Page 149 - Xara Designer Pro X17

Shape Handling 149

Creating holes in shapes

Right click and choose "COMBINE SHAPES" > "SUBTRACT SHAPES". This is similar to using
join shapes (described above). The differences are:

• The top shape (or mask shape if the mask layer is used) becomes a hole through the
other shapes.
• The line attributes and colors of the underlying shapes are unchanged.
• Combine shapes physically alters the lines. The only way to restore the original
shapes is by using undo.
• The number of overlapping shapes has no effect.
Merging several shapes into one
For example, to produce the shape on the right from the three shapes on the left:

1. Create the two circles and the rectangle.
2. Select all three shapes.
3. Right click and choose "COMBINE SHAPES" > "ADD SHAPES".

The new shape takes line attributes and colors from the top shape (in this case the
rectangle in the illustration).
Selecting multiple shapes and then stroking over them with the SHAPE BUILDER TOOL also
merges the shapes you touch together.

Intersecting shapes
With the INTERSECT SHAPES option, the new object is created from those parts of lower
shapes that are covered by the top object, or by a mask shape using one of the Photo
Region or Mask tools (on page 333).