Updated October 14, 2026. Written for VectorCraft 0.10.0 (what changed since).
Open the panel and select
- Open the editor and draw or open your shapes. File › New… gives you a blank artboard.
- Open Window › Pathfinder (Shift+Ctrl+F9, or Shift+⌘+F9 on a Mac). The top row holds the four Shape Modes; the bottom row holds the six Pathfinders.
- Select the objects with the Selection tool (V): drag a marquee over them or Shift-click each one.
- Click an operation. The objects are replaced by the result, and one Ctrl+Z (⌘Z) brings them back.
Stacking order decides most results. "Front" means higher in the Layers panel, or drawn later. If Minus Front cuts the wrong shape, undo, select the shape that should be cut and use Object › Arrange › Send to Back, then try again. The Pathfinders Divide and Outline also work on a single object; everything else needs at least two.
Shape Modes: one shape out
Each of these gives you one path (a compound path if it has holes) that takes the paint of one of the originals.
| Button | What it does | Fill and stroke from |
|---|---|---|
| Unite | Merges everything selected into one outline. | Front-most object |
| Minus Front | Cuts every front object out of the one at the back. | Back object |
| Intersect | Keeps only the area all the objects share. | Front-most object |
| Exclude | Keeps the areas where an odd number of objects overlap, so overlaps become holes. | Front-most object |
A group counts as one shape here: VectorCraft unites its contents first and uses the paint of the group's top object.
Pathfinders: many pieces out
These return a group of pieces, each keeping the colour it showed before. Ungroup with Object › Ungroup or pick pieces with the Group Selection tool.
| Button | What it does | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| Divide | Splits the artwork into every separate face. An open line drawn across a shape works as a knife. | Cutting a shape into pieces to colour separately |
| Trim | Removes the hidden parts of each object, without merging anything. | Flattening overlapping art for print or cutting |
| Merge | Trims, then joins touching pieces that share a fill colour. | Cleaning up a traced logo |
| Crop | Keeps what lies inside the front-most object and removes that object. | Fitting a pattern into a shape |
| Outline | Breaks every edge at the crossings into open paths, stroked 1 pt in the old fill colour. | Plotter and laser line work |
| Minus Back | Cuts the objects behind out of the front-most one. | The reverse of Minus Front, without restacking |
Example: a crescent moon in four steps
- Choose the Ellipse tool (L) and Shift-drag a circle. Give it a yellow fill.
- Draw a second circle of about the same size, overlapping the first one's right side. It is in front because you drew it last.
- Select both and click Minus Front. The front circle cuts its bite out of the back one and disappears.
- You now have one yellow crescent path. Reshape it with the Direct Selection tool (A) if the tips are too thick.
The same move makes a letter knockout: set a word on top of a badge shape and click Minus Front. Type works directly as its letter shapes, so there is no need to outline the text first. Once the cut is made, the letters are paths and you can't edit the words any more, so check the spelling before you click.
Strokes count only as lines
Pathfinder works on the filled area of each object. A thick stroke around a shape isn't part of that area: after Unite, the result takes the front-most object's stroke and draws it along the new outline. When the stroke should become part of the shape (a ring, a bold outlined logo for a cutter), select it and use Object › Path › Outline Stroke first. The stroke turns into a filled shape, and Pathfinder then treats it like any other.
Shape Builder, when clicking buttons gets slow
For overlapping shapes where you want some regions merged and others gone, the Shape Builder tool (Shift+M) is faster than a chain of Pathfinder clicks. Select the shapes, pick the tool, and drag across the regions you want joined. Hold Alt (Option on a Mac) and the pointer turns into a minus: click or drag over regions to delete them. Open lines that cross the shapes cut them into regions too, so a single line drawn with the Pen can split a shape in two.
Shape Builder is the less mature of the two. Its developers rate it at about 70% of Illustrator's version, and in some real-world files it misses a region and grabs a whole shape instead. If that happens, undo and use Divide, then delete or Unite the pieces you want.
Keep it editable with Effect › Pathfinder
The panel buttons are permanent. For a result you can still adjust, group the shapes (Object › Group) and apply an operation from Effect › Pathfinder. The group draws as if Pathfinder had run, but the original shapes stay inside it: move one with the Direct Selection tool and the result updates. Loose shapes are grouped for you in the same step. When you export SVG or PDF, the effect is baked into plain paths.
Coming from Illustrator: what's different
- Alt-click compound shapes don't exist yet. In Illustrator, Alt-clicking a Shape Mode makes a live compound shape with an Expand button. In VectorCraft the Expand button is greyed out and Make Compound Shape is unavailable. Effect › Pathfinder is the live alternative.
- Pathfinder Options and Trap in the panel menu are greyed out, so you can't change the precision or remove redundant points from there. Object › Path › Simplify… cleans up a result with too many anchor points.
- Repeat works: the panel menu's Repeat item runs the last operation again on a new selection.
- No "cannot perform operation" error. The booleans are computed on the exact curves, and VectorCraft's developers rate Pathfinder at 95% of Illustrator's.
Export the result
File › Export › Export As SVG… writes the merged shape as a single <path>, which is what icon libraries, CSS masks and cutting machines want. For a print file use File › Save as PDF…, and for a quick preview, Export As PNG…. More on the SVG options is in how to edit an SVG online. If your starting point is a picture of a logo rather than shapes, trace it first, then run Merge on the traced result to join pieces of the same colour.