Hello!

Apologies if this is a simple question, but I'm relatively new to Inkscape and have been trying to figure this out for a while...



I'm trying to get rid of the straight line stretching from the top of the image to the bottom. Ideally I'd just like to break the path between the two nodes at the base and those at the bottom, but when I hit 'break path at selected nodes' it does this



Making the two additional lines about the nodes.

Thank you for your help!

Hi.

Your second image shows that the path has an open segment at one point, that's why you see that two "crossing" on top after splitting two nodes.

So on your path, first select all nodes and connect unconnected nodes -or press Ctrl++ to close the path-,
then select the two nodes you selected in your screenshot and select the two nodes on the other end of the unwanted part and unconnect nodes.

After that, select only the two on the top and merge them to one, and repeat it on the bottom.

Another approach could be:
Use the Freehand-Tool (F6) or Bezier-Tool (Shift+F6) to draw a polygon (here red) around the black part which you want to delete.
Use a Boolean Operation to delete it:
1. Select the red path and your black part.
2. Menubar | Path | Difference
With this, you do not have to deal with opening paths at several nodes and closing paths again.

Thank you both very much, that fixed it!