How can I find (small) breaks / gaps in a path that is supposed to be closed?
Detecting breaks or gaps in paths (contours)
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Attach drawing files and screenshots.
Post one question per topic.
Detecting breaks or gaps in paths (contours)
From a QCAD user:
Re: Detecting breaks or gaps in paths (contours)
To make sure a path has no gaps in it, it is often recommendable to convert it into a polyline:
- Right-click on any entity of the path and choose "Auto Create polyline" (or "Auto Extend Polyline" if the entity clicked is already a polyline forming part of the path)
- Select the newly created polyline. If only a part of the path is selected, you will find gaps where the selection stops. Close these gaps and auto extend the polyline again:
- Once the whole path is selected as one polyline, you might still be dealing with an open polyline (i.e. a small gap between the start and end of the polyline). You can quickly verify this in the property editor (View > Property Editor). If property "Closed" is "Yes", you now have a closed path. If property closed is "No", you will find a gap at the red reference point of the polyline which indicates its start point:
- Close that gap as well and you're done.
- If possible, keep this polyline from now on to guarantee that no new gaps are introduced. If you prefer to work with loose entities, you can break up the polyline into segments again using Modify > Explode.
Note: Polylines can only contain line and circular arc segments. If you are dealing with splines (or ellipse arcs starting with QCAD 3.27), the above approach will still work but your entities will be converted into lines and arcs which might not be desirable. In this case, you could double-click your path to select all connected entities as a way to find gaps where the selection stops.
- Right-click on any entity of the path and choose "Auto Create polyline" (or "Auto Extend Polyline" if the entity clicked is already a polyline forming part of the path)
- Select the newly created polyline. If only a part of the path is selected, you will find gaps where the selection stops. Close these gaps and auto extend the polyline again:
- Screenshot 2021-11-08 at 08.35.49.png (16.58 KiB) Viewed 1749 times
- Screenshot 2021-11-08 at 08.37.14.png (90.77 KiB) Viewed 1749 times
- Screenshot 2021-11-08 at 08.31.11.png (27.7 KiB) Viewed 1749 times
- If possible, keep this polyline from now on to guarantee that no new gaps are introduced. If you prefer to work with loose entities, you can break up the polyline into segments again using Modify > Explode.
Note: Polylines can only contain line and circular arc segments. If you are dealing with splines (or ellipse arcs starting with QCAD 3.27), the above approach will still work but your entities will be converted into lines and arcs which might not be desirable. In this case, you could double-click your path to select all connected entities as a way to find gaps where the selection stops.