector erase still has not arrived.

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I don't know if it about the technical difficulty as much as it is about the uncertainty 'erasing' part of a vector shape sometimes involves. For example, consider the following shape that intersects itself & is set to the "Winding (Non-Zero)" fill mode so the intersecting part is filled. The dotted green line represents the part of it to be erased, & A through D are the possible results:

5987aaee64862_partiallyerasevector.png.88b859fb0a763475d340c22f36122c35.png

So ... which one is the 'correct' erasure? C & D don't even look different but one is a closed shape & the other is an open one.

 

Of course, currently there are also technical problems with the booleans & with expanding strokes that probably have to be fixed before a vector erase brush tool (or whatever) would work without inheriting the same problems, too.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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1 hour ago, R C-R said:

For example, consider the following shape ...

 

I don't know about your example, but consider the video below. Here, Joe White is using an early version of Adobe Flash. With a tablet and pen he's erasing sections of curves and building his image. No big deal in Flash, or if you have a vector eraser. No masking (which is useless if you need vector only output).

 

(You don't have to view the whole video. Any section (for example, 24:00) where he's working on the image will illustrate the point.)

 

This work is impossible in Affinity Designer.

 

It shouldn't be.

 

I agree with you that boolean operations and expand stroke need work. I can usually find ways of working with the former, but if I have to do the latter, I'm almost always recreating the image by hand with the original (unexpanded) underneath as a guide. On tight corners, the automatic output is not usable.

 

 

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It is hard to say from the video but it looks like that is the simplest possible kind of vector erase -- it is just removing parts of unfilled strokes rather than even parts of closed or open shapes. I suspect the Affinity coders are more interested in a general form of a vector eraser applicable to any kind of vector object the apps can create.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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20 minutes ago, R C-R said:

It is hard to say from the video but it looks like that is the simplest possible kind of vector erase -- it is just removing parts of unfilled strokes rather than even parts of closed or open shapes. I suspect the Affinity coders are more interested in a general form of a vector eraser applicable to any kind of vector object the apps can create.

 

Until they get there, can we have the simple version??

 

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3 hours ago, ianrobertdouglas said:

Until they get there, can we have the simple version??

I have no idea what the developers would be willing to do. However, a knife tool is already on the roadmap, which should do much of what a vector eraser brush would do while avoiding the complications I mentioned above. 

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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