I’m wondering if there is a way to do something like the Path Eraser Tool in Adobe Illustrator. I’d like to be able to draw a path, and then “draw-out” sections of that path. Here’s what I’m talking about.
I use the path eraser tool a lot in Adobe Illustrator. I’m trying to move to Inkscape, but I haven’t found a solution to this problem. I know a little C++, and so I’ve considered trying to learn how to add this functionality. I’m a novice though, so it might end up being a huge time sink.
If you have any ideas, I’d love to hear them. Hoping I can make the move to Inkscape.
Thank you for your suggestion @inklinea . I was able to do what you described, but like @TylerDurden mentions it takes quite a few steps.
The Path Eraser Tool in Adobe allows you to quickly erase out a "drawn" section of a path. It allows me to freehand a length of section to delete from a path.
@TylerDurden, yeah my first attempt was to use the eraser tool, but that just deleted the path altogether.
The last thing I want Inkscape to do is become a copy of Illustrator, but it seems this would be a pretty basic function to have. After all if we can freely draw out a path, we should be able to freely draw out a subtraction from that path.
Wow, can't believe it's been 4 years since I posted this question. I thought I'd update it with the current method I'm using for this issue in case anyone happens upon this post looking for the fastest way to do this in the absence of a path eraser tool.
What I do now: If I have a path where I want to delete a section of it, I will double click the endpoints of that section that I'd like to delete; this will create a new node at those locations. Then I select those endpoint nodes, and any others that happen to be between them and press Alt + Backspace which is the hotkey for the "delete segment between two non-endpoint nodes" button. This is not as fast as a path eraser tool, but it is the process that I've found that requires the least amount of steps.
Beyond the Basics How to erase section of a path
Inkscape.org
I’m wondering if there is a way to do something like the Path Eraser Tool in Adobe Illustrator. I’d like to be able to draw a path, and then “draw-out” sections of that path. Here’s what I’m talking about.
Step 1:
Draw out a path
Step 2:
Then, use the Path Eraser Tool on the section of the path I’d like to erase (shown in pink)
The result:
The path is now broken into two separate paths.
I use the path eraser tool a lot in Adobe Illustrator. I’m trying to move to Inkscape, but I haven’t found a solution to this problem. I know a little C++, and so I’ve considered trying to learn how to add this functionality. I’m a novice though, so it might end up being a huge time sink.
If you have any ideas, I’d love to hear them. Hoping I can make the move to Inkscape.
Thank you!
The feature in inkscape is called 'cut path'
Overlap one object on top of the other
Select the 1st object, hold shift click the 2nd object.
press Ctrl + Alt + / or use Path>Cut Path
The 2nd object will vanish, and the 1st object will be cut at the points the 2nd object overlapped the first
You can draw a quick path with the Pencil ( freehand ) too, then cut. Just like using the selection lasso in photoshop etc.
Inkscape's eraser tool could use this feature.
I'm not finding a simple work around... can be done with cut-path, but takes a number of steps.
Thank you for your suggestion @inklinea . I was able to do what you described, but like @TylerDurden mentions it takes quite a few steps.
The Path Eraser Tool in Adobe allows you to quickly erase out a "drawn" section of a path. It allows me to freehand a length of section to delete from a path.
@TylerDurden, yeah my first attempt was to use the eraser tool, but that just deleted the path altogether.
The last thing I want Inkscape to do is become a copy of Illustrator, but it seems this would be a pretty basic function to have. After all if we can freely draw out a path, we should be able to freely draw out a subtraction from that path.
Thank you both for your input!
Wow, can't believe it's been 4 years since I posted this question. I thought I'd update it with the current method I'm using for this issue in case anyone happens upon this post looking for the fastest way to do this in the absence of a path eraser tool.
What I do now: If I have a path where I want to delete a section of it, I will double click the endpoints of that section that I'd like to delete; this will create a new node at those locations. Then I select those endpoint nodes, and any others that happen to be between them and press
Alt + Backspacewhich is the hotkey for the "delete segment between two non-endpoint nodes" button. This is not as fast as a path eraser tool, but it is the process that I've found that requires the least amount of steps.