Cutting weighted outline in Illustrator.

[Signsforwhile]

Delete Illustrator..goto Corel..dont look back.
Ken

This should work!!

 

[tommythesignguy]

apply stroke same color as fill (on a copy in the back, as mentioned earlier), then choose the "outline stroke" command mentioned earlier, then while still selected, choose "unite" from the pathfinder tools. Done.

Ken, Corel is inferior, save your pontification for n00bs who can't afford industry standard programs,

...don't waste an Illustrator owners time with your own software shortcomings.

Isign and Ken, I use both. Corel is much quicker for me to design with under this circumstance. I wouldn't put myself through all of those moves in Adobe for this, but, with that being said, Adobe is extremely valuable as another tool in my arsenal. CS3 can do many things that Corel can't or won't. InDesign is a spectacular tool for what it is used for. I wouldn't call Corel inferior if it can do the simplest tasks in two moves that Adobe designers couldn't figure out in ten.

 

[KR3signguy]

why must there be a need to reiterate the same process over and over and over and over.

 

[Rick]

Here is what I did in a few minutes with 3 colors...you will notice an arrow where the thick stroke went a little wierd on me but that's a few seconds to fix.

On the "ungroup" being grayed out after you outline path....I'm not getting that at all...could that be a Mac/PC thing? I don't see why it would be but I don't have my PC running so I can't try it myself.

 

[Rick]

Oh, on the Corel cracks....if you design with strokes you have the same hassles...it's not an Illy thing. Some of us like to design with strokes because offsetting the path has less control....especially when working with 3 or more layers, one you chand one layer, you almost always have to change another....using strokes on the design phase speeds up the process, but you pay on the production end...but the -3-5 minutes it takes on the productin end usually outweighs the hassle of offsetpath on the design end.

 

[wildhock]

Hey Guys, thanks for all of the positive help and information. Based on the responses I was able to get things to work the way I wanted.

I appreciate everyones help!

Merry Christmas,

Jon

 

[Dan Ripper]

Is this any faster?
Copy text,
Type>Create Outline
Object>Path>Offset Path
Window>Pathfinder>Merge
Edit>Paste In Front

 

[iSign]

Is this any faster?
Copy text,
Type>Create Outline
Object>Path>Offset Path
Window>Pathfinder>Merge
Edit>Paste In Front

Dan, in some cases I would agree, but like Ricks comments sometimes it's handy to see the appearance of various stroke widths while still being easily able to change them later. Then to just work with the stroke you already have makes most sense. Besides, on more complex jobs then a line of text, "offset path" often has far more irregularities then outline stroke.

Tommy, I agree that I wouldn't call Corel inferior either... well, except that time :Big Laugh I own both as well, but I haven't botherd to learn it, because most things that take a long time to show a new illustrator user, take only seconds for each of the several times a day that I've been doing it for the last 10 years. CasMate did it quicker... but it did far more things worse then illustrator.

If someone has the "helpful" suggestion that their software is superior, to a guy who already owns the more valuable industry standard software... I tend to meet irrationality with exaggeration of my own.

 

[GAC05]

Not to be Cpt. Obvious,
but a skilled Draw user can make Illustrator look like a bloated, overpriced collection of poorly written code just as easily as an Illustrator guru can take CorelDraw to the cleaners.
Doesn't hurt to use and learn both, the tool sets are pretty similar with each having unique advantages.
Case in point
With Corel you don't have to convert your text to paths to get the strokes converted to objects (paths).
When working with text Corel will remove the overlaps in the stroke when you convert it to an object, so there is less clean up from the start.

wayne k
guam usa
X3 CS3 & MS paint

 

[boostdemon]

...holding down the shift key, I deselected the outer-most contour, and then deselected the 3 inside contours that were needed for "holes' in my final cut file. .

I had to hold ALT+SHIFT and then i was able to follow along. Thanks to your screenshots i saw the key i was missing... the pathfinder window with the "merge" icon... holy cow i cant believe how much time i wasted. select the intersecting layers and click "merge" lol man i feel dumb

thank you thank you thank you!

 

[Xw00dsrac3rX]

I realize this is an old thread and a pretty basic function to most but since switching to illustrator cs4, I cannot get this for the life of me and I think Ive read just about everything out there I could find. Im just seeing if anyone here might have a solution or have encountered this problem.

I just want to combine the outline together so I just have the outside paths and none of the overlapping ones. When sent to the cutter using flexi starter edition it will naturally cut all the paths shown.

I tried the whole combine, pathfinder, merge type stuff but nothing works. Unfortuantely there is no "unite" choice and nothing I have been trying is working. Any help would be great, even if its pointing me to a tutorial somewhere. Thanks in advance.

 

[Typestries]

I think he used ALL CAPS and BUSH SCRIPT at the same time to get our attention? Or did he......

BTW....No illy expert here, but the overlap/union tools are in the pathfinder palette I believe.

 

[beermonster]

try "expand appearance" - mind you i have illy cs3 but am hoping its still in cs4...

good luck

 

[Xw00dsrac3rX]

Yea sorry about that, just a quick text to play with. No "union" of any kind on the pathfinder menu. I tried every option on there, compounding/uncompounding...

I cant find a concrete answer anywhere. Keep in mind this is CS4. Thanks.

 

[beermonster]

or in the pathfinder (in cs3 again - sorry) once you've done the merge elements, hit the expand button - cleans it up nicely

 

[beermonster]

did it work? am itching to know

 

[beermonster]

actually - ya got me thinking - and that doesnt happen often

turned text to outline

select the first 2 letters, pathfinder>merge>expand

select next two letters, pathfinder>merge>expand

select both elements>merge>expand

bingo done!

 

[beermonster]

ya might need to ungroup it all after text to outlines

 

[beermonster]

there we have it - 7 replies and i might have got it right :ROFLMAO:

 

[royster13]

www.lynda.com