Question about Subtracting Shapes

[ODdOnLifeItself]

In the enclosed .xar file, why is it that subtracting the black shapes from the red shapes, gives the image at right?

Question.xar



Curious...

James

[zaphodeist]

Looking at it in line view might provide an answer

[ODdOnLifeItself]

Okay, I think I see it. Since the black shapes were a blend mapped to a circle; the circle, even though transparent, is part of the subtraction.

James

[handrawn]

that would explain it - a transparent object it still very definitely there

[ODdOnLifeItself]

So, the question becomes (to those who have done this many times), what is the easiest way to divorce the Blend objects from the original shape that they were aligned to?

Thanks!

James

[ODdOnLifeItself]

Okay, I got it to work.

What I would like to know (now...LOL) is if there is a way to divorce the blend objects from the aligning shape w/o having to manually select each of the pieces?

Thanks!

James

[handrawn]

problem here it that the blend is mapped half in and half out of the edge of it's circle, so if you try to manipulate the circle with boolean you will loose half of the blend

since your blend is solid black you could try [with the circle fully transparent]:

make a bitmap copy [true colour] at 300dpi [important]
trace it with bitmap tracer [greyscale]
remove the white background

[ODdOnLifeItself]

Thanks, John (John is right, eh?)

I forget about that line preview! Several times I have watched a tutorial and the Line Preview is mentioned, I always go, "oh yeah, THAT!"

Thanks for the tip...now, I realize that it might provide valuable clues to what is really going on when Xara doesn't do what it's told.

Peace

James