I'm using the Calligraphy tool and a graphics tablet to emulate drawing on a white board (I'm using a projector in meetings to scribble away and then save the results afterwards). If I draw a shape (line, circle etc.) and then select the eraser tool and use it to effectively cut the shape in half then visually I have two shapes instead of one. However, it seems I can only select the entire ORIGINAL shape and not the individual pieces left over after the erasing. Sorry if this is a newbie question, but how do I select the pieces? I can't imagine the behavior of the way I see it working being useful to anyone .

Welcome MickM!
Before I start, please refer to the links in my signature for some excellent instructional material. And here's a link to the chapter on the Eraser tool in the manual: http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/MANUAL ... raser.html

I'm not exactly sure what it is that you want to do. But I will try to answer what you've asked. If you draw a circle, this results in a circular or elliptical object. If you use the Eraser to basically cut it in half, 2 things happen. First, as you have observed it creates 2 shapes. And 2nd, it changes the object to a path, consisting of 2 subpaths. The Calligraphy tool produces paths in the first place, so if you erase part of a calligraphy drawing, you still end up with 2 or more subpaths.

To separate them, all you need to do is Path menu > Break Apart. Now they are 2 separate paths, and you can select either one as you wish.

I might guess that you want to write with the Calligraphy tool, as if you were writing on the projector or white board. And that you want to use the Eraser tool as if you were wiping off something you wrote, possibly to rewrite over it. As long as you are erasing entire objects, this should not create any problems. But if you want to erase part of something, as you've learned, it's not so simple. If you have a specific example, please feel free to describe it.

I think the main problem is possibly that you're expecting the Eraser tool to work like it does in raster graphics programs. There, the eraser simply deletes whatever pixels it touches. But because Inkscape is vectors, it works differently, because it doesn't recognize pixels. Just like the Paint Bucket tool, it's adapted to vector graphics by converting objects (or closed areas for bucket tool) to paths.

I hope this helps, but if I've missed your problem, please clarify.
All best

Thanks for your reply brynn. I did indeed read the (very short) documentation on the eraser tool before posting . I am an electronics engineer and the whiteboard scribbles I typically do contain text, block diagrams, graphs and circuit schematics. The only tool I could make work sensibly was the calligraphy tool so I'm working within the limitations of that tool. To keep the example relatively simple, say I draw a graph representing a logic waveform vs time. However, after drawing it I realize I drew a section in the middle of the waveform incorrectly, and I need to erase that section and replace it with a waveform piece that's actually bigger than the chunk I erased. After erasing that chunk, I want to be able to drag the right hand part over by a few inches and fill in the middle bit with the fixed up waveform. However, I can't independently select the right hand part and move it over!

So I completely get that this is a vector based drawing package trying to (in this case) emulate a bit mapped drawing package. My gripe is that when the eraser cuts a shape into two independent shapes that inkscape should create those two shapes just as though I drew them independently. I can't see how anything else makes sense! It seems to me that the eraser is just a tool that draws thick white lines vs actually erasing something. Hope that explained it a little better. Of course, you couldn't do this on a whiteboard, but it should be a piece of cake on a computer.

Hi Mick. I see where you are coming from but I think the reason the eraser tool works the way it does is to accommodate many different complexities of paths. Think of the eraser tool as cutting away parts instead of cutting in two.
this is especially important for compound paths, which are often found in paths with holes such as text paths. the letter P for example is made up of two subpaths, if I use the eraser to cut away a piece off the bottom I don't want the hole in the middle to fill in and become a separate path. likewise I would want to be able to open it by cutting through to the hole....

Anyway, the shortcut for break apart is shift control K. Maybe you can speed things up by incorporating it into your workflow

The only tool I could make work sensibly was the calligraphy tool so I'm working within the limitations of that tool.

I only have a vague idea what a waveform is (and no need to explain), but I just had a quick thought that maybe there's an extension with which you could draw it? Maybe you're already using one of the Extension menu > Render grids? For the waveform, any chance Function Plotter or Parametric Curves would work (also Extension menu > Render)? Or do they strictly need to be hand-drawn?

Ok yes, I understand that the way the eraser tool works seems clumsy to you. Any chance you could use a raster or bitmap program?

Just a couple of thoughts in any case

Thanks for your help. I just checked Adobe Illustrator (which is also a vector based drawing program) and it works the way I thought things should work i.e. after using the eraser tool any visually separated parts of the original shape become independent shapes, each one a separate vector object created as though I drew it individually. More importantly, I can move the separated pieces around independently. Regarding druban's comments, I'm not sure I follow it clearly. I assume the two subpaths in the letter "P" are the vertical path and the semicircular path at the top. I don't see how cutting away a piece at the bottom could yield the hole in the P to fill in. The resultant objects should continue to look like whatever the P looked like after it was sliced with the eraser (which also has a specified erasing width).

Being my own devil's advocate here, I can imagine scenarios where what I am proposing is very difficult for a vector based program e.g. a very thick solid line partially sliced into by an eraser tool. The result could only be created by a filled polygon tracing out the perimeter of the nibbled out thick path. Even Adobe Illustrator doesn't handle that case well. I guess we can close the thread since this seems to be an inherent limitation of Inkscape. Unfortunately it means I need to seek out an alternative drawing program. I'd use Illustrator, but it has a supremely annoying 'feature' in that the dynamic preview width of the squiggles you are drawing changes after you lift the stylus at the completion of the draw - at that time the total line width changes and you are no longer WYSIWYG with respect to what you saw while you were drawing. .

So I had a brain cramp in my previous post - the calligraphy tool already yields a closed polygon. So therefore the eraser slicing through such a polygon does yield two separate polygons - however they are bound together and need to be broken apart using the Break Apart command as previously suggested. I guess this means I'm voting that the default use of the eraser should automatically invoke the break apart command, or that should be added as a preference setting for the eraser tool. I'll figure out how to file that as an official suggestion to the developers.