Maybe not the right terminology...
I have a cartoon character as a bitmap.
Run it through trace and I now have a vector version of the image.
Examining the vector several parts of the cartoon that, to a human eye, are supposed to be separate, are joined with a tiny bridge.
My normal workflow for these is to place a rectangle over the bridge, select the rectangle and the part that has the bridge, then use 'Back Minus Front' (I love that tool).
I now have separation and just need to tweak the nodes. In most cases, this is all I need, until today.
The two 'separated' items are still one curve and I need to convert these two items/objects/shapes into truly separate 'things' for cutting (they will be different materials).
Instead of the back minus front method, I've tried break apart (done twice) and then move the ends of the curves to autojoin, with the same result.
It's obviously me or my bastardised workflow, but would some please tell me the next step?
Thanks.
Steve.
Steve said:The two 'separated' items are still one curve and I need to convert these two items/objects/shapes into truly separate 'things' for cutting (they will be different materials).
Steve said:Instead of the back minus front method, I've tried break apart (done twice) and then move the ends of the curves to autojoin, with the same result.
What user interface features do you use in CorelDRAW to be able to tell how many subpaths a curve has?
I'm not sure what you mean.
When I click on a 'shape' (probably wrong term) that is one of two created by the back-minus-front action, both 'shapes' are selected and reported in the object manager, even though there is no physical connection.
I just opened Corel to try to answer your question but found that I hadn't saved the CDR file after I exported the DXF for my plotter. However, when I imported the DXF all 'shapes' were unique curves, which is what I actually wanted.
Somehow the export/import distinguished the two 'shapes/things' as not being connected and rendered separate curves.
Does that give a clue as to where I was going wrong or needed to do?
Since we're not sitting together looking at the same screen, I may ask what seem like "dumb questions". Please know that no offense is intended; I'm asking just to figure out if we are thinking about the same things.
The whole meaning of the word, "Curve" in CorelDRAW is sometimes a source of confusion, because one Curve shape can consist of multiple subpaths that are not necessarily connected to each other.
Are you familiar with that? And do you use some part(s) of the CorelDRAW user interface in order to see that sort of information (e.g., number of supaths) for a selected curve shape?
One place to see that would be the "Curve" section of the Object Properties docker.
https://youtu.be/7uElUxsETOs
Does this help?
Steve said:Does this help?
In your video, when you have the resulting curve selected, and the Shape tool is active, you can see in the "Object Information" in the Status Bar that you have one curve with two subpaths.
At that point, as Myron points out, using "Break Apart" would turn that into two independent curve shapes (one for each subpath).
Doing it the way you show there has the advantage of being able to set up the "cutter" as carefully as you want before using it. Depending on exactly what you need to do, though, you might find it more convenient to use the Eraser tool or the Knife tool. The Knife tool has the advantage of being able to take you directly to independent curves, without the additional "Break Apart" step.
Thanks both of you. Much appreciated.