Trim (scissors) tool improvements

[P Retondo]

I just sent in a bug report about the trim tool, because of a situation where having a line alongside the object to be trimmed interfered with its being trimmed properly to a crossing line.

The trim tool is pretty powerful in certain situations. For example, if you want to cut a portion of a line between two crossing lines, just select the tool and click on the portion of line you want to disappear. But in more complex situations, the algorithm doesn't do the right thing, and writing the code to automate it completely might not be possible - in other words, the program might not be able to reliably "guess" the user's intention.

My suggestion is to add another mode to the tool, similar to the AutoCAD trim command, whereby we first select the object(s) to be trimmed to, then select the tool, then click on the object to be trimmed. As I dimly recall, wasn't this the method required in an earlier version? Anyway, this would give the user complete control over how the command is executed, regardless of the context in relation to other nearby objects.

To simplify the interface, this "cutting object by selection" mode could be activated automatically if any object is selected when the tool is invoked.

[Jonathan Pickup]

where the trim tool doesn?t do what you want what about using the split tool and choosing the last mode, ?Trim By Line? ?

[P Retondo]

Jonathan, thanks, I haven't tried that mode before. It trims everything the line crosses, so you have to be careful, and it the results can be difficult to control. For example, if you have a cutting line crossing two objects, and you want to use it to cut only one of the objects, you end up removing a portion of the cutting line as well as the object you want to cut.

I hate to admit it, but AutoCAD has a more elegant trim tool. You pick any number of cutting objects, then click on individual objects that cross them to cut away the defined portions.

Edited October 16, 2006 by P Retondo

[Ray Libby]

Hold down the Alt key and Trim By Line only cuts selected objects.

[P Retondo]

Ray, thanks, that works! My bad for not keeping up with the new options.

I still have a suggestion about the trim tools in general. It seems that we have redundant tools, each with a slightly different method (i.e., clip, trim tool, split tool in trim mode, trim command [really a split command]). Would there be a way to consolidate and simplify these, and bring more clarity to how they are named?