Pattern in question:


I have tried recreating (basically by adjusting the bezier curves manually) the shape drawing two paths, and the result was a good enough outline (one of the paths set to red to show its shape):


However what I want to obtain is a shape whose fill I can customise, and none of the options to join the two paths worked. The best I could obtain was as follows, through the Exclusion command (Combine works too, the differences are explained in the next line):


Those 4-point intersections are my problem (using Combine instead of Exclusion gives only 2 points at each intersection's top and bottom angles instead): I've tried various things to make the segments between them go away, to no avail.
It might be because it's late at night where I'm at, but I really can't put my finger on a solution. What am I doing wrong?
Thank you in advance for your help.

Hi.


Will correct the typo soon, but basically here it is how it goes:
http://www.inkscapeforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=18201#p67905.

Good luck!

Attached is my SVG file of a celtic knot that I used for an avatar a while ago. (of course you can zoom in, to see it better, since it's so small) You can investigate how I handled the intersections. Ungroup it, to see the 9 separate pieces. You can either fill the individual pieces, or Group them, so the fill can change easily. Path menu > Combine would work too, to make them all a single object as long as all the pieces will have the same fill.



Glad to answer any questions about the file

The topic that Lazur linked you too isn't exactly the same thing, as what it seems like you want. There, they're using pieces of raster images, rather than vector paths. It's the same concept, but uses different kinds of objects.

brynn wrote:The topic that Lazur linked you too isn't exactly the same thing, as what it seems like you want. There, they're using pieces of raster images, rather than vector paths. It's the same concept, but uses different kinds of objects.

No.


Pure vectors.

Realistic shading is realistic; made with interpolation, and with blurring filter on the other.
The concept is the same, that's right -playing with objects above eachother, hiding one another partially.

Will try to make some example svg/article on it, maybe something to draw similar, like this.


Edit: nit-picking, but that attached knot can be improved a bit.
Leaving the white fill at the bottom, the problem would be only drawing a compound path above it with no fill but stoke -right now paths share segments by their sides, which produces rendering issue -rendering test, anti-aliasing.

Hu.

Just did something similar based on the Function Plotter extension.
To make the image I started with two "star shapes" of different diameters in order to get a "wavy" band.
- duplicated the wavy band and rotated it "half" a wave. (360/64 degrees since there are 32 tops in the wave)
Duplicate the two wavy rings and moved aside as some of the path operation "consumes" the objects being worked on.

Performed a path difference to get rid of the portion where the curves crosses each other.
Then performed a path intersection on the copies to get the "pieces" where the path crosses.
Next step is then to "combine" the correct parts.

You will end up with this:





Have a look at this thread as well: http://www.inkscapeforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=13865&hilit=+braid
If you need more help please chime back - might make a "mini tutorial"!

Good Luck
RGDS
Ragnar

Thank you all for your responses (and Lazur's signature is now making me uncomfortable). I'll try out what you've pointed out quite soon.

Hello again. I have decided to mess around a bit and finally ended up obtaining what I was looking for.
What I did was, having the excluded paths (as per third image in my first post), I selected the segments that I wanted gone at each intersection (alternating between the two side ones and the inner ones depending if I wanted the band to go above or below the other one) and I removed the segments via the "Delete segment between two non-end points" tool (sub of of course). Visually, this gives a good result, however if I tried to change the fill, the rhomboidal shapes in the intersections wouldn't be influenced. Then I simply selected the segments of the different parts of the band at either side of the intersections (always selecting the two sides of the band that is supposed to go above the other - apparently selecting the two right or the two left sides doesn't change the end result) and used the "Join selected endpoints with a new segment" tool, et voilà: the file now contains a single segment that intersects itself, fully controllable and fillable.
If anybody wishes to have the file (the shapes are imperfect as I drawn them myself and didn't need extreme precision for what I needed them), here it is:

Hi.

Berserkr:
Very nice work! To "improve" it;
select the "double nodes" (nodes overlapping or being really close) and
use "join selected nodes" (fourth icon from the left - Top bar)
To get a smooth curve - click on the node and
select "Make selected node auto smooth" - eight icon after selecting F2

Happy Inking.
RGDS
Ragnar

Lazur URH wrote:

brynn wrote:The topic that Lazur linked you too isn't exactly the same thing, as what it seems like you want. There, they're using pieces of raster images, rather than vector paths. It's the same concept, but uses different kinds of objects.

No.

Pure vectors.

If those were vector objects, why draw new clipping paths? Why not duplicate, and use existing paths?

brynn wrote:Why not duplicate, and use existing paths?

Because it's second's work compared to ages of node editing.
And that you can use cloning instead for a more "live" behave.

Cloning? Use cloning for what?

Edit
Oh, you mean for the other hand?

Edit #2
But don't you have loads of node editing, making the new clipping path match the original path? When you look close at your tutorial, you can see that it doesn't match. Little parts of the hand have been cut off.

The ordering between the three objects was hand - guitar - hand derivate.
Only the derivate was being made.

It can be drawn by duplicating or cloning the original, with clipping applied.
If there is no clipping used, you can only edit all the parts of a hand duplicant.
But on what end to do that?

Well, I didn't see the original drawing of the hand. I don't know how it was before. Maybe it would have been mission impossible, to try and edit the paths and extract a true clipping path.

But in an original path as simple as in this topic, I'm not sure if this would be the best approach. That's because he would need to make....how many new clipping paths....10, if I count right. Or if only 1, it would be quite serpentine. If clipping is to be used here, you may as well edit the original paths, to look like they are going over and under, rather than use clipping. Of course that's just my opinion. I haven't looked to see how the op eventually worked it out, yet.

ragstian wrote:Hi.

Berserkr:
Very nice work! To "improve" it;
select the "double nodes" (nodes overlapping or being really close) and
use "join selected nodes" (fourth icon from the left - Top bar)
To get a smooth curve - click on the node and
select "Make selected node auto smooth" - eight icon after selecting F2

Happy Inking.
RGDS
Ragnar

But be careful about which "double nodes" you try to join. You have some overlapping nodes there, that need to remain overlapping, and not joined, or you will lose the over/under effect. Also be careful which nodes you change to smooth, for the same reason.

I think you did a good job with that work. I see the nodes that Ragnar may be concerned about, which need to be smooth. Those are the ones at the top and bottom of the drawing, in the large curves, away from the intersections. If you try to make smooth the nodes at the intersections, it will cause a problem. Those need to remain cusp/corner nodes.