How can I make a horizontal ellipse appear to go through a vertical one?

Question

How can I make the horizontal ellipse (in the image on the left) appear to go through the vertical one as shown in the image on the right?

I want the horizontal circle to look like it goes through the vertical one. How can I make it appear so by manipulating the path (like exclude or intersection)?

Answer 1

Here goes a simplified example, with 2 ellipses.

Draw your 2 ellipses, select them and convert to path (Path->Stroke to path, maybe this is not strictly necessary).

Then get the horizontal (blue) ellipse, duplicate it (Ctrl-D), and offset a couple of times (Ctrl-().

Now, draw a rectangle over the area you want to alter:

Select the offset (thick) ellipse and the rectangle, and intersect both (Path->Intersection).

Now you want to remove this thick section from your red ellipse. Select the red ellipse and then the thick blue section, and get the difference (Path->Difference), to get the following:

Now, you can repeat the procedure for the other crossing.

Answer 2

Another approach:

• Don't use a closed ellipse shape, but just a part of it, as selectable with the ellipse tool.
• Transform the outline to a path in the path menue.
• Then add a white border atound it. Have an eye on the size of the border (don't do it like I did). Half of the border will overlap the inner part of the shape, so you have to add that part upfront.