Separating one element of an Svg file into multiple elements with Inkscape
Separating one element of an Svg file into multiple elements with Inkscape
Question
I want to edit an svg from wikimedia commons that shows the human arteries to highlite a specific artery in a specific color. Unfortunately multiple arteries in that svg are represented by the same svg object. What's the best way for editing files like that to be able to select different subparts and color them?
Accepted Answer
In Inkscape we can break apart the path at a desired location.
- Ungroup all paths from the source SVG
Select nodes from where we wish to break the path
Tick Break Path at selected nodes
- Choose Path > Break apart Shift+Ctrl+K
Select the now generated new object to then change it's color (or delete it, move it, etc.)
In case there are no pre-existing nodes at the location we need to break we can always manually add new ones.
Popular Answer
In Illustrator I would Knife Tool the large artery path to isolate the part I want:
However in Inkscape I don't believe a Knife Tool exists. Here are instructions on doing a Knife Tool like process in Inkscape (which is the Node method Paolo mentioned in comment): http://www.inkscapeforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=961
But at that point it might be easier to just open Inkscape and draw a new path on top instead of cutting the existing path.