Wow, thanks so much for the fill-rule lesson. I don't have it 100% digested yet but will continue to play with Inkscape and learn. Thanks again!

Wow thanks friends, it worked! I tried both ways, playing with fill-rules and also path-difference then union. There's so much to learn with Inkscape! I need to do some research on the fill-rule, I'm quite clueless as to exactly what nonzero and evenodd are. Thanks again!

Thanks. I've tried path-union, doesn't work. They just join into one big circle. I want the two hoops to become like the shape on the bottom but joined at the top.

I'm having the hardest time figuring out how to join these two hoops to make them look like the shape on the bottom but merge at the top of the hoops. Help! Thanks in advance!

Oh wow thank you!! Yes, it worked. Thanks so much for taking the time to show me. I learned something new today. Thanks for the link to the Inkscape manual as well, I will definitely look through it. Thanks again!

I have a web generated laser cut box file and loaded it into inkscape. In an attempt to edit the box by adding shape but the union isn't working the way I want. The box is made of bunch of segments. So I did "combine" then stroke to path...then attempt to union with a shape...let's say it'...