Combining Objects

Apache OpenOffice 4.1 Draw Guide

Chapter 5: Combining Multiple Objects

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• Introduction: Grouping and Combining Objects
• Grouping Objects
  • Grouping by Common Selection
  • Maintaining Groups and Undoing Groups
  • Editing Individual Objects in a Group
  • Nesting Groups
• Combining Objects
  • Connecting Lines
• Merging, Subtracting, or Intersecting Shapes
  • Merge
  • Subtract
  • Intersect
  • Practical Example
• Aids for Positioning Objects
  • Moving an Object to the Front or to the Back
  • Aligning Objects
  • Distributing the Distance and Space Between Objects

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Combining Objects

In contrast to grouping functions, combinations create a new object; it is not possible to edit an individual constituent afterwards. Select a collection of objects, then right-click and choose Combine from the pop-up menu or use the keyboard shortcut  Control  +  ⇧ Shift  +  K . The result of this operation is shown in Figure 112.

Figure 112: Combining objects

At first glance, the appearance of the combined objects can seem rather surprising. Understanding the rules governing combinations in Draw will clarify things.

• The attributes (for example, area fill) of the resulting object are those of the object furthest back. In this example, it is the circle.
• Where the objects overlap, the overlapping zone is either filled or empty, depending on the number of overlaps. When the number of overlaps is even, you get an empty space; when the number is odd, you get a filled area, see Figure 113.

Figure 113: Odd numbered overlaps are filled, even numbered overlaps are empty

You can reorder objects before combining them so that they are positioned further back or further forward. Right-click on the object and select Arrangement from the pop-up menu. See also “Aids for Positioning Objects”.

An object that is a combination can be broken up again by selecting Modify → Split or using the keyboard shortcut Control+Alt+Shift+K. The combination can also be broken up into its constituent parts by selecting Modify → Break. These are not an exact equivalent to ungrouping, as the objects were converted to Bézier curves when they were combined. An object that is split will, for example, have an ellipse converted to a Bézier curve.

An object that is broken will consist of a set of base-level objects (for example, a rectangle will be broken into four separate lines), and the original formatting—line thickness, colors, and area properties—is not retained.