Hi Marc - you can convert sets of planar shapes like that into faces with holes in them using the Construct > Planar command. Just select all the curves, the outer one and all inside hole curves all at the same time, then run Construct > Planar and it will build a result like you are describing for you.

- Michael

Hi Marc,

> This would be handy with very complex shapes, like a countries on
> a world map for example.

But also be aware that really complex shapes with a tremendous number of segments and points in them will might take quite a long time to process, since the Construct > Planar command analyzes the relationship between each curve to test if one is contained within the other.

If it is taking too long to process on complex shapes you may need to do it more manually by only doing Construct > Planar on one outermost closed shape and then using Trim to cut away the holes rather than relying on Construct > Planar to do it with the automatic containment analysis.

- Michael

Hi Michael,

I did'nt know planar worked this way. Is it the same detection process as when you extrude or is it the different with planar?
I'm not always successful with this kind of detection when extruding.

For my suggestion I just thought it would be easier for keeping island information when importing but it would be only halfway since separate object cannot be connected in Moi.

Although it might be cool to be able to Boolean union those non-touching faces or solid together. It could act as some kind of group. Separate command one time would break the link.

Marc

Hi Marc,

> I did'nt know planar worked this way. Is it the same
> detection process as when you extrude or is it the
> different with planar?

They use the same mechanism for determining which things are outside contours and which ones are the inside holes.


> I'm not always successful with this kind of detection
> when extruding.

Do you have an example of this? Did it have any self intersections on the shapes? Things that involve inside/outside containment generally require the boundaries to not be self-intersecting so if one of the curves has some kind of curly-cue type self intersecting are in it that can mess things up.


> For my suggestion I just thought it would be easier for keeping
> island information when importing

Right now the importer does not keep track of nested paths, and it's unfortunately not that easy to figure out how to deal with a lot of things in AI format very well, reading the spec is sort of like reading the tax code and trying to make sense of it.

For inner holes looking at the spec I guess there is a special "compound path" operator that goes around the outside of the set of paths when there is going to be stuff with holes in it. I don't think that there is any guarantee that there it has to be organized with just one outer boundary and only inside holes though, so it would probably involve the same kind of geometry analysis that the Planar command is doing anyway in order to actually make sure that holes were identified as such.


> Although it might be cool to be able to Boolean union
> those non-touching faces or solid together. It could act
> as some kind of group. Separate command one time
> would break the link.

I want to add an actual Group function to handle this kind of stuff.

- Michael

The easiest way is to run the planar command on the outside bounding curve. Then do a boolean subtract. Select the previously created plane as the base object then all the inner curves as the objects to subtract.

Edit: Sorry, Michael already said this. Didn't read the thread properly...

-> Do you have an example of this?

No not offhand, I'll pay more attention next time it appears...

-> Right now the importer does not keep track of nested paths, and it's unfortunately not -> that easy to figure out how to deal with a lot of things in AI format very well, reading the -> spec is sort of like reading the tax code and trying to make sense of it

:-) Then it's not worth it for this detail.

Thanks,

Marc