Vector Crop tool - delete cropped portion of elements

[ed_in_nj]

Good Day:

I'm looking for some help on the vector crop tool in the desktop version of Designer (MAC).  Suppose I have a series of red lines that continue beyond the extents of a green rectangle (see attached image).  If I group the lines and use the vector crop tool, snapping to the green rectangle, the results is all the red lines contained within the green rectangle.  So far so good.  Now my question: Is there a way to permanently delete the portions of the red lines that have been cropped out?

[firstdefence]

Try adding a Node to the point where the lines intersect the rectangle and while that node is still selected (Coloured Blue) use the Break Curve option, you can then select the bit you don't want and delete it.

[ed_in_nj]

@firstdefense - thanks for the suggestion, that will certainly work.  However I'm trying to find a method that will work with multiple items simultaneously.  I have a drawing with dozens of items (not all just simple lines) that I need to crop.  Adding nodes to all the items would be cumbersome.  The only 'problem' with the vector crop tool for my particular application is the fact that it is non destructive.  I'm looking for a method that will delete the cropped portions.  I've also tried using the "Layer>Geometry>Intersect" command which does work but would require individual edits for each item I wish to crop.

 

 

[firstdefence]

If you don't need to edit the stroke once drawn you can expand it: Layer > Expand Stroke and use Geometry: intersect, unfortunately this will require multiple rectangles to intersect with each line, so 4 lines, 4 rectangles.

The rectangle should have a fill, if it is below the line, the line will adopt the colour of the rectangle, so make the rectangle the same colour or place it above the line prior to intersecting.

 

[R C-R]

13 hours ago, ed_in_nj said:

... I'm trying to find a method that will work with multiple items simultaneously.  I have a drawing with dozens of items (not all just simple lines) that I need to crop.  Adding nodes to all the items would be cumbersome.  The only 'problem' with the vector crop tool for my particular application is the fact that it is non destructive.  I'm looking for a method that will delete the cropped portions.

For situations like that, why do you need to crop anything destructively? Doing so could make it very difficult to make even simple changes to the cropped items afterwards.

A non-destructive alternative that is easy to implement, avoids the need to add any nodes to anything, & is much more flexible is clipping the items to a parent rectangle (or any other shape) like in this clipped not cropped.afdesign file that has 20 objects of various kinds clipped to a parent rectangle.

The parametric properties of the shapes like the cogs & stars that are clipped by the parent rectangle can still be changed, which would not be possible if you had to convert them to curves to add nodes, break them, & so on. You can also convert the parent rectangle to a curve later on, round its corners, etc. if you want, & move or scale the parent independently of its contents or not,  depending on how its Lock Children property is set.

If you are not familiar with what the Lock Children property does, beginning at around 2:20 the Affinity Photo - Clipping vs Masking video tutorial demonstrates how that works (it is the same for Designer & Photo).

[Chronos]

I'm also interested in finding a destructive way to remove what falls outside the bounds. The reason why I want this is because when I'm exporting a multi-layer svg file to be used with a laser cutter, it sees everything beyond what appears to be the bounds of my "document", so I need it to be tight to the bounding box. It'd be great if something could crop down all items outside of a bounding box for the export, or perhaps in that case there is, but I just don't know how to do it yet.

Please let me know,

Thanks!

[ed_in_nj]

@firstdefense: thank you for the suggestion and the video clip.  It will certainly generate the result I am looking for.  Slightly cumbersome, but it will get the job done.  I appreciate your feedback.

 

@R C-R: In my application I will be sharing the eventual graphic with a third party that does not have affinity designer.  I’m looking for them to have a vector version of the design for scalability.  The disadvantage to the non destructive cropping is the fact that the invisible elements are still present in the graphic.  I’m trying to avoid any confusion for the end user of the graphics

 

Thanks to you both for taking the time to reply.