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How to use Clipping

Select the shape or group you want to clip and hit the plus button next to the Clipping options in the Inspector. After hitting the plus button, you’ll notice a blue border appear around the stage, indicating that you can pick a shape as the clipping source. Now, select the path you want to use as a clipping path. Remember, the clipping target must be a shape, not a group or any other object. Clipping Gi You can add as many clipping paths to a shape as you’d like.

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Clipping and path direction

If you have shapes that aren’t clipping, or only partially clipping, be sure to check the winding of that shape. In most cases, reversing the direction of the path fixes this problem. Reverse Direction Gi

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Inverse Clipping

Clipping is typically used to hide a part of your graphics. In the example below, we’re using an ellipse to show only part of our jewel graphic. Image You occasionally may want to invert the clipping, so that only the graphics outside of the clipping paths are drawn. Image This is achieved using a clipping path that looks like the gray shape in the image below. Image To create this shape, draw a rectangle the size of the artboard. Add both the rectangle path and ellipse path to the same shape layer in your Hierarchy. Image Note that your shape might not show a hole as ours does. That’s because you need to set the Fill Rule of your shape to Even-Odd. This setting doesn’t affect your Clipping Path, but it helps explain how the Even-Odd operation works, which will be useful later! Image Select the group containing the jewel and use the “plus” icon in the Clipping section of the Inspector. Next, select the Clipping Shape as the target. Image Open the Clip Options and set the Operation to Even-Odd. Image Be sure to hide the visibility of your clipping shape so it doesn’t cover your graphic.