When I use the simplify tool I get a small loop added to some corners of closed paths. It's such a great tool for what I do but it's basically useless like this.
The original
After applying simplify:
And zoomed in to a few of the corners:
I'm making a picture and I have a problem - I need a maximum of 2000 anchor points, and I have about 11k.
Seems like I have a lot of unnecessary points, but when I try to simplify the picture gets all messed up. Any other way to fix this?
Here's part of the picture, you can clearly see that a lot of the points don't have to be there..
I'm just wondering if there's some function to add an anchor point on a path between (exactly in the middle) two anchor points. Like Object > Path > Add Anchor Points, except only between two selected anchor points.
I'm using Illustrator CC (17.1) on a Mac.
Using CS5. I have a solid shape with a hollowed center (see far left image). I applied a transform effect to make it look "3D" by offsetting it slightly 32 times (see middle image. see far right image to see what it looks like selected). I want to simply have the middle image, but without all the paths and lines - I just I want it outlined. I tried to expand it, group it, pathfinder-add - nothing seems to work.
View 12 Replies View RelatedWhat is the difference between the Smooth and Simplify tools? Is the Smooth tool the same as Simplify but without the dialog window to set the parameters?
View 3 Replies View RelatedI have a shape in illustrator CS6 that I'm trying to edit. When I try to click on a point with the Delete Anchor Point Tool nothing happens however I am able to select the point using the Direct Selection Tool and then remove it using the "Remove selected anchor points" option in the Control palette. Same issue with trying to use the Convert Anchor Point Tool.
View 7 Replies View RelatedI want to simplify part of a complex shape. Is it possible to isolate part of a shape path and simplify it, leaving the rest of the shape with the original number of anchor points?
View 8 Replies View RelatedI have created a piece of artwork in illustrator which is to be printed 4x3m for a wall mural. Therefore the file I am working with must either be a vecor or a large enough raster to be printed at such as size. I have set it up at 1 to 10 so its currently A3ish size. Each component of the collage is a separate ai file and contains many points as they are all live traces. It was no problem linking in all these initially but I now need to embed them so as I can give the printers a complete file. I have succeeded embedding every image apart from one last complex one which is crashing the whole thing. Are there any settings I may be able to change to reduce the file size or simplify the graphic (whilst remaining vectors.) Below is the file with the linked images and also the outline of the embedded version so far. The problem I am having is basically because of the final output size required.
The only thing I can think of doing is opening each separate component and saving as a raster then relinking these - but will this be even more problematic for illustrator that thousands of vector points? I can do it in photoshop if needs be but as the final image is to be printed 4x3m will this be too large to handle? The ai file with all images linked was 25MB but now 500MB with the sky still to embed.
Is it possible to loop thru the artboards (with Illustrator CS5) and only work with the pageItems on the current iterated artboard?
For example, if I have 3 artboards, with 2 textFrames on each artboard. And I add the textFrames sporadically (I add a TextFrame with contents "Text 1" on artboard 1, then a textFrame with contents "Text 2" on artboard 3, then a textFrame with contents "Text 3" on artboard 1, etc).
Artboard 1:
Text 1
Text 3
Artboard 2:
Text 4
Text 6
Artboard 3:
Text 5
Text 2
Is there a way to loop thru these artboards and get the textFrames tied to the appropariate artboard? So, on the first iteration of the loop, I'm looking at artboard 1 and only looking at "Text 1" and "Text 3", then on the the 2nd iteration I'd be working with artboard 2 and it's textFrames "Text 4" and "Text 6", and so on.
If I loop thru only the doc.textFrames, the order would be incorrect, with the way I added each textFrame. Instead of artboard order, they'd be in this order:
Text 1
Text 2
Text 3
Text 4
Text 5
Text 6
is there a way that I can loop through all layers and sublayers looking for a name of a layer? I have one that loops through only top level layers. I am thinking I have to somehow incorperate all pathItems, groupItems and the like to incorperate all types of "layers" there might be, since a group is technically not a layer but a groupItem.
this is what I am doing so far:
for (var i = 0; i < numberOfLayers; i++) {
var customName = "div structure";
var myLayer = app.activeDocument.layers[i];
[Code]....
I'm trying to find a way to loop thru all items in an Illustrator document and get their stroke and fill color. Sometimes items are spots, sometimes documents are set to RGB or CMYK, etc, so swatches can be a mixture of things. Is there an easy way to get the swatch name for each item?
For example, I can check if an item is a spot, and get it's color like so:
var c = app.activeDocument.pageItems[0];
if (c.strokeColor.typename === 'SpotColor') {
var s = c.strokeColor.spot.name;
}
But if I try to get the name from an item colored 'Black' (which is set to Process Color, CMYK), then I'll need to do something else like:
var c = app.activeDocument.pageItems[0];
if (c.strokeColor