Hi all,

I have used the fill spaces tool to fill some 'empty' areas with the color white that othervise were transparent meaning that the color of the background could be seen which I did not want. Unfortuntately this tool does not work very cleanly and on the object's rim there are some - in my case - green lines that do not look good (see Screenshot). I tried to get rid of them by filling the explicity with white. The weird thing is that for some of those lines this works, other lines do not seem to react to this. Would you mind telling me what I can do to fill the areas in white in a clean way? I'd appreciate every comment.

Maybe you have seen this? http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/MANUAL/html/Bucket.html

You might also step through the Tutorials in the Inkscape Help menu, to get a foundation of vector tools.

Why not putting a white shape under the graphic?

Thanks for your answers Tyler and Pixel,

@TylerDurden : In the link it is mentioned that I should increase the zoom. However, if I increase the zoom the filling become more unlikely, meaning that a lot of areas are not filled when I click on them. Sometimes I have to click 30 times and afterwards the area is filled (in a clean way) but in most cases I have to zoom out to fill the area in an unclean way. This is what I completely do not understand. Why sometimes the filling works and other times it does not (or only after clicking 30 times on different positions of the area).

@PixelPest : I tried your suggestion but it did not have any effect at all. The green lines still remain visible.

Oh - wait the "empty" space isn´t empty (100% transparent) at all - it´s actually "green"?

Thanks Pixel for your comment, basically I have to admit that I do not understand what you mean? In the picture you can clearly see the green lines. Your suggested solution does not change that. The green lines (that occured do to the unclean filling of the empty spaces) are still there.

So the green is introduced by the "fill bucket"-tool? Then it might be a stroke color you can delete. I have no clue how it looks before you applied the "fill bucket".

Thanks Pixel for your answer and effort,

basically the green comes from the background. It is not only green but also blue. I uploaded a screenshot how it looks before. How can I fill in the empty areas of the buildings in a clean way with the color white? Further, I do not understand why sometimes the filling workes in Inkscape and sometimes it does not (this is a general remark, independent from my example)

Ok - that´not what I´d call empty. ;-)

I found the fill-bucket works really well especially when you zoom as much as possible to fill the whole area to screen-size. So the closer/larger that area fills the Inkscape window the more precisely it will fill in. I´d zoom to every portion at the time - so maybe in 4 steps. And I´d close the tool´s panel on the right to make more room. Can you try that as next?

As the drawing is clearly vector based I wonder if that version is anyhow accessible. Deleting the green/blue rectangles should be very easy.

Thanks Pixel for your futher comment,

as written several times before, when I zoom in the filling does not happen (or only if I click 50 times on the areas but in many cases it does not happen). Then I have to zoom out and I get the unclean filling.

Further you stated that "Deleting the green/blue rectangles should be very easy.". This is not valid for my example. I can't fill them in and I can't delete them. When I click on delte the whole area is deleted.

Is it a jpg, raster image sort of or a vector drawing? if the second case it´s most likely a group of shapes. You can either ungroup to get access to its components or ctrl click specific shapes. You can get the info at the status bar at the bottom of the Inkscape window. If you´re allowed please upload otherwise.

Thanks Pixel for your comment, it is a vector drawing. I tried your adivice with ungrouping the objects but it did not help at all. The problems mentioned above still persists even if the ojbects are ungrouped: When zooming in and then filling with white, most of the time Inkaspace is not doing anything, if I zoom out the filling is unclean and the remaining lines can't be deleted (and it is really timeconsuming to try to fill every unclean line).

Sorry, unfortunately, I can't upload the file.

Forget the fill-bucket thing when it´s a vector drawing. We must find a way to get access to its parts. Please go main-menu->Object->Objects... this will giv you a list of the content - maybe you can select through the list or make a screenshot from it. You still didn´t say what Status-bar is telling when you select the drawing.

Thanks Pixel for your comment, basically the list of objects is very large so I do not know what to do with it (I have a lot of other objects in the file). The statusbar tells that I have a treshold of 5 but changing this, did not solve the problem. Also playing around with the other parameters did not solve the problem. I think as I have already spent quite much time on this issue (and you too, thank you for that, I really appreciate it), I will just tolerate the green lines and rims and maybe try to fill them manually by using another program. I could not imagine that it is such a big deal in Inkscape to fill in some areas. What I comletely do not understand it the somehow random behaviour of the filling tool. Sometimes it works and sometimes it does not.

Oh my dear.

Go View->Zoom-> Drawing to make all fits the screen

Go View->Display mode->Outline

hold ctrl-key down and with the Select-tool (S) click on the outer rim of what supposed to be the green rectangle and when it´s selected hit "backspace" or "del" on the keyboard - same with the blue

Go back View->Display mode->Normal

PS: I find the main question is instead of repairing things that are not broken,  why you´re not working with the vector parts?

Thanks Pixel for your answers and effort,

I tried what you said but it did not work. Many green lines are not being displayed in the outline view. Further, the lines (or areas) that are displayed can't be selected individually. I uploaded two screenshot showing that. I also tried it when the drawing fits the whole screen and I tried to ungroup all objects. The problem still persists.

