Cutting a shape out of another shape

[philipt18]

I'm a bit rusty with any design app, and I've never gotten completely up to speed with Designer. I'm trying to do something which I think is fairly simple, but I don't seem to be able to get it right.

Simply, I have two shapes, and I want one to cut out of the other. Right now I have a group of shapes and I put it on top of the shape I want it to cut from, and I say to mask below, and it makes the bottom shape into the shape of the group above. What I want is in fact the bottom shape minus the group above (so it is transparent where the group was).

How do I do this? Thank you.

[firstdefence]

To cut out a shape from a shape use Layer > Geometry > Subtract or from the Menu Bar:

Add you should end up with this

 

 

[Alfred]

I’m afraid those screenshots have gone all shy.

[philipt18]

I tried Subtract, but everything except Divide was grayed out.

[Alfred]

You need to make sure that both shapes are selected.

[firstdefence]

Was rewriting my post when I got called away, what Philip is trying to do is subtract a "group of shapes from an individual shape, which makes the process different. 

The simplest method is to ungroup the group of shapes and Layer > Geometry > Add them to make a single irregular shape, that can then be subtracted from the Individual Shape.

[Alfred]

1 hour ago, firstdefence said:

what Philip is trying to do is subtract a "group of shapes from an individual shape"

Ah, thanks — I missed that detail. As you say, the simplest way to deal with that scenario is to ungroup the shapes and ‘add’ them before performing the ‘subtract’ operation.

[JimmyJack]

I don't think you need to Ungroup and/or Add first.

Just select everything and hit Subtract.
If you have a group, CMD select everything and hit Subtract .

[firstdefence]

5 hours ago, JimmyJack said:

Just select everything and hit Subtract.

Yes you can select everything within the group and then the target shape and subtract.

 

[Move Along People]

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[philipt18]

Thank you all. I've been able to subtract one shape at a time, but I have a small problem. I have triangles that I want to subtract just the outline of, not the middle. The triangles have no fill, but subtract still removes the middle. Is there a way to get it to work without removing the middle? Thanks.

[philipt18]

5 minutes ago, philipt18 said:

Thank you all. I've been able to subtract one shape at a time, but I have a small problem. I have triangles that I want to subtract just the outline of, not the middle. The triangles have no fill, but subtract still removes the middle. Is there a way to get it to work without removing the middle? Thanks.

I figured this out. I selected the triangles and selected 'Expand Stroke' and then I subtracted them.

[Move Along People]

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[geomoondog]

I created words (letters)  converted to curves - ungrouped then trying to cut out curves out of the letters and it just does not work using the way explained above.

[PixelPest]

I don´t get the picture - maybe like so?

[MartynaCR]

I went through all the comments here and tried every combination and yet I still cannot figure out how to cut a simple circle shape out of a more complex image. Can someone please help? It just never gives me an option for for substract, it is always greyed out. I checked the "Fill mode" for both, circle and the earring shape. The circle is set to "Alternate", but the earring shape has no selection. Both options (alternate or winding) are greyed out. I am suspecting that this might be the reason why I cannot do substract. Is there any way of changing it or any other way of cutting out the circle?

[PixelPest]

Is your "ear-ring" probably just a single stroke instead of a color filled shape like you will get after "expand stroke"?

A screenshot or example file might be helpful methinks.

[MartynaCR]

9 hours ago, PixelPest said:

Is your "ear-ring" probably just a single stroke instead of a color filled shape like you will get after "expand stroke"?

A screenshot or example file might be helpful methinks.

no, it's not. It is fully filled shape. attached is the screen shot of it

[G13RL]

Ungroup the whole thing, then you should be able to subtract the circle from the large shape.

[MartynaCR]

3 minutes ago, G13RL said:

Ungroup the whole thing, then you should be able to subtract the circle from the large shape.

I just tried that and still nothing

[firstdefence]

2 hours ago, MartynaCR said:

I just tried that and still nothing

You have to select the individual tear drop shape within the group, not the group itself and then boolean/geometry subtract the red dot from the teardrop.

[PixelPest]

[MartynaCR]

50 minutes ago, PixelPest said:

thank you so much!