Apologies if this question has been discussed before (seems to me like it might be). I did search as much as I could but I have not been able to find any relevant posts.

http://www.ryanlerch.org/blog/inkscape- ... -tutorial/

I was looking to adapt the tutorial for a design. However the transition from step 2 -> 3 does not work as explained in the tutorial for me. I also looked through the relevant section in the inkscape tutorial here http://inkscape.org/doc/advanced/tutorial-advanced.html

When I try this on my PC both objects disappear when I do cut path. I'm not sure what I'm doing incorrectly. Would appreciate it if any of you guys have any input.

Thanks.

Welcome!
To give you a quick answer while people with better technical knowledge come along - let me just say that you need to be sure that you convert the object that you are using to cut with (Path/Object to Path)- to a path before it works. I think if Inkscape does not recognize the path, then it will sometimes simply delete it all (happens to me all the time). I usually duplicate all the objects and move them aside in case things go wonky, and they usually do with me, lol. Also, I think you need to group your objects together in order for this extension to work. hope that gives you something else to try.

Hhmm....both objects disappear? I'm not sure what could cause both objects to disappear. The top object is supposed to disappear, in this case. (On top in z-order.) That tutorial was probably written with a different version of Inkscape. So some things could have changed. When I try the steps, none of the fill colors remain after performing Cut Path. So if you were zoomed in, you might not notice that one path is still there, but cut into pieces. You might think you were losing both objects when the colors disappear.

The objects do not need to be grouped, and in fact Cut Path won't work if they are grouped. Also, and surprisingly, you don't even need to convert to paths. It works just as well with shapes only.

If you try it again, and if both objects do disappear, would you please provide the SVG file? You could attach to a reply or upload wherever you wish, and give us a link to it.

Hello brynn,
Thanks for looking into this. What I see matches your description; the fill colors disappear after I do Cut Path. There's not much to this particular step in the example so I'm not sure where I'm going wrong. More details about the steps I tried:

1. Created the two shapes and did Cut Path without selecting any of the objects. Nothing happens. The info bar at the bottom of the screen mentions that 2 paths need to selected for this operation.
2. Select the two objects and do Cut path. In this case the result matches the shape of the object at the bottom of the stack and the fill colors disappear.
3. Convert both objects to paths and do Cut path. Results identical to step 2.

Another observation. Cut path shows the object at the bottom of the stack with a dashed line showing the path from the upper object. However, even when the upper object is a circle the path left behind in that of the square (with the control handles) that encloses the circle.

The svg file is attached to this post. Please let me know if you need more info or you need to try other tests. Thanks.

PS: If there's any information you can glean from simply looking through the svg file I'd be interested to find out what you were looking for.

No, I think you've got it right. The smaller square that's left behind isn't....or shouldn't be a square. The dashed line is called the bounding box, and is simply an indication that the object is selected. After you do the Cut Path, deselect everything, then click on the portion of the path that was bounded by the bounding box. See the bounding box is back now. But you should be able to move the piece away from the other piece, having been cut by the Cut Path command. You'll have to Undo that move, to continue with the tutorial. But just to show you that it was cut out.

I only was going to need to look at the SVG if both pieces disappeared after Cut Path. I don't know what kind of situation would result in both pieces disappearing, so your file would have shown me. But it sounds like it's working right to me, so I don't need the file.

You're right! I did read that line but I wasn't sure that it was an actual step. Now I know that it is Thanks for pointing this out.