Illustrator :: How To Ungroup Or Expand A Pie Chart In Adobe CS6
Mar 15, 2013
How do you ungroup or expand a pie chart in Adobe Illustrator CS6? This functionality seems to have been removed. Say I'd like to remove the legend: before, I could ungroup the chart, release its link to the data, and then delete the legend with my white mouse. Object > Expand no longer works either.
How do you Un Group several layers in Illustrator? My drawing had layers of information but now is frozen as one and I can't access or change the individual elements within the layers panel or dby picking them in the drawing.
In CS5, I created a very handy action that allowed me to, with two paths selected, Divide, Ungroup, and Deselect, resulting in the divided paths without having to do each step manually.
In CS6, for some reason this is no longer possible-- if I try to record the same action, after the divide, everything is automatically deselected and I get a "The object "Ungroup" is not currently available" error. Very frustrating that the new version is more troublesome to use!!
I KNOW that it's possible to do this because I was somehow able to fudge it at one point and get this action to work. But I'm not sure what happened-- maybe a step was deleted in my action or something-- but one day it just stopped working. This action is basically THE function I use most in Illustrator given the way I work, and while it's not a huge step, having to manually reclick, ungroup, and deselect is a huge inconvenience.
In illustrator, how do you change a photoshop spot color channel that has been imported into illustrator. Ever since Illustrator CS2 you could import a psd into Illustrator and you could ungroup the channels and change the colors. How do you do that in CS3-6? I have been trying to figure this out for years. My old computer with Illustrator 10 is about to die and so will my ability to do what I descried above.
I'm working with another artists's file, and I can't seem to release the clipping mask he created. When I try, I get an error message that says, "Can't ungroup the objects." I've tried releasing Compound Paths, but I get the same message.
I'm having trouble getting a script together where I can ungroup all groups in a document, then put everything under a single group. Everyhting I'm working with has a single layer, but for some of the arts I'm importing have groups within groups ect. To run certain actions I've made properly after I need eveything to be in one, single group.
I searched for an answer and found this (wirtten by Carlos Canto)
function ungroup(whereToUngroup, group) // where to ungroup? layer, document, other group? { for (i=group.pageItems.length-1; i>=0; i--) group.pageItems[i].move(whereToUngroup, ElementPlacement.PLACEATBEGINNING); }
For a number of documents I inherited from someone else, I'm having trouble expanding layers. The topmost layers appear, show proper thumbnails, and are named appropriately. However, there is no little "disclosure triangle" or whatever that thing is called that allows you to expand the layer and see sublayers and items. I've tried duplicating this behavior with other documents and with a new document, but the problem only occurs with these certain files.
The files were created in v13 of AI, and I'm using v17 (CC) to open them.
If this is some sort of bug? I tried using "Locate Object" to force the layer expansion, to no avail. I also tried "Release to Layers" commands, also to no avail.
Copying an excel chart (2010 and/or 2013, Windows 7 Ultimate) to Illustrator CS6 works okay if line chart lines are solid... but if they are dotted, then in Excel 2010, the dotted line becomes jumbled, and in Excel 2013, the dotted line converts to a solid line... is the only solution to this to save the excel chart as a pdf, or is there another workaround?
Essentially, I am creating a chart in excel and adding a few notations and graphic elements in illustrator for professional publishing..
I'm using the 16.0.0 version of Illustrator CS6 and i'm really new to it. Under the Object menu, I cannot find any Expand-function that I've been told should be found there. Is this option only appearing in object menu during certain circumstances?
I have a question about expanding appearance and multiply. I work in print-on-demand, and one of the limitations is that we can not use multiply on artwork. In order to achieve a similar appearance, when I receive these kinds of files, I flatten transparency, and that will sear in the way the multiply effect is interacting with the other elements of the same art file. (in the example below there are no interacting elements) However, if it is intended to interact with the background, I have to fiddle with the cmyk values (adding k) and opacity level until it is as close as possible. It is time-consuming.
we use 'expand appearnce' instead, and I tried it once and it worked! It did all the legwork for me; it spit out a different cmyk value and opacity level that mimics the effect of multiply, so I don't have to calculate it manually. However, I can't get it to work again. Illustrator thinks it is already its simplest form of appearance and will not expand it further. I've tried adding another effect and expanding but it will only expand the effect and keep the multiply.
Maybe she and I were both tripping when we thought it worked once? how to expand the appearance of multiply? Here's a picture of the 3 methods I'm speaking to: on the left is multiply, the center is flattened transparency, and the right is achieving a similar effect of multiply with opacity & color build.
I use minus front all the time... well, I'm trying to make a pie chart with just the outside (see example). The logical way to do this to me is the make the pie chart, put an ellipse over everything and "minus front" it using the pathfinder tool. Well, I did this, and even though "minus front" is an available option--I can even click it--nothing happens when I click it. Even when I isolate each wedge of the pie chart, I cannot get any part of it to clip using "minus front."
we have a website concept in Illustrator CS3, with named swatches for all colors. I'm wondering if there is an easy or 'semi-automated' way to generate a chart of the swatches we are using, showing there hex values?
I know I could draw out a bunch of boxes, fill them with the swatch colors, and manually look up and type in the hex values for each. But this would take a LONG time, as there are a number of color variations.
