: "Cutting" a shape in Illustrator I have tried this on a few different shapes, but there has to be an easy way. I bet it's simple. I've attached an image of part of a car that I'm designing

@Tiffany317

You can separate the middle part by clicking on the four points where the cross bar meets the circles with the Scissor tool (press the letter C to access tool).



Delete the two lines. And use pen tool to close circles if desired.

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@Barnes313

There are many ways to do this. In this particular example that you've given, I'd just use the direct (white) selection tool and click on the paths that extend between the wheels and then delete them. After they are deleted, use the pen tool to bridge the gap created on each wheel and clean up a little.

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@Annie732

I am using Illustrator since last 3 years. My favorite tool to cut any vector is pen tool .

Using pen tool you can draw shape however you like.
Just Draw shape on top of the vector area you want to cut.

Now Select both shapes.
Go to: WINDOW -> PATHFINDER and enable it if you didn't(It's very useful widget).
Now Click on second option (MINUS FRONT).

and Boom.. You got your shape.

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@Deb5748823

First copy the shape.

Select the art, zoom all the way in and use the eraser tool, then clean the break with pen tool if needed.

Or

Use the circle tool to draw the exact ellipse wheel shapes (not as hard as it sounds) with the elipse positioned exacly on the wheel select both and hit divide from the pathfinder dialogue.

Or use that elipse to make a clipping path, select wheel and elipse and right click make clipping path.

Paste in place the wheels and follow procedure with othrr wheel.

Or

Zoom all the way where the bar meets the wheel, use the pen tool to draw the arc through the bar at same curvature as wheel, slect the line you drew and the wheels and hit pathfinder divide. Paste shape in place and repeat procedure with back wheel.

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@Smith574

The most easiest solution is to cut the the object with a knife tool.


knife tool is not visible in the tool box, so you need to find it.
Click and hold the "eraser" to see and select the knife tool.
Now, drag the knife tool over the object in the art-board and to cut the
object into any shape, click and drag the pointer over the object.
but if you want to cut the object into a straight line then hold
down Alt button (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) as you click the
art-board with the Knife tool, and then drag.

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@Heady304

See adobe referene page here: helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/using/cutting-dividing-objects.html
Also, the eraser tool can be helpful in some situations

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