I've been trying to achieve this effect for a while. It's like the rim on a cup. How can I make the circle in a way that something like a straw could go through it and not directly behind it or atop it? I tried it in the coffee cup tutorial but I didn't get it. I need another example of this.

You've got to split your circle in two, so there's a rim behind the straw, and a rim-half in front.


I'd first draw the rim of the cup. Then the straw, laying it over (both edges of) the rim. Then, I'd duplicate the rim; there's now the original behind the straw, and the duplicate in front.

Next, draw a rectangle over the lower half of the rim. Select the rim copy and rectangle, and select object->clip->set. There's now a half-rim that obscures the straw.

If I were doing a filled cup, instead of clipping I'd to do a path->intersection, then some node editing to make the top-ellipse-half bend around the straw correctly.

Okay. I think I got it...sort of.
Could you show me the SVG for your described method. I didn't quite understand the 2 last steps.