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Flatten

Flatten bakes a selection's geometry into vector networks and combines it — one new vector node per selection partition, destroying the originals. It is the destructive counterpart to boolean: where a boolean keeps its operands alive and recomputes the result, flatten resolves the geometry once, discards the inputs, and hands back a plain editable vector. The command is Mod+E (keybindings).

The operation​

Given the selection's partition, for each partition independently:

  • Convert every flattenable member to a vector network (the same shape-to-network conversion the pen mode uses on entry), positioned in world space.
  • Combine the partition's networks into one via vector-network union — a single vector node whose geometry is the members' combined outline.
  • Carry the base style. The new node inherits the first member's paint and node properties, so the result does not visually jump for the common single-style case; differing per-member paints are not preserved (flatten is a geometry operation, and one node holds one style).
  • Replace, in place. The originals are deleted and the new vector is inserted under the partition's parent at the members' lowest sibling index (z-position preserved), its bounding box normalized and re-anchored so world position does not move.

The whole command is one history entry; undo restores every partition's originals.

Flattenable set​

The flattenable kinds are the path-reducible primitives (rectangle, ellipse, polygon, star, line), vector nodes, text, and boolean nodes — the set the editor offers the command for. A group, a container, or an image is not flattenable; such members are left unchanged and remain selected alongside the new vector nodes — flatten never silently drops or rasterizes them.

Two of these need a geometry backend to bake, and degrade the same way the reference editor does when it is absent (its non-backend path declines rather than approximating):

  • Text needs a glyph-outline backend — the shaped outline of each glyph. Flatten delegates a text member to the same conversion Create Outlines uses; without a font backend a text member is left unflattened, not approximated.
  • Boolean bakes its evaluated result (the merged path), which needs path-boolean evaluation. It is the destructive exit named in boolean; the boolean's own paint carries to the vector.

The primitives and vector nodes bake from geometry alone — a vector node contributes its own network directly — so they flatten unconditionally.

Not the mode-entry flatten​

Entering vector edit on a single primitive also "flattens" it — shape builder → editable network — but that is a non-destructive content-edit entry on one node (the primitive becomes an editable vector so the pen can work), a different act with its own lifecycle. This document specifies the multi-select command that combines and discards. The two share the shape-to-network conversion; they differ in destination (one editable node in a mode vs one baked node in the tree) and in destructiveness.

Contracts​

  • FLAT-1 Per-partition combine: flatten combines the flattenable members of each selection partition into one new vector node (per partition) via vector-network union; the new node carries the first member's style. A cross-parent selection yields one vector per partition, never one across partitions.
  • FLAT-2 Flattenable set: the primitives (rectangle, ellipse, polygon, star, line) and vector nodes flatten unconditionally; text and boolean are flattenable but require a glyph-outline / path-boolean backend and are left unflattened when it is absent (never approximated). Non-flattenable members (group, container, image) are left unchanged and stay selected — the command neither drops nor rasterizes them.
  • FLAT-3 Destructive replace: the originals are deleted and the new vector is inserted under the partition's parent at the members' lowest sibling index, world position preserved, as one history entry; undo restores the originals.
  • FLAT-4 Boolean bake: flattening a boolean node produces a vector of its evaluated merged path carrying the boolean's paint — the destructive counterpart to keeping it live (boolean).

Deferred, named: the text glyph-outline backend and the boolean path-evaluation bake (FLAT-4) — flattenable in the set, but backend-gated (as the reference editor's own non-backend path is); preserving differing per-member styles across a flatten (one node, one style — not attempted); the exact area-union-vs-compound-path semantics of the vector-network combine is owned by the vector network model, not restated here.