# Could vtkCookieCutter return the outside mesh?

**URL:** <https://discourse.vtk.org/t/could-vtkcookiecutter-return-the-outside-mesh/1152>\
**Category:** Development\
**Created:** [June 15, 2019, 12:29pm UTC](https://discourse.vtk.org/t/could-vtkcookiecutter-return-the-outside-mesh/1152 "2019-06-15T12:29:30Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![borisb](https://discourse.vtk.org/user_avatar/discourse.vtk.org/borisb/32/530_2.png) [@borisb](https://discourse.vtk.org/u/borisb)\
**Post date:** [June 15, 2019, 12:29pm UTC](https://discourse.vtk.org/t/could-vtkcookiecutter-return-the-outside-mesh/1152/1 "2019-06-15T12:29:30Z")

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I wanted to use vtkCookieCutter for a project to cut a hole in a surface but for now, it’s only meant to return the mesh lying inside the given contour loop, while I wanted to opposite. I tried other filters like vtkClipPolyData but none of them give a result as clean as vtkCookieCutter does.

So I only want to know, from VTK devs point of view, if it’s possible to update the filter to use some kind of InsideOut flag like with vtkClipPolyData. If so, I would try to do it and make a MR.

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**Author:** ![cory.quammen](https://discourse.vtk.org/user_avatar/discourse.vtk.org/cory.quammen/32/6751_2.png) [@cory.quammen](https://discourse.vtk.org/u/cory.quammen)\
**Post date:** [June 15, 2019, 7:41pm UTC](https://discourse.vtk.org/t/could-vtkcookiecutter-return-the-outside-mesh/1152/2 "2019-06-15T19:41:07Z")

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I think a contribution of that feature would be welcomed warmly. Please add me as a reviewer to your MR.

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**Author:** ![borisb](https://discourse.vtk.org/user_avatar/discourse.vtk.org/borisb/32/530_2.png) [@borisb](https://discourse.vtk.org/u/borisb)\
**Post date:** [June 17, 2019, 3:52pm UTC](https://discourse.vtk.org/t/could-vtkcookiecutter-return-the-outside-mesh/1152/3 "2019-06-17T15:52:23Z")

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For now, I managed to get a version which keeps the outside mesh. However, the part of the mesh lying inside the loop is still filled with a polygon, even if the edges and points are correctly cut out.