I know Inkscape can only divide one path at a time. But what methods can be used in projects
with many paths? On stackexchange, I have outlined one method, however this is far from perfect;
Using an exclusion path to cut combined paths below does not suit every situation.

Please have a look here and tell me if there is a better way:
http://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/questions/47180/inkscape-how-to-cut-a-group

I'd love to see your methods!

There's an extension that can do 'Difference' with multiple paths at once. It should be possible to adapt it to do division instead.

https://github.com/ryanlerch/inkscape-e ... difference

Hey Moini, thanks for the link! Looks useful. I wonder how we could find someone kind enough to adapt it?

By the way, I found this on Github, but strangely there is no extension file up there...
https://github.com/aoloe/inkscape-divide-below

In some cases, I use Cut Path. But like the other answers, because it can only work on 2 paths at once, I often combine some paths, to do it. But I'm happy to learn about the multiple difference extension. That will come in handy.

Might ask on the User Community mailing list if someone would be willing to make it work for division. It seems a lot of more advanced users, and developers as well, participate on the mailing list (and don't participate here). Or try to contact the author of the one you found which doesn't actually have any files to download. Who knows why they took down the files, but maybe they'd be willing to let someone else update them (if that's the reason).

Hey Brynn Yeah that would be great if you could. I contacted the author on the Scribus forums as I recognized his pic (I sound like a stalker), however it seems like it was a while back since that extension was made, so I'm guessing it doesn't work anymore... I posted this to the google plus community also to see if anyone would be interested in making a python script.

Doesn't cut path only cut the outline of a shape, or is there something I'm doing wrong?

The extension works (for me) - and I've been thinking of fulfilling your request, cloudbusting.
It might just take a few days...
But Ryan Lerch could probably do it faster - and knowing that he might do the same in parallel, I'm not going to start on it now.
Probably a meta-extension pack encompassing all those two-paths-only Boolean operations would be the best way to go, to have it complete.

Ah that would be great, Moini I think multiple path boolean operations would be great for Illustrator to Inkscape converts such as myself. Very useful for intricate logo design. Looking forward to seeing what happens with this!

cloudbusting wrote:Hey Brynn Yeah that would be great if you could. I contacted the author on the Scribus forums as I recognized his pic (I sound like a stalker), however it seems like it was a while back since that extension was made, so I'm guessing it doesn't work anymore... I posted this to the google plus community also to see if anyone would be interested in making a python script.

Doesn't cut path only cut the outline of a shape, or is there something I'm doing wrong?

Hah! Well I was suggesting that you might ask on the mailing list. But it sounds like Moini's going to have a try. Or maybe is going to ask Ryan Lerch (not sure, I didn't understand those comments completely)?

Yes, cut path just cuts the path. It doesn't make complete closed paths -- the result is a bunch of open paths. But if it's cutting in the right place ,where I need it cut, I don't mind joining nodes to make closed paths.

cloudbusting wrote:

I contacted the author on the Scribus forums

(which is why I'm NOT going to do this right now, to not do work that isn't needed... The author is Ryan Lerch. If he doesn't answer within a week or so, let me know and I'll try.)

@Moini Sounds good It'd be great if this works out. @brynn I get you. I wonder how other users approach this

@Brynn: You can skip the joining if you use division instead - it does the same thing (well, as far as I understand), only it produces closed paths.

There's been a post by Martin Owens on the devel mailing list about this:
http://sourceforge.net/p/inkscape/mailm ... /34734743/

Sounds like he's looking for use cases - maybe you all could comment about what you would expect these things to do?
(maybe even on devel mailing list, or collect here and send there)

Hey, just commented before I saw this post! I didn't go into detail about use cases yet however. Limiting operations to one path really slows down workflow, I don't see the harm in removing the limitation. I'll try and put an example together in the next day or so

The problem with the comments on the Inkscape website is that they don't generate email notifications - so it's not sure anybody will see them... (my fault...)

I see what you mean. I've subscribed to this thread anyway so I'll be in the know! What is the best way to contact the developers? I've subscribed to the mailing list but I don't have permission to view sender emails

Hm - not sure I understand, maybe it's different for me?

After I had subscribed to the devel mailinglist (and confirmed my subscription and selected to not get mails in batch mode...) I was able to send mails to the list - just by replying to the email I received (making sure the subject is Re: blahblah so it can be connected to the original thread) - or by writing to the list address directly.

You don't need to reply to Martin directly (although you can - at least, I can see the senders' mail addresses).

IRC is another good way, but it will (may) keep those who aren't online out of the discussion, as they might be in a different time zone.

(btw. there aren't only developers posting there - I'm not one of those, either.)

I may try replying to the list email then and failing that, I think I can mail via the inkscape website. Thanks for the info

cloudbusting wrote:I see what you mean. I've subscribed to this thread anyway so I'll be in the know! What is the best way to contact the developers? I've subscribed to the mailing list but I don't have permission to view sender emails

After they reply to your initial request, and your subscription is confirmed, you'll be able to see all the mails. Of course you have to set up an account in your email program....unless you don't mind if they're all mixed in with the rest of your email.

The dev mailing list is the best way to contact developers. Many devs also participate on the user mailing list. Or there are a couple of IRC channels -- user and dev. https://inkscape.org/en/community/discussion/

Okay, I had a go now, to bridge the time until the modified boolops are available in a new Inkscape release. All extensions for the three two-path-only operations in a zip. Unpack, copy into your user extension directory and find them in Extensions -> Boolean.

https://github.com/Moini/inkscape-extensions-multi-bool
or
https://github.com/Moini/inkscape-extensions-multi-bool/archive/master.zip

Use at your own risk

(better save before you use it, didn't test for any corner cases and didn't bother to create any error messages, it's more or less a hack, just a little better than it was before)

EDIT: removed uploaded file, instead linked to github repo. This is for licencing reasons, as the original extension does not contain any licence. Github users explicitly allow forking and editing of their code, so I can put my changes there more safely.

(cloudbusting, I updated my post above, be sure to download the latest version)

What I´d do is the following as it worx all the time and is quickly done:
https://www.shotroom.com/i/722/tr6aX

Cheers
P.

Neat and quick trick! It looses the previous styling, so it's not a universal solution, but it's fast.

"It looses the previous styling, so it's not a universal solution"
As the Boolean-extension do.
Nevertheless I find it´s a speedy solution.

Cheers
P.

Aw that's excellent, Moini Looking forward to using this on my next logo. Thanks for spending your time on this.

That's a nice quick and dirty method, Polygon. Unfortunately using bucket fill isn't a super accurate tool
for pixel perfect design, but I may try it out in other work.

It looks like the developers are taking a look at this, so hopefully the next version
of Inkscape will keep styles and colours intact

"It looses the previous styling, so it's not a universal solution"
As the Boolean-extension do.

They don't loose the styling - only if you use 'Cut', but that's a feature of the 'Cut' operation, not of the extension. That one always removes the fill, and converts to stroke-only styling (if a stroke is set). All three extensions work just like the original, only on more paths at once.

Not sure what else you could be referring to?