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Vectors, boolean operations and masks

These rules decide what a mask hides, how a vector fills its regions and rounds its corners, and what a boolean operation produces. You need them when a mask hides too much or a combined shape differs from the layers you put in. Also called: clipping mask, combine shapes, convert to path.

Masks​

Where: Properties panel → Use as mask, or the context menu → Use as mask (Remove mask on a mask).

  • A mask applies to every layer in the same parent that isn't a mask itself, above or below it in the Layers panel. Nothing is grouped for you: put the mask and the layers it should mask into their own group or frame.
  • The mask layer isn't drawn. Its siblings show only where the mask paints, and as opaque as it paints there: fills, strokes, gradient stops, image transparency and layer opacity all count. The brightness of its colors makes no difference.
  • Several masks in one parent add up: the siblings show wherever any mask covers them. A hidden mask masks nothing.
  • The parent's own fill and stroke aren't masked.
  • Use as mask is locked on layers inside an instance (overridable properties).

Vector networks and region fills​

Where: double-click a vector → the vector toolbar → the paint bucket button (tooltip Fill).

  • A vector can branch, with more than two segments meeting in one point, and enclose several regions. Each region carries its own fill.
  • With the Fill tool, a click fills an enclosed region, and a click on a filled region empties it. Crossing segments are split, so the area between them becomes a region.
  • With a region selected, the Fill section of the Properties panel edits that region only.
  • Outside edit mode, or with no region selected, the Fill section writes the same fill to every filled region at once. Regions emptied with the Fill tool stay empty; when no region is filled, the fill covers the whole outline.
  • A vector inside an instance can't be edited and has no corner radius field; a Fill override covers all of its regions (overridable properties).

Corner radius on vertices​

Where: Properties panel → the corner radius field (tooltip Corner radius).

  • The radius is set per vertex. In edit mode the field writes to the selected vertices; with none selected, or outside edit mode, to all of them.
  • Only a vertex where exactly two segments meet is rounded. A junction of three or more segments and the end of an open path stay sharp.
  • Two rounded corners on a segment too short for both radii are reduced until the curves meet.
  • Resizing a vector stretches its path and keeps the vertex radii. Scaling a selected vector with the Scale tool multiplies them along with its size.

Editing shapes as vectors​

Where: context menu → Flatten or Outline stroke. Flatten is also the last entry of the boolean operations menu.

  • Only a vector has editable points. A Rectangle, Oval, Polygon, Star or Line has to be flattened first: Flatten replaces it with a vector.
  • Flatten on several layers unions their outlines into one vector; on a frame or group it unions the layers inside, and on a boolean layer it keeps the result of the operation. The original layers are deleted.
  • Outline stroke keeps the original layer: it adds a filled vector in the shape of the stroke above it and clears the original's stroke.

Boolean operations​

Where: Properties panel header → the button with the tooltip Boolean operations → Union, Subtract, Intersect or Exclude.

  • The selection becomes a boolean layer that stays live: its children stay in the Layers panel, and editing one updates the result.
  • A child contributes what it shows: its fill area plus the outline of its stroke. Without a visible fill it contributes only the stroke outline, so a stroked, unfilled rectangle acts as a ring. With neither, it contributes its plain shape.
  • A frame, component or instance inside a boolean is transparent to the operation: the layers inside it take part, its own shape doesn't.
  • Subtract cuts every layer above out of the bottom-most child.
  • The children aren't drawn: fill, stroke and effects of the result come from the boolean layer. A new boolean layer copies fill and stroke from the topmost selected layer; from a stroke-only layer it takes the stroke paints as its fill.