Bridging Drop Outs

bridging is connecting a shape inside of a shape

 

typically you'd offset the shape to be bridged to the outside to create a gap around the shape

 

you can bridge those two shapes - assuming they will be embedded in a sheet of some sort - an incomplete shape

or you may have a 3rd perimeter shape representing the sheet - a complete shape

 

different software has different commands to bridge shapes and different ways of combining the sub-shapes

normally you would combine all the sub-shapes into one shape object to be bridged

then create additional shapes to bridge the gap

and all of the shapes must be closed shapes

 

different software usues different terminology and command names

ultimately bridging is a boolean operation

where you either add or subtract the bridges

add may be called weld or join

subtract may be called trim or clip

 

If bridging an incomplete shape you must subtract the bridges

if you add the bridges then it will just add to the shape

 

if bridging a complete shape then you must add the bridges


if you subtract the bridges it will take away from the shape

 

if all of the shapes being bridged are not closed results are unpredictable

if the shapes being bridged are complex shapes with holes results may be unexpected

if the shapes being bridged involve an assortment of holes and open and closed shapes the the results may be unpredictably unexpected

if there happens to be duplicate shapes on top of shapes then that can cause all sorts of problems

it depends on the software being used as to how and what order you select the objects, and how the objects are constructed, when applying boolean operations

in corel draw I combine the two or three main shapes into one shape object - then I combine all the bridges into one shape object - then the boolean operation involves two shape objects which makes it fairly easy to understand what happens

in other software it may not be that straightforward - some cam software automatically interprets nested shapes as one shape object with holes then each bridge must be added or subtracted individually

in corel draw a shape can be open even if the start and end points are the same so you have to make sure shapes are closed - other software may automatically consider such curves as closed

ultimately you need to know exactly how your software defines and handles shapes and sub-shapes and boolean operations

or else boolean operations can become very difficult if everything isn't drawn and done exactly right