I have individual balls brought in and trimming out the lines crossing over to show balls behind other balls in CC. I try to union the graphics but still end up with open vectors. drawing a poly line connecting the ends together works for some parts but not others.
I have even tried Node Edit with no success.
Do I have to trace the whole open vector graphic line by line? There has to be a better way. Am I missing something?
Looks like yopu need to ungroup things, then use Boolean Subtract.
I worked on the football / football overlap. I ungrouped both, then for each piece of geometry in the Soccer ball that should be behind the Handegg, I selected that piece plus only the outline of the Handegg ball, then boolean subtract. Check ‘Keep Original Vectors’, then delete the piece from the Soccer ball that you don’t need.
Here’s a version that was cut slightly differently, I think the vectors for this one are better suited for CAD work. Bennett - 3(1).c2d (448 KB)
You should experiment with both versions, it’s the difference between cutting each vector one at a time, or cutting all the vectors in the rearmost ball all at once.
One thing I found strange is when selecting the outer line for the ball in front when clicking the Boolean subtract that line was removed as well. My fix for this was to copy the line make the subtract and then paste it back in. Is that the way it is supposed to be? It worked for me.
I have corrected the Golf ball to be in front of Football.
Thank you all for the assistance.
Now I can further my skills in custom graphics. Cool!
Adjacent areas are merged when doing operations — If you wish to do only lines, you will need to structure the geometry so that you can make discrete selections to which the desired operations can be applied.
I posted a second version where the cuts happened a bit differently, try that one instead. If it produces (mostly) what you want, I’ll walk through the process for that one so you can finish the balls I didn’t do.
Another method. This one does NOT combine adjacent balls together.
Start with the ball that is closest to the front. Ungroup it.
Select a ball that it overlaps. Select the ENTIRE group for that ball.
Now select the vector(s) in the front ball that define the outline of the ball. In this case, each ball has one vector that outlines it.
Boolean Subtract, Keep original Vectors (so you don’t loose the ball outline), delete the original ball that was behind. This also will Ungroup the overlapped ball.
Repeat, moving ‘backwards’ in the image.
So, no node editing, but adjacent balls are NOT combined into one larger object.
Here’s the simulation for a V Carve (not advanced):
Seeing the picture of the Boolean surrounding the outline of the ball grouping made me try that and then try the engraving toolpath. That worked. I just needed a visual. Thanks!
Technically there were two solutions in this post that helped achieve the result I was looking for, mhotchin for the Boolean subtract and Will Adams for the second half of the puzzle with the Boolean surrounding the Ball group as a whole.