I have some trouble with copy/paste charts from Excel 2010 into Illustrator CS5. I can move things around, but I can not change the colours in Illustrator. The chart is shown as a picture graphic, not a vector in Illustrator. Also when I save the Excel chart in a PDF and try to open it in Illustrator CS5 it is still a picture, not a vector graphic. Where is the bug? (I am using Windows 7.)
For my work I use the Image Trace a lot. When I Image Trace something and then expand it, it shifts the art over. Every once in a while I wouldn't mind but it does it every time and I have to go back and nudge it back into place by setting the original layer as a template and then looking at it in Outline mode. Here is an example of the shift...
I never had this issue in any other version of Illustrator and I have been working with it since 8. When I have multiple items to Image Trace on one of my jobs and I Image Trace on each one individually, it does it in random directions. Sometimes down and to the right, sometimes up and to the left and sometimes it doesn't do it at all.
Here are the settings I am using...
I am image tracing 1200ppi bitmaps and I don't need it to be any more exact than it is now becuase I am then offsetting it .05" and using that as a relief for our products. But ignoring the shift would make one of our CNC machines mill through the art. Anything to stop "THE SHIFT" would be great. I am using up precious time in my pre-production schedule to be constantly doing this.
I love the width tool but when I try to use it on a custom brush I am unable to isolate one side or the other to expand/contract. I'm assuming the behavior should be the same as when used on a basic stroke. Is this a bug?
I have a vector I made of a small (2.5 x 4) tribal type design that's failry complex (and a PITA to weed out!). I cut it on a plotter. I need to add a thin pinstripe to the edge. I used the "expand" command and that achomplished what I wanted but it is too thin. I need to "stripe" to be a little thicker. The design is so small I think I will never be able to successfully weed it being that thin.
Is the "expand" amount adjustable? Is there another way to go about it? (I tried "offset path" but that left a mess of lines all over both inside and outside. It would take me forever to clean that up). Since I will be using a plotter the least amount of extraneous lines being added is ideal to lessen my clean up time.
Expanding Appearance on a closed path with stroke, fill, and a Round Corners effect produces a group of two paths in CS6. A path with just a fill and a path with just the stroke.
Is there an option to just generate one path like CS5 and earlier?
I have created a method to create line art roof shingles row-by-row. I think something like this is a good candidate for scripting, but I run into a dead-end quickly when trying to script this. Basically, I use "expand appearance" multiple times during the course of this process and I can't find any way to script that action. I have heard about using MenuIDs, but I can't find anything on how to discover what the MenuID for "expand appearance" is.
I have also tried recording an action, but "expand appearance" doesn't get saved.
I have recently upgraded to CS6 from CS2. I do a lot of digital inking in Illustrator as part of my job. In CS2 I would create a simple tapered brush using 4 anchor points. When I would draw a brush stroke say with two anchor points, and then expand that brush stroke. Illustrator CS2 would convert the outlined tapered brush stroke back to the the original 4 anchor point path that I had originally created with maybe one extra point if the stroke curved drastically. Now is CS6 illustrator creates that same expanded brush with 9 to 12 anchor points in the path. This makes the program completly useless for my task. Is there anyway to correct this?
When I copied and pasted charts from excel, the lines are all doubled. This is the first time I got this. I could not figure out what is the difference between these double lines and the regular lines. Any clues how to change the lines to regular ones. I am using AI CC.
I want to create a creative graphic chart in Illustrator and place it into Word. the catch is that the client -- who doesn't use Illustrator -- wants to update it later. Is that a possibility? If not directly in Illustrator is there another app which would would play nicely with Word?
I have an MS Word 2011 document with an Excel pie chart embedded.Double-clicking the pie chart will open it in Excel 2011.Copying/pasting the chart into Illustrator CS6 results in an uneditable bit image.
Previously, with Word 2008 and Illustrator CS2, this worked perfectly. Mind you, I had tons of excess empty paths and such to scrape out, but still, after a couple of minutes' scraping, I had an editable .ai file ready to be cleaned up, captions typeset, and colors edited for export to .eps and placement in InDesign
In fact, right now I've had to jump over to my old iBook G4 to open my old copies of Word 2008 and Illustrator CS2 in order to do this so I can get this job out the door.Is there any way at all that I can get an Excel 2011 pie chart into Illustrator CS6 as a vector image?
I've tried the shift-click on "Copy Picture" method, but the pie chart still appears as a bit image, and the text is turned to gibberish. Saving the chart as a pdf returns the same results.
At this point in the project, asking for the raw data set and regenerating the pies in Illustrator isn't an option -- and besides, I've had to do that before. Oh, the pain.
Is there a way to make a trend line with the chart tools in AI? Specifically, a polynomial trendline. I am so disappointed with the apparent limitations of the chart tools available.
I'm having this really annoying problem in Adobe Illustrator CC
When I use a tool such as the extrude and bevel tool to make an object 3D, it all works fine untill I have to expand the appearence then I get this edge on my object and I can't find any way to get rid of it.
Take a look at this pic to see what I mean [URL]
As you can see, their's an annoying white jagged edge and it's really annoying and I can't get rid of it.