Page 152 - Xara Designer Pro X17

152 Shape Handling

Groups are described in Object handling (on page 98).
When several shapes overlap:
• The top shape (or top group) becomes a hole through the other shapes.
• The line attributes and colors of the other shapes change to those of the top shape.
• If several shapes overlay:
- an even number of shapes overlapping becomes a transparent area;
- an odd number of shapes overlapping becomes a solid area.
• The numbers on this example of three circles show how many shapes overlay in each
area:

The joined shape on the left shows the number of segments which overlap. On the right are the
original three circles shown unjoined.

Breaking joined shapes
Choose "Arrange -> Break shapes". This breaks the joined shape into separate objects,
but the original attributes will not be restored to the separated objects. You can also
break several joined shapes in one operation.

Making shapes editable

Choose "ARRANGE -> CONVERT TO EDITABLE SHAPES" ("Ctrl + Shift + S") to convert
predefined objects like rectangles, ellipses, quickshapes, smartshapes, and text into
shapes. This lets you edit their outline like a normal shape.

This has several applications:

• You can manipulate just a part of predefined objects after making them editable.
• You can manipulate text in almost unlimited ways, adding new curves and
ornamentation almost at will. Note that you cannot edit text converted to shapes as it
ceases to be text.