pathfinder trouble

[dan_joyce@adobeforums.com]

I'm making a graphic and am having trouble with the stripes I've put in the background. I created a line at nearly a 45 degree angle. I then copied next to it over and over. So, I have a large are of pinstripes. I am putting my text over it and am putting a box outline around that, in front of the stripes. But, My stripes oviously overhang. I want to get rid of the overhanging peices of stripe. I grouped the stripes, put the box over it and tried to use the pathfinder to include only the intersecting shape area. In desperation I tried all the pathfinder tools to no avail.

Thanks
Dan J.

[hitpawz@adobeforums.com]

Try putting the box over the stripes and using a mask instead (CMND 7). You won't cut out the data for the overlapping of the lines, but it will work. The box must be at the top of the stack.

To use pathfinder, you'd have to outline the strokes of the lines and then do a pathfinder intersect on each line while copying and pasting the box each operation. I guess you can maybe group the lines to do them all but I've found that it usually only does the operation between two objects at a time, regardless of grouping. I may be wrong about that but I avoid the hassle and just stick with masking.

[abe slaney]

[email]hitpawz@adobeforums.com[/email] wrote:

> Try putting the box over the stripes and using a mask instead (CMND

7). You won't cut out the data for the overlapping of the lines, but it
will work. The box must be at the top of the stack.

>
> To use pathfinder, you'd have to outline the strokes of the lines and
>then do a pathfinder intersect on each line while copying and pasting
>the box each operation. I guess you can maybe group the lines to do
>them all but I've found that it usually only does the operation

between >two objects at a time, regardless of grouping. I may be wrong
about >that but I avoid the hassle and just stick with masking.


Grouping them won't work, but making a compound path of them will...it
treats the "group" as a single object and will apply the pathfinder
filter to the whole thing.

[jonf@adobeforums.com]

This is a strange workaround I developed which seems to work, but it's hard to explain.

Draw the lines
Group them
Draw a box over the top of the lines with the same stroke.
Select them all
Use the tool on the lower left of the pathfinders palette. (I can't find its name, and it only seems to work from the palette. None of the pathfinder effects seem to do this through the menu)
This gives you (effectively) a box with all your lines cropped to its edge. If you need to get rid of the stroke from the box you have to use this next step.
Select ONLY the lines (drag a marquis with the white direct-select arrow to select them from the inside of the box, avoiding any of the lines which form the outside of the box)
Copy or cut
Paste Behind (command-b)
You can then lock them, or drag them to another layer and lock it, so you can delete your original stroked box.

If there's a better way I hope someone will enlighten us. AI seems to be short in the cropping functionality department.

[Wade_Zimmerman@adobeforums.com]

Flatten the transparency and divide and delete the excess.

[dan_joyce@adobeforums.com]

Wade, thanks, but... Does flattening the transparency mess things up at all if I plan to use it later? Other than that concern, it worked perfectly.

jonf: leave your mouse over the icons in the pallet and it'll tell you what the tool is (in this case, divide)

thanks

[Wade_Zimmerman@adobeforums.com]

It shouldn't.

[abe slaney]

[email]dan_joyce@adobeforums.com[/email] wrote:

> Wade, thanks, but... Does flattening the transparency mess things up at all if I plan to use it later? Other than that concern, it worked perfectly.
>
> jonf: leave your mouse over the icons in the pallet and it'll tell you what the tool is (in this case, divide)
>
> thanks

or...

select your stripes (strokes?)
object>path>outline stroke
keep them selected & object>compound path>make

copy your box so it's on the clipboard (assuming you want the box
outline intact)
select the stripes & box
apply pathfinder>intersect
paste the box back in front

[jonf@adobeforums.com]

Switching subjects, the mouse-over-the-icon trick does not function on the computer I use at work. I assumed it was some setting the former user had set. I never bothered to check into it further. Is there a way to get it back?

[Wade_Zimmerman@adobeforums.com]

You're joking? Tool tips in the preferences.

[dan_joyce@adobeforums.com]

Perfect. This worked to perfection. Thanks wade. I think this should be the end of this forum thread. Thanks all

[jonf@adobeforums.com]

Joking? I've been using Illustrator on a virtually daily basis for 11 years and never had any reason to turn "tool tips" either on or off. To tell you the truth, I've never bothered to figure out what "Transform pattern tiles" or "Japanese Cropmarks" do either. My apologies to Wade for the demonstration of ignorance. Now I guess I'll go see if I can figure out what that "pen tool" thing does.

