Add razor tool

[Kidproto]

Inkscape really needs a razor tool of some sort where
this would be another button on the primary toolbar.
One could select this tool and click and see a red
trail (freehand) of where they are "cutting" on the
canvas and the drawing underneath this red trail is cut
where it intersects shape(s) below.

This would be like using a real razorblade and cutting
a distance.

What would be great too is if when holding our
constraint key (control) down, the razor tool creates
straight cuts.

Excellent!

[Buliabyak-users (buliabyak-users)]

There are now Division and Cut Path commands. They're much
more convenient than "razor" because thy allow you to use
any tools for creating cut paths and reuse the cut paths as
regular objects.

[Thelusiv (thelusiv)]

I used to use the razor tool using sign software when
working at a sign graphics company a few years ago proofing
vector artwork for large format billboards and signs. The
tool equivalent to what this user describes as razor was one
of my bread and butter tools. As buliabyak mentioned you can
do cut path and divide, but these both take many more steps
than a razor tool. It is important that this tool should act
on all objects beneath it at once, no matter which ones are
selected, and it should be able to snap to guides. This is a
very powerful tool because of its speed, one I couldn't have
done without when doing professional sign proofing.

[Thelusiv (thelusiv)]

Closed so soon? :( I really am serious, this is a very
useful tool. As I said Cut Path and Divide are not quite as
good, for a few reasons.

* It takes several clicks to set up the path or object you
wish to cut with.
* If you wish to cut more than one object, you must repeat
the process using duplicates, which multiplies the complexity.
* These commands leave behind unwanted extra pieces which
must be found and deleted.

It is easy to see that these could become tedious on a very
complex drawing. With a razor tool as proposed, just two
clicks can do so much.

[Kidproto (kidproto)]

I agree that this is a very useful tool and is way beyond
the cut and divide path commands.

The point of the razor is for fast interactive cutting of paths.

We actually have all the pieces to make this tool. Would you
like to take a stab at thelusiv?

[Thelusiv (thelusiv)]

Yes! :) I have a small but growing list of patches I've been
wanting to write for Inkscape. It will have to wait a few
more weeks until the summer when I have more time (right now
finishing up a semester) but I wanted to see what kind of
interest there was in some ideas in the meantime...

[ScislaC (scislac)]

I have actually been thinking about this lately. If we had a
cutting tool, we could do some pretty cool stuff with it.
The commands bar could have options to make it smarter than
what I've seen elsewhere (and give more flexibility than
what's discussed below)... things such as:

*what to cut (everything under blade, current layer,
selection, or just top-most object)
*toggle snapping
*cut with different "blades" (could be crazy stuff like you
see with scrap booking scissors)
*tolerance (like the pencil tool)

And I'm sure people would think of other options too. I can
get by without the tool, but as others mentioned, it would
cut a couple steps out of the process for me if we had it.

[su_v (suv-lp)]

This wishlist report is very old - Isn't the requested feature implemented with the 'Eraser Tool' (though it's limited to cut/erase selected objects only)? Proposing to mark as 'Fix released'.

[ScislaC (scislac)]

I still see value in it. I think it would be fine to include it as a mode in the eraser tool. However, the key is that it can't remove any part of the object/selection, literally just cut it.

In the short term, a workaround would be if open paths could be used with boolops.

[Pablo Trabajos (pajarico)]

The problem with the eraser tool is that it erases ;) A razor cuts. Sometimes I just need to cut and keep both parts. I vote for leaving it as a wishlist item.

[su_v (suv-lp)]

my mistake - I didn't read the description+comments carefully enough ;-)

~suv (withdrawing comment 7)