Shape Builder and the build slot

Shape Builder wants a selection first

Press B, or pick it from the build slot where it sits by default. Shape Builder opens a session over whatever you have selected, which means an empty selection gets you nothing. Select the overlapping objects before you start.

It then decomposes that selection into planar atoms: every non-overlapping region the outlines carve out between them. Two overlapping circles are three atoms, being the left crescent, the lens in the middle and the right crescent. Everything you do next operates on those atoms.

1. Draw the shapes so they overlap Use the shape slot (Rectangle by default, with Ellipse in the same flyout) or draw paths with the Pen. Overlap is what creates the atoms.
2. Select them all Marquee with the Select tool (V), or Ctrl+A for everything on the canvas.
3. Press B The session opens over the selection and the atoms are worked out.
4. Drag across atoms to merge A single drag that passes through several atoms welds them into one. This is the union half of the tool.
5. Click an atom to delete it Click the overlap of two circles and it goes. This is the subtract half.

The session commits to a real path, and the whole thing lands as a single history step. One Ctrl+Z returns you to the shapes you started with, however many drags and clicks you made along the way.

Merging and subtracting is the whole grammar

Drag to merge, click to delete. That is the entire vocabulary, and it is why the tool is faster than the menu for anything fiddly. You are not choosing an operation and hoping it applies to the right pair of objects. You are pointing at the regions you want and the ones you do not.

A worked example: three overlapping circles arranged as a Venn diagram. To keep only the centre where all three meet, click the six outer atoms away and you are left with the intersection. To make a clover, drag through the three petals and leave the centre out. Neither route needs you to think about stacking order.

When you want a named boolean: Pathfinder

Some operations are cleaner as a command. Path ▸ Pathfinder holds twelve: Union, Minus Front, Minus Back, Intersection and Exclusion, then Division, Trim, Merge, Crop, Outline, Cut Path and Divide Objects Below. Select your objects and click the item you want.

The Pathfinder items print keyboard shortcuts next to their labels. None of those keys work. Two of them do something else entirely: the menu shows Ctrl+/ beside Division and Ctrl+Alt+/ beside Cut Path, but pressing those keys adds a new fill and a new stroke through Appearance. Click the menu items and ignore the labels. This is a real defect on our side, not a subtlety of the interface.

The other three tools in the build slot

Intertwine makes shapes weave. Click a crossing where two filled shapes overlap and the lower shape is made to pass over the upper one at that crossing, by placing a clipped copy above. Click the same crossing again to flip it back. Other crossings are left untouched, which is exactly what you need for interlocking rings or a knot.

Envelope applies Envelope Distort to the current selection. Its Style dropdown carries fifteen warp presets (Arc, Arch, Bulge, Flag, Wave, Fish, Rise, Fisheye, Inflate, Squeeze, Twist and the rest) plus Mesh, Mesh fit to shape, Top Object and Perspective. Warp styles expose Bend, Dir, H and V from -100 to 100. Mesh styles expose Rows and Cols from 1 to 20 with Edit, +Row, +Col and Reset. Every style offers Release and Expand.

Blend (Shift+B) is a click sequence, nothing more. Click object A to mark it, click object B, and it fires the blend command on the pair. It writes no geometry itself, so it is a shortcut to what lives in Object ▸ Blend rather than an engine of its own. It has no option bar and shows the Select bar instead.

Common questions