Can't seem to eliminate a combined selection and also remove interior negative shapes
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I pulled this set of letters from a larger project and placed it in a new file to focus on the issue and be able to send via forum. I'm running into a problem trying to break apart and restore the negative space to these letter shapes. I had them all grouped together though I was unaware some of the shape letters were also part of a combined selection....I'm not sure how that happened, I don't remember doing that when this was in the original file I was working on. Anyway...
this issue at hand is that I can't seem to get the combined letter shapes to be permanently separated AND retain their negative spaces. So I selected the combined shapes and used "break apart" which did what it was supposed to and made the interior negative spaces into fills sitting on top. The letter forms were again autonomous as desired, but the interior negative shapes were still not as they needed to be. I wanted to "cut" those shapes out again so they'd be like normal, but when I do, it seems to return it to a combined shape again... am i missing a step?
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@Boldline Try with Trim: https://recordit.co/6wll943iOM
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@Boldline But hey, 'Separate Path' should work for this without the 'Break Apart' and 'Trim' workaround.
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@b77 ok thanks that does work. I hadn't done much with trim before. I appreciate your help with a solution there.
@vectoradmin - These leads me to a couple questions; is merge supposed to be creating a combined shape again after using break apart and then using merge to cut out the interior negative shapes again? That doesn't make sense... i can see them being generally "grouped" after this operation but not "combined" again.
Can/should we adjust the "trim" settings to allow it to trim based on shape and not require it to be made another color to accomplish it?
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@b77 said in Can't seem to eliminate a combined selection and also remove interior negative shapes:
@Boldline But hey, 'Separate Path' should work for this without the 'Break Apart' and 'Trim' workaround.
I know @vectoradmin has mentioned before that the only way to separate combined pieces is through break apart only. I can understand this and that works similarly to Illustrator.
Ideally I wish there was a way to break apart combined groups without the entire thing being "exploded" but there may not be...I think I need more reminding and clarification on when to be using the regular "ungroup" versus using "separate path" versus "break apart". I know we discussed it some on another thread a while back. Things still seem to not want to ungroup very easily... or I am expecting them to ungroup faster
@b77 said in Best solution for breaking apart merge results:
@Boldline Groups can be:
- individual objects grouped together;
- multiple groups that are grouped together;
- a mix of individual objects and groups grouped together.
'Ungroup' ungroups separate objects or groups that were grouped.
'Ungroup All' does successive ungrouping until any grouped groups are ungrouped.
'Separate Path' explodes one composite shape into separate objects.
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@Boldline This is not a group — it's a shape made of different shapes combined into one so that the entire composite shape has the same fill, stroke, effects (if you assign them).
I think 'Separate Path' can be made to work for this by separating shapes according to the path direction.
But only the developer can confirm that.Regarding Trim: I just changed the color of the small shapes so they are clearly seen in the video — no need to do that for any combine operation to work.
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@b77 said in Can't seem to eliminate a combined selection and also remove interior negative shapes:
Regarding Trim: I just changed the color of the small shapes to be clearly seen in the video — no need to do that for any combine operation to work.
OK so I tried it once and it did not work that way, but I tried again and you are correct, even when they are the same color, they do trim properly so that is good. not sure what happened the first time
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@Boldline I think I know what happens. 'Break Apart' doesn't move the negative shapes on top as it does when you break apart a single shape, so you thought they are on top because the app highlights them.
I moved them to the back with a keyboard shortcut, so it's not visible in my first video.
In this case you just need to move the bigger shapes in the back with 'Send to Back', then select all these shapes (big and small) with one click-and-drag, and click the Trim button: https://recordit.co/H9jUytZJAp
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@b77 said in Can't seem to eliminate a combined selection and also remove interior negative shapes:
'Break Apart' doesn't move the negative shapes on top as it does when you break apart a single shape, so you thought they are on top because the app highlights them.
Yes! I think you are correct here. I was confused that they were not on top like @vectoradmin had changed prior
@b77 said in Can't seem to eliminate a combined selection and also remove interior negative shapes:
I think 'Separate Path' can be made to work for this by separating shapes according to the path direction.
But only the developer can confirm that.I think that would be terrific. I'm not as technically astute on these things as you or @vectoradmin are, but I do know I would love to see the "separate path" be more powerful and accomplish much more than it currently does
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@Boldline @b77 At least here, the Separate Path still has some issues when dealing with this example. I try to fix this problem.
