I know this is an issue that hasn't been solved for at least 8 years. Nevertheless, probably someone knows a way to circumvent the problem or has an idea to emulate the desired effect.
I want to add different transparent areas to one object (black rectangle), so that the objects below (layers with maps, bitmaps and drawings) are visible in various areas, much like several spotlights penetrating darkness. The "spotlights" must be able to overlap and the position of the spots have to be easy to move around, as I want it to use in some sort of presentation. I tried a workaround using the transparency tool and the interactive Fill tool simultanously, thus creating two radial "spotlights" on the same object, but I should at least have five such areas. The mentioned workaround with the transparency and interactive fill tool show, that it shouldn't be technically difiicult to implement a tool that can handle several transparencies on one object.
I tried to use the mesh fill tool as well, but the handling of circular shapes (moving them around and scaling them) is very bad.
Thank you Ronny for your solution. Unfortunately it is not a simple bitmap background. As I stated in the OP post, the background consists of multiple layers with bitmaps and drawings. I will keep your idea in mind for another time though.
Yes, I noticed that you wrote that it consisted of different types of objects, and unfortunately this solution will only work with bitmaps.I suppose it won't be possible to convert it all to a bitmap?If it is, I suggest you create an extra page and put the bitmap, black rectangle and spotlights there, and keep the original objects as is.
ALFM said:They can be sharp holes like Windows. I already tried to make multiple "holes" with normal cut outs. The problem with this method is, that you can't move the holes to overlap because the overlapping sections would become opace areas again.
OK, I see that moving the subpaths around will create opaque regions where the "holes" overlap.
I would consider creating multiple "spotlight masks", and putting each one on its own layer. Then, I could control which "mask" was in effect at any given time by changing the visibility / printability of the layers.
Though this doesn't allow all the spotlights to be seen at the same time (which would be best), this is a halfway solution I will use until there is a better option. Thank you!