Joining or combining arcs, lines, etc.

FIRST: I hope this is in the right area. If this isn't the right area for "how do I..." questions, would a moderator please move it and let me know where it belongs? Thanks.

That said, I want to use LibreCAD for font design. As such, I'd want to generate closed contours made from line segments, arcs, and the like. In AutoCAD, there's the "JOIN" command that fuses two or more such entities into a single entity. I don't see how to do it in LibreCAD. Please advise.  Thanks.

Tools > Polyline> Create polyline from existing segments > click on the line segments and voila

Boy, that was fast.

I'll give it a shot and advise how I fared. Thanks.

Turns out that wasn't quite what I had in mind. Let's say I draw a shape consisting of line segments, circular arcs, and / or elliptic arcs that intersect. What do I do to transform this collection of pieces into a single closed curve which may then have hatching applied?

Hatching does not work on intersected lines. The ends must meet.

I get that from AutoCAD experience. Perhaps I should have asked how one joins lines/arcs/etc. such that the endpoint of one such item coincides precisely with the start point of the next.

You can use Trim or Trim Two to join ends or cut overshots (intersections). But can be tricky with arcs/ellipse arcs. Sometimes doesn't work.

The feature does not exist. It was already requested : https://github.com/LibreCAD/LibreCAD/issues/1129.
Polyline works fine if you deal only with lines. If it is a mix of curves and lines then polyline cannot help.

It doesn't work for me at all.  It says, "Choose one of the segments on the original polyline".  There is no original polyline: I'm trying to make one from existing segments.  When I click on a segment, nothing happens; no new instructions.

It seems as if nothing happens, but if you click on a segment all consecutive elements will become a polyline. Cancel then and check with selecting again.
Yes, the instructions are misleading.

You can also first select all the line segments to be joined and then click "Create polyline from existing segments".  It is easier to see what line have been selected.  All of the consecutive selected segments will become a polyline.

I am astonished at the number of functions that simply do NOT work in this program. This being one of them.

For trimming, we may want to handle tangential cases by allowing small moving of the end point.

I found the current behavior is to literally do trimming only, then the end user has no idea why trimming failed.

To allow hatching by intersecting edges should be supported, for convenience and to naturally handle self-intersecting contours. The amount of work is heavy though, because we may have to maintain some edge curves by the hatch objects.

For small gaps between curves, an error should be reported with the location of the gap.

The similar should be done in the case of self-intersecting contours, to inform the user the location of the problem, but this is harder.

dellus wrote

You can use Trim or Trim Two to join ends or cut overshots (intersections). But can be tricky with arcs/ellipse arcs. Sometimes doesn't work.

LeatherCad wrote

I am astonished at the number of functions that simply do NOT work in this program.

It would be much more useful to provide a list of failing functions for a dev to work through rather than express your astonishment.