Cutting out window panes for transparency reasons. How?

[rubies17]

I have a picture that has broken window panes that I want to cut out and have be transparent so I can have another layer show through the panes. Simple I know but I cannot find a tool to cut these out of a bitmap and allow this to be transparent.
Help would be awesome.
I am new to Xara xtreme. Been an adobe learner for awhile.
I love your program!! Period!
Great work guys and gals.
David R

[sallybode]

In Xara you can paste any bitmap you like somewhere on the desktop and even delete it, so long as it remains in memory you can fill an object with it by the fill tool, selecting "Bitmap Fill".

In the example I found a house in the Xara Clipart Gallery and drew some shapes for the windows on the right side of the house. I cut my house graphic to the clipboard, and I selected the shapes I created as windows and filled them with any color and the box I drew for the rectangle of the bitmap itself, a contrasting color. Then I clicked on "Arrange\Join Shapes". This let me see the white of the artboard through the rectangle, then I used the bitmap fill selector tool to select the house which I had cut to the clipboard as the fill for my rectangle with subtracted holes. Then I adjusted the edit handles until I got the house to fit the rectangle and the subtracted windows. To show the windows are actual holes and not just white, I have placed a bitmap of a stained glass window, also from the clip art picture gallery to show in behind the house. You can experiment with this file if you like. I have not subtracted all the windows yet.

Your turn.

[Christine Farrelly]

Draw a rectangle (or suitable shape) over the the window, select both and use arrange subtract shapes. repeat as necessary.

Christine

[rubies17]

Ok. I am abit lost here. What I tried from Christine's advice was this. I opened my window bitmap. Then chose Pen tool to draw one of the window panes. I made a square which turned black once all ends connected. Then I can only move the black square which is on top of the pane. Not the actual pane I thought I cut out.
I am missing something major. Maybe my head. LOL
Advice in detail for a lost guy?
Thank you both.
David R

[Soquili]

Hi David,

Welcome to Talkgraphics.

Using the techniques that Sally and Christine mentioned, I drew rectangles over the broken glass areas and selected the bitmap image and the rectangles use the Arrange > Combine Shapes > Subtract Shapes menu. Then I imported another bitmap and placed it behind the original. I drew a rectangle and applied a Fractal Clouds fill and selected Flat Bleach transparency. This is to give the impression of some glare on the glass. The rectangle was placed behind the original bitmap, and above the image of the fields and sky.

[rubies17]

On the house example above? How do you cut out the windows?There is no cutting tool to remove the windows.
Ok that is the part that really lost me. Sorry. ; )
David R

[Egg Bramhill]

rubies
Your missing the step Bill mentions above.
1: Draw the square above the pane.
2: Select All.
3: From the top Menu bar, Arrange / Combine Shapes / Subtract Shapes.

A hole appears where the window pane was.

Egg

[rubies17]

AHHHH. Got it now. That made more sense to me. Thank you soo much Soquili, Christine, and Sally. You made me more than welcome here on this site. I just found my new replacement for photoshop.
Hooray!
Thank you again
David R

[Soquili]

The windows in my previous post look entirely too clean

Added some grime to them

[Rayofsunshine]

AHHHH. Got it now. That made more sense to me. Thank you soo much Soquili, Christine, and Sally. You made me more than welcome here on this site. I just found my new replacement for photoshop.
Hooray!
Thank you again
David R

Quickest and easiest way:

Placing any shape on top of another shape and selecting both shapes - pressing Ctrl+2 will subtract one shape (the one on top) from the other.

~®~