What do you mean by Vector parts? Basically I think it should not be such a big deal to fill some empty areas. Is it somehow possible to 'force' Inkscape to fill in the clicked area? As said before, most of the time this is not possible and nothing happens when I do it (or the green rims and areas remain). As this seems to be difficult using the approach in Inkscape I'd like to ask, whether you know another way of doing this. You mentioned at the beginning "Why not putting a white shape under the graphic?". Maybe this might be a better approach of doing this.

Here is a simple workflow, illustrating vector object fill/stroke and z-order concepts.  
Vector objects can have fill and/or stroke. They have foreground/background relationships. 

The background can be made checkerboard, to not be confused with white objects.

The bucket tool creates new objects with each click.

Best practices include using fill color when possible, rather than making new objects with the bucket tool.

Thanks Tyler for your answer and the video,

so you are directly using the fill color of the drawn objects when you create them. This is bascially a good idea if you want to create the objects from the beginning. Unfortunately I have already created a lot of objects and I do not want to re-create them from scratch again. Further, I used combined many objects together to create the building such that only filling the single objects will not lead to the desired output as many areas are just empty. This is why I have to find a solution for objects that already exist and that are composed of many different objects.

Can you think about an option how to get rid of those green lines and the green surroundings? Is there a way how to force Inksacpe to also fill them in a clean way or to fill what is left over with the color white?

Again - select the green+blue with ctrl+S and hit delete. I don´t understand why you still have the faulty white filling in your drawing.

If you still think you can´t reach out for those parts try this: draw 2 rectangles out side your graphic - hit "D" to pick up colors and click the green which will fill the rectangle with that specific color. With the select-tool select your new green rectangle - go Edit-> Select Same "Fill Color" - both green objects must be now highlighted - hit backspace or del to delete.Same procedure applies to the blue shape.

Thanks Pixel again for your answer,

Did you see my comment #16. I can't delte the green and blue lines with ctrl+S. It is just not possible. I can't select the lines (and the green surrounding areas) individually. I can just select the whole green background of the whole picture and delete it, but this is not what I want (and by doing so the undesired lines become blue, which is not better).

I do not understand at all how your second approach should work? Why shall I create some objects and then delete them afterwards? How should this help me get rid of the undesired green lines of the picture?

Because I thought you want to get rid of the green background. the green rectangle was meant as a helper object to select the green background with - which you still avoid to select - Why is the green+blue at least in there when you try to fill it with white afterwards - does this makes more sense? And why you still have the "faulty" white filling escapes me. And just because you´re saying it´s not working for you doesn´t mean it´s not possible. When you could provide the file (privately) I will fix this in 5 seconds - but here you go.

Thanks Pixel for your answer and effort,

I do not want to get rid of the whole green background, just the green lines and surrounding areas that could not be filled with the filling tool of Inkscape. As said before, no matter what I did (and I played around with it for several hours) I could not select those green lines and surrounding areas individually to delete them.

What do you mean by "Why is the green+blue at least in there when you try to fill it with white afterwards - does this makes more sense?". Basically this is my core question. Why are there still those green and blue lines. I think this is because Inksacpe - in my example - is not able to cleanly and correctly fill in the areas unfortunately (which I somehow can't understand because it only has to fill in the empty spaces with a color; but this is another story). 

Which "faulty white fillings" are you talking about? As said before, I just used the filling tool of Inkscape to do this.

Unfortunately - as said before -  I can't share the file with you (this is not my personal decision but a guidline).

Reply #16 shows white filling not reaching/covering the whole green space - that´s why green lines are showing up - if you hadn´t use the fill tool it´d still be green -no? So why is the green there in first place? And if you want just a white shape behind the house - draw 5 points in the corners - fill white and put behind - it´s a thing of seconds - not minutes not hours.

Thanks Pixel for your answer and your help, I really appreciate it,

Bascially without the filling the areas were transparent sucht that they'll take the color of the background. When you put a green background behind them, the areas are green.

"Reply #16 shows white filling not reaching/covering the whole green space" you are exactly right. And this is what I try to tell you what I do not understand at all why Inscape is unable to fill the whole spaces correctly. The filling is somehow random. Sometimes it workes perfectly, sometimes it is really unclean and sometime just nothing happens. Especially after having an unclean filling (which is always the case unfortunately in my example) I can't fill in the remaining unclean green lines and surrounding areas most of the time. I have to randomly click 50 times on those and sometimes it workes but most of the times it does not work. Even if this workey all the time, it is really timeconsuming to do this for the whole object as there are many of those undesired lines and surroudings.

Is this what you´re after?

Thanks Pixel for your answer and effort,

this solution indeed works for me. Thanks a lot for your patience and great help. I really appreciate it🤗

Glad we found a way in the end. Have fun.

Cheers

Vanessa_Fi

This is bascially a good idea if you want to create the objects from the beginning. Unfortunately I have already created a lot of objects and I do not want to re-create them from scratch again.

No need to redraw everything. Just arrange the z-order (foreground/background) relationships of the objects. 

Stepping the new house object lower in the z-order until it is behind the system components, but in front of the sky and grass:

TylerDurden

No need to redraw everything.

Mmmh. Who recommended that? I was just simulating the file not available - guessing its structure. 

Vanessa_Fi

This is bascially a good idea if you want to create the objects from the beginning. Unfortunately I have already created a lot of objects and I do not want to re-create them from scratch again.

🙄