The Exclude shape mode eliminates the overlapping area and leaves behind the remaining polygons to create a complex shape. Intersect actions create a new shape by revealing the overlapped area and removing the top and bottom shape layers. The Minus Front shape mode eliminates the top shape layers and any overlaps, leaving behind the bottom shape and color. This tool is ideal for building complex vector shapes and joining them together. The Unite action combines two or more shapes into one cohesive polygon. These actions create new and unique polygons of a single color. Shape Modes alter the final shape by uniting, excluding, intersecting, or eliminating separate layers.
Select two or more adjoining polygons with the Selection Tool (V) while holding down the Shift key, then group the shapes with Command+G for best results. This palette works best when applied to multiple different shapes. For this overview, we will go over the results of each pathfinder when applied to the compound shape below. Navigate to Window > Pathfinder in Illustrator to bring up the Pathfinder palette. You can create custom shapes and paths by using the versatile Shape Modes and Pathfinders within the panel. Use this tool to easily create one-of-a-kind shapes in just one click.Īdobe Illustrator’s Pathfinder panel is one of the most beneficial in the entire program. It's easy to pull up the wrong things or do something like tear the descender off a lowercase "g." Small letters and details can get lifted up pretty easy with the "negative" vinyl if one isn't careful.The Pathfinder palette is a huge timesaver when creating detailed vector designs in Adobe Illustrator. They're already thinking about release taping the graphics and moving on to others tasks before finishing this step. Some people get in a big hurry and try to weed away big portions at once. If all the cuts are made by the plotter, including weeding lines, then I would have to be doubly sure which pieces of vinyl to pull off the sheet. I prefer making such cuts by hand because there isn't going to be a chance of confusing those cuts with the ones made by the plotter. Good close-up eye sight is probably more critical than a steady hand (particularly with certain dark vinyl colors). The key thing is starting the cut on the edge of where the plotter had cut and being careful not to cut into any "positive" areas of the sheet. It's not all that difficult using a scalpel to manually make cuts in a sheet of cut vinyl. Now you only have the desired pieces of weeding line as separate paths ĥ) Show (the copy of) the text in front of the weeding line(s). This will create a closed path with the lower parts of the text included along with the three new segments created in 2) Ĥ) Deselect, then with the Direct Selection Tool ClickDrag across each of the different unwanted parts of the path and press delete (only once) With the text as two Compound Paths and the weeding line as a stroked path beneath the text, you can:ġ) Create a copy of the whole text (Ctrl/Cmd+C+F) and hide it (both Compound Paths) Ģ) With the Pen Tool Click one of the end Anchor Points of the weeding line, then Click beneath the text on both sides, then Click the other end Anchor Point of the weeding line so it forms a closed path with only the original section crossing (behind) the text ģ) Select everytning and Pathfinder>Minus front I am afraid that with AI, the closest you can get to what you have in mind/are used to, requires your turning the weeding line into a closed path, then clean up by getting rid of the unwanted parts, as follows. I work on big projects and the cleanup is too time consuming. What I really need is just the line segments: Until you remove the letters to see what's left and I have all these artifacts - look at the paths and see below If instead, I use the Pathfinder>Trim option, I get this which looks correct Yet I DO have two intersecting paths selected. When I try and use minus front Shape Modes>Minus Front, (which would leave the line segments I need, get the following error: I also make sure the line is at the back. It does seem to be important that the line has a color for fill. It doesn't seem to matter whether I leave the line as a line or convert it to a compound path. Select all and pathfinder> Merge (this stops the plotter from cutting teeny bits where the letters overlapĪdd a line where I want an extra cut however I don't want the plotter to cut through the letters so I need to trim the line around the letters. Plotters cut EVERY path so extraneous paths are a no-no. I am trying to create a file for a graphic plotter and wanting to add weeding lines.
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