Improved SVG Import: Compound Paths

Studio’s first update in 2026 comes with some exciting updates to compound paths, which brings improvements to both SVG imports and text objects. You will now find that Studio more accurately imports and handles SVG files with compound paths - shapes that have "holes" cut out of them, like a donut or the letter "O".

What This Means For You

• Better imports: Files from Illustrator, Inkscape, and other design tools now import with holes preserved correctly

• Cleaner designs: No more manually recreating hole relationships after import

• Text convenience: No need to shapeshift text to get the desired pocket

• Fill-rule support: Both evenodd and nonzero fill rules are handled automatically

“All Together” vs “Exploded” Imports

When you import an SVG or DXF in Studio, you’ll find a toggle for two styles of import: “All Together” and “Exploded”

Like before, this toggle defines whether the shapes in your SVG will be imported as one big group, or individual shapes. In both cases, the shapes in the source SVG that have holes will retain those holes, even if you should ‘Exploded.’ 

In the pictured example above, the ‘Exploded’ option results in 10 objects (or shapes) being placed in Studio. Before the compound paths improvements, this SVG would have resulted in 12 objects being placed - as the interiors of “o” and “e” would have been detached on import instead of being retained as holes belonging to a compound path.

What Are Compound Paths?

In SVG, a compound path is a single <path> element that contains multiple shapes. Design tools use these to create shapes with holes - the outer boundary and inner hole(s) are combined into one path.

The SVG fill-rule attribute determines which areas are filled:

evenodd: Alternating regions are filled (most common for shapes with holes)

nonzero: Uses winding direction to determine fill (used for overlapping shapes)

Edge Cases

Self-Intersecting Paths

If subpaths within a compound path cross each other, Studio splits them into independent shapes. This prevents rendering issues while preserving all the geometry.

Open Paths

Open paths (lines or curves that don't close back on themselves) are always treated independently. They cannot be holes or contain holes since they don't define enclosed areas.

Tips

For best import results

1. Use standard fill-rules: Stick to evenodd or nonzero - Studio handles both

2. Avoid self-intersections: If your compound path has crossing lines, consider simplifying it in your design tool first

3. Check your exports: When exporting from Illustrator or Inkscape, ensure "Compound Paths" or equivalent option is enabled

Extracting Holes

If the SVG you’re importing has compound paths which you would prefer to have in your design as individual paths (as Studio was doing prior to this release), you can ‘extract’ the desired shapes using ShapeShifter.

Let’s take this SVG of a rectangle with a hole in the middle as an example:

On import, Studio now retains holes in the SVG as holes in your imported shapes, even if you select ‘Exploded’ (see previous section on “All Together” vs “Exploded” Imports for more info). 

But what if you wanted to pocket the hole (i.e. the circle within the rectangle)? All you need to do is ‘extract’ the shape you need using ShapeShifter, here’s how:

You should now have your original imported rectangle with a hole in it plus a second shape which is just the circle. You can now set the cut type on the circle to Pocket and it will show a pocket inside just the circle.