Hi. I've been trying to create a half-ellipse with no straight edge joining the two ends of the curve. Using the arch option doesn't create a proper ellipse. Please could someone tell me how to create a half-ellipse and then remove half of it without ending up with the straight line?
Create an ellipse then drag the round control handles to open it into an arc. If you keep the mouse inside the ellipse you get an arc, whereas if the mouse is outside it you get a segment (i.e. with line joining the ends to the centre). You can also toggle the modes from the icons on the tool control bar. Hold CTRL to make the handles move in steps, which will make it easier to produce an exact half ellipse.
You probably also want to make sure the shape has no fill set, but does have a stroke.
Just to add a tiny comment to Xav's post - once you've created it, you can do Path>object to path and then you'll have the option to further manipulate the nodes however you want.
Also, when creating your ellipse (using the circle tool), the menu he's talking about can also be accessed on the tool bar, be sure your ellipse is selected first to access it.
Hi Xav and Flamingolady. Thanks very much for your help. I managed to create the half-ellipses after reading your responses. I was wondering if there is a way of doing it that is similar to using the marquee tool in Photoshop - i.e. creating a rectangle around part of the object and pressing delete. That would be useful for some other stuff I need to do. The eraser tool doesn't seem anything like Photoshop, or else that could have been used to do the same thing.
The first thing to bear in mind is that Inkscape is a vector graphics program, so doesn't operate in the same way as a bitmap editor like Photoshop. The closest equivalent to "create a rectangle and press delete" would be to use a Boolean operation between the ellipse and a rectangle. You would draw the ellipse, then draw a rectangle on top of it; select both and use Path > Difference. But this approach only works for one object at a time, so if you've got several shapes to cut you need to do each one separately.
Beginners' Questions removing part of a stroke
Inkscape.org
Hi. I've been trying to create a half-ellipse with no straight edge joining the two ends of the curve. Using the arch option doesn't create a proper ellipse. Please could someone tell me how to create a half-ellipse and then remove half of it without ending up with the straight line?
Many thanks. Best wishes,
Mike
Create an ellipse then drag the round control handles to open it into an arc. If you keep the mouse inside the ellipse you get an arc, whereas if the mouse is outside it you get a segment (i.e. with line joining the ends to the centre). You can also toggle the modes from the icons on the tool control bar. Hold CTRL to make the handles move in steps, which will make it easier to produce an exact half ellipse.
You probably also want to make sure the shape has no fill set, but does have a stroke.
Just to add a tiny comment to Xav's post - once you've created it, you can do Path>object to path and then you'll have the option to further manipulate the nodes however you want.
Also, when creating your ellipse (using the circle tool), the menu he's talking about can also be accessed on the tool bar, be sure your ellipse is selected first to access it.
Hi Xav and Flamingolady. Thanks very much for your help. I managed to create the half-ellipses after reading your responses. I was wondering if there is a way of doing it that is similar to using the marquee tool in Photoshop - i.e. creating a rectangle around part of the object and pressing delete. That would be useful for some other stuff I need to do. The eraser tool doesn't seem anything like Photoshop, or else that could have been used to do the same thing.
Thanks again. Best wishes
Mike
The first thing to bear in mind is that Inkscape is a vector graphics program, so doesn't operate in the same way as a bitmap editor like Photoshop. The closest equivalent to "create a rectangle and press delete" would be to use a Boolean operation between the ellipse and a rectangle. You would draw the ellipse, then draw a rectangle on top of it; select both and use Path > Difference. But this approach only works for one object at a time, so if you've got several shapes to cut you need to do each one separately.
Thanks very much, Xav. I didn't think of trying that. Best wishes,
Mike