[Solved] How do you erase part of a line or figure?

[JimC]

For any other newbies out there like me that are used to working in pixel formats I guess there is no erase function on the draw toolbar. I've been trying to figure out how to erase part of a line or part of a figure.I came across an old post that recommended putting another figure on top of what you want to erase. I tried that and then hit cut and all it did was delete the new figure. I then tried using a fill color of white, and a line color of white and drew a rectangle over what I wanted to erase and it worked. Do any of you experienced users have any tips of how to do it easier? Thanks, Jim

[acknak]

Working in Draw is not like painting or drawing on paper where you can erase the stuff that makes the drawing.

How would you explain it to me if I asked you how to erase letters from a word-processor document?

Well, just like you can't take the mouse and "rub out" parts of a Writer document, but you can select words and delete them or change them or make them a different color, Draw works the same way, but with shapes instead of letters. You place shapes--or "objects"--into your drawing and then you modify the shapes, or you can remove them entirely, but you can't "rub them out" like with an eraser.

The method you described is one approach to the problem of erasing part of an object, but it's hard to try and think of something better because you haven't told us what you're trying to accomplish. Why do you want to erase part of the line?

[JimC]

I think I see what you mean Acknak. In pixels I used to erase if I went too far with a line or if I wanted to cut off part of a figure. Today I was making a figure that needed a half circle so I wanted to erase half of it. After posting the question I found that I could make the shape I was looking for using the half arc in the shape tool box. I guess that in draw there are more options to create shapes from the start instead of hacking away part of it to make a new one. Thanks, Jim

[acknak]

Ok, great. There are a lot of shapes that Draw has squirreled away in the drawing toolbar.

However, if you need a particular shape which is easily defined by subtraction, like a half circle, that you can't find on any of the shape palettes, Draw has some nice features that let you create your own shapes as a combination of two simpler shapes.

See the attached drawing for an example, including "erasing" part of a line.

You may want to have a look at the Draw Guide: http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wik ... Draw_Guide for an overview of Draw's features.

[JimC]

Hey, that modify option is cool. I had read that you could merge shapes but I'd missed the part about subtraction. Thanks, Acknak. Jim