Freehand Tool Cut issue

[pawel]

Hi Folks,

I was recently trying to slice cut a wheel/circle (converted to an editable shape of course) using"Freehand and Brush Tool"
What I discovered it is not possible to determine which part of the circle
will be erased/deleted after the cut is made.

See the enclosed image and file.
I intend to cut the wheel "A" so I could keep the bigger piece of it after the cut as the shown on the wheel "B".
What happens when I do the cut is that the bigger part is ereased and the smaller art is left as shown on the wheel "C".

Please let me know how can determine which part to erease and which to left after the cut using the "Freehand and Brush Tool".

Cheers
Pawel

[gwpriester]

I'm not sure how you are trying to cut this circle but the easiest way is to let your freehand line overlap the edges of the circle by a small amount.

With the line on top, select both and Arrange > Combine Shapes > Slice Shapes. This slices the circle into two objects. Delete the portion you do not want.

Gary

[handrawn]

just to add - there was a thread somewhere about the cutting of objects from perimeter to perimeter - think it was the slice with the most nodes is kept.
You can of course add or remove nodes to force this - but Gary's way is the neatest if you just need a straightforward slice?

[Ned Addie]

You'll end up with the big piece of pie if you flip the circle vertically (but not horizontally). Or even better, if you change the direction of the line ('reverse paths' button on the shape editor infobar) you'll also get the opposite portion.

The number of nodes is really only one factor determining which section remains, and the other factors are basically unpredictable. see:
http://talkgraphics.com/showthread.php?t=8673

--Ned

[handrawn]

Thanks Ned - knew I'd seen info somewhere

[raynerj1]

I Just think of slicing and dicing as using a cookie cutter... Take your shape you need cut (the cookie dough) and draw the cookie cutter over top. Then just intersect shapes and what you have left... is your cookie!

[pawel]

Great thanks for many tips.
I have tried to change points direction and it did not help.

But the flipping the wheel verticaly actualy worked very well.
Thanks for that.
Actualy flipping is not alway possible when the object is asymetric.

Prsonall I was thinking about holding down Ctrl, Shift or Alt btn while
drawing the freehand tool from one side of the wheel to the other
and this way determine if the cut should be made above/to the left of the cutting line or beneath/to the right of the cutting line.

This would be more consequent and clear where cut would occur.

Once again thanks for help.
maybe in the future Xara guys will fix such option it would be nice.

Cheers
Pawel

[DGehman]

How come we're not using subtract?

Below, the shape to remove is drawn with the Freehand and Brush tool to make a closed shape. I positioned (or, picking up the typo below, "positon"ed) the closed shape over the circle, then then subtracted the shape using Arrange > Combine Shapes > Subtract Shapes.

[Ned Addie]

How come we're not using subtract?

I thought freehand recontouring was uber-cool when I first came across it, but because of its lurking unpredictability I rarely use it now. (Although I still find it fun.) 'Subtract' otoh is totally predictable. I also think that being able to see -- and reposition or redraw -- the entire cut-line before committing to the change gives better control.

I have a (third party) macro set up so I only need to draw the new contour. The line will autoclose into a shape if necessary, add the object below to the selection, then 'subtract'. I activate the macro with a mouse gesture -- so I just draw a line where I want the new contour or cut-out to appear, swish my stylus-gesture, and voila... Anyway, it's my idea of fun...

For 'add' I also send the top object down a level in order to retain the attributes (color, etc) of the original object. (Unlike the others, 'add' is a 'combine shapes' narcissist.)

--Ned