Editing an object with 'DIFFERENCE' in 'PATHS'.

The object being edited is a curved shape, like an outlined bold letter 'C'. The secondary object is selected to be eliminated from the primary object. The function is initiated and the curved areas of the primary lose their integrity and the shape is distorted.

Tried doing this function in multiple ways as I did in CS6 Illustrator with no success. Illustrator had no problem with this function. is there a step I'm missing?

The vector line object was provided by a client in SVG format. Program of line arts origen is unknown. 

I am working in MacOS Ventura 13.0.1 environment, with Inkscape v1.2.2.

Can you upload an example file to investigate?

Polygon,

I have separated to the side, the elements of layer one for carving a plaque. The red lettering needs to be clipped out of the round arrow graphics they overlap. I also tried to group the objects so I could edit them all together but this failed. so, I resorted to editing each object individually. when necessary I copied and pasted into place when the letter covered more than on graphic element. so Here you go. I hope to solve this challenge as I would like to break away from Adobe products.

Regards,

MR

You have a weird mix of groups, polygons and paths on the red part: select one red object then Select same=fill color - go Path->Object to Path then Path->Combine. Do the same on the arrow pieces incl Path->Combine - these now must be on top of the red part - select both and go Path->Difference - when I understand you correctly:

The objects were in the layers that I intended. The letters need to be subtracted from the graphic objects below. For grouping tho', I will try do as you described and make the composition of all the objects the same, then combine them.

However, even at that...if you examine the shape of the outlined round arrow graphic and the letter 'W', the graphic object still loses the integrity of it's shape. The curved paths that remains after subtraction balloons out and distort the shape. If you overlap the objects before and after the difference is applied, you will see what I am talking about. There is something going on in the calculations when performing the subtraction from round shaped object. 

I hope this is clearer. If this problem will continue to be an inherent issue, I may regretfully not be able to use this program for the kind of work I do. 

As I said before, Illustrator handles this function but with some difficulty maintaining positions 'front' to 'back. So, I was constantly having to trial and error which of the boolean functions was going to work...this time. but maintaining the integrity of the round objects was not one of those difficulties. I'm sure part of the problem lies in the source of this graphic. with there being many vector programs out there...obviously there are issues with creating vectors in one program and then attempting to edit in another.

Sorry, this got a bit lengthy but I really want this to work...so would love to find a solution before I throw in the towel and go back to Adobe.

I guess the next hing for me to try is to recreate similar objects and outline text objects natively and see if the ‘difference function works properly. Thanks for trying to help.