There's a Hole in My Donut

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Matt_A
Posts: 172
Joined: Wed May 29, 2019 9:45 pm

There's a Hole in My Donut

Post by Matt_A » Sun Sep 29, 2019 8:34 pm

Sometimes you might want to have a filled object with a hole in it.
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But PowerCADD is reluctant...
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With two objects, the donut and the hole, draw a third object, a slicer. I keep mine thin. It must overlap the donut object and the hole object, and extend past the donut to the exterior.
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.
Now use the WildTools Combine tool to add the slicer to the hole.
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...and the WildTools Clip tool to subtract the new (slicer+hole) object from the donut.
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and delete the slicer..
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Reshape the nearby points on the donut to close the gap.
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Now you can give the donut a fill. I find it's best to set the line to NIL
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and create new edges if I want to define them with lines. Otherwise PowerCADD will put a line over the connecting channel.
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you can add a gradient and some highlights if you have a hankering..
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The technique is not limited to drawing confectionary however.

huc
Posts: 21
Joined: Fri May 31, 2019 3:04 am

There's a Hole in My Donut

Post by huc » Fri Nov 01, 2019 6:15 am

Two other Options to get the filled donut that I believe uses fewer steps and is quicker

Option A: WildTools Thicken Tool
With the two circles drawn (donut edge and hole):
1. Option+Click on WTools Thicken Tool and set to INTERACTIVE
2. Drag from Outer donut circle toward donut hole
3. Press "S" for surface snap and the donut (sans hole) is filled with a new polygon

Option B: PowerCADD Paint Bucket Tool
With the two circles drawn (donut edge and hole):
1. Select the Paint Bucket tool
2. Click inside, between the donut and the hole
3. The donut is filled

Render "to taste" as described in original post :D

No need to draw any extra objects nor reshape the polygon to close it up.

Personally, I find the WT Thicken tool creates a cleaner polygon with fewer vertices but both methods work. In particular, the Polygon created with WT Thicken has fewer crossing segments which is helpful when applying things like gradients. I often find it useful to use Tool menu > Polygon... > Thin Polygon (or Distribute points then Thin depending on the complexity of the shape) as it helps reduce the # of vertices and can eliminate problems if exporting to PDF, particularly if reducing drawings. PDF historically doesn't like vertices that cross over each other and when creating the Bézier curves in some cases things get a little messed up

Always nice to have more than one way to skin a cat!

Pity that PCADD lost the ability to do that same operation with Hatching. In earlier versions, it was possible to just select the two objects (donut and hole) and choose HATCH... it would hatch the donut, leaving the hole.
Attachments
1.jpg
start with the donut edge and the hole
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2.jpg
option + click to set thicken tool to interactive
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3.jpg
while dragging with thicken tool - use S snap to match inside donut hole surface
3.jpg (175.54 KiB) Viewed 32627 times

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