[dan_joyce@adobeforums.com]

Wade, I had this working just fine, but now it seems not to. I gave up working on my original document and started a new one just in case, but still no luck. Sorry to be such a pest on this, but I'm getting NO help from the help.

I've created a new set of stripes. Put a box over it. Flattened the transparency. Divide. I keep ending up with that cropping out the overhang, but then it's not editable. Although, if my box is behind, I do end up having to remove the overhang myself. Either way, I'm getting little shapes (like sheared rectangles) with lines between them. In other words, it's dividing it and then breaking apart the box and lines into MANY shapes. So, this isn't working to perfection now. Could you enlighten me as to what "flatten trans." does? I realize what it does in masked areas, but don't understand how it's being used here.

Sorry to be such a pain

[jonf@adobeforums.com]

That's why I add the following steps, to get rid of all those sheered rectangles:

"Select ONLY the lines (drag a marquis with the white direct-select arrow to select them from the inside of the box, avoiding any of the lines which form the outside of the box)
Copy or cut
Paste Behind (command-b)
You can then lock them, or drag them to another layer and lock it, so you can delete your original stroked box."

I think that's what Wade meant (or something like it) by "delete excess."

I apologize if this doesn't suit your particular case. I suits my needs, and from your description it sounded like it might be of use to you.

[Wade_Zimmerman@adobeforums.com]

In the transparency options there is a box to outline the strokes which will allow you the divide the stripes under the rectangle you can then delete the excess shapes by dragging the direct select tool over those areas where your stripes over hang.

Perhaps there are other ways to do this but this is how I know how to do it.

I don't know ay other way to do this.

[Gary_Newman@adobeforums.com]

Try this:

Draw your lines. Outline them (Object - Path Outline Stroke). Compound them (Command - 8)

Draw your rectangle on top. Give it no stroke, and the same fill as the lines.

Select rectangle and lines.

Go to the Pathfinder palette, hold down the Option key and click the Intersect button (top row, third from left).

[Doug_Katz@adobeforums.com]

Object>Path>Outline stroke.

I think we may be advising the wrong pathfinder... or at least not the best. Dan, I'd try it this way:

1. Draw the diagonal strokes, place the rectangle behind them.

2. Copy the rectangle (you'll need it later).

3. Select All and apply a temporary FILL (even to the diagonals).

4. Apply the TRIM pathfinder (this one will preserve your diagonals as strokes but it only works on filled paths which is why you applied the temporary fill above).

5. With everything still selected, remove the fill, apply a stroke.

6. Now you have cleanup. You'll have to remove those "angled rectangles" that are between your diagonal strokes. If you do it right, you'll be left with JUST your diagonals... no rectangle, and no chopped up objects that "imitate" a rectangle.

7. Command-F which pastes in front the copy of your original rectangle.

It definitely should NOT be this complicated (other programs do it in one or two steps). But at least you'll be left with a rectangle with cropped stroked paths behind it.

[Doug_Katz@adobeforums.com]

Gary, doesn't that leave him with: a) outlined paths rather than stroked lines (I thought he wanted open paths, not closed objects in the shape of the paths) and b) no rectangle?

[dan_joyce@adobeforums.com]

My final output will have the pinstripes filled with a gradient that spans the stripes. (The top left of the first will be black while the bottom right will be transparent... the gradients spans each individual line as well as between them) So, I think I ahve to have fills left when I'm done and strokes. Is this correct? I can do this using a mask... yahta... yahta, but that WON'T suit my needs. When I'm done, I'll be putting it into InDesign and I need it to have no excess. The box will be it's shape.
Unfortunately, I think I'm becoming more confused as this goes. If you don't understand exactly what I need, please let me know. I'll try to explain better if need be. Thanks again for all your help. I don't feel so bad for not knowing how to accomplish this now :-)

[Doug_Katz@adobeforums.com]

I think I did misunderstand. After you crop, you want to be able to FILL those diagonals. I'd try Gary Newman's way: Draw the diagonals, compound them, draw the rectangle over them, select all, option-click the intersect pathfinder.