Fuge,
thank you for your time and interest. I should have been more specific with my problem. what i'd like to be able to do is:
PROCEDURE Notcher;
VAR
hl,hr,hn:HANDLE;
BEGIN
Rect(0,2,2,0); {*first rectangle*}
h1:=lnewobj;
Rect(3,2,5,0); {*SECOND rectangle*}
hr:=lnewobj;
Rect(1.5,2,3.5,1.5); {*Clipper*}
hn:=lnewobj;
clipsurface(h1,hn);
clipsurface(hr,hn);
Rect(1.5,1,3.5,0); {*next clipper*}
hn:=lnewobj;
clipsurface(hl,hn);
here depending on which system i use it either crashes all the way out of vectorworks, or ignores the command. the reason i want to do it this way is the above structure works perfectly in 3d using subtractsolid as long as long as the "clippers" are redrawn after subtraction. I was hoping to insert the 2d operations in with the 3d, and be done!! oh well! i'm 80% done with the 2d cutting using a structure that looks a lot like yours.
thanks,
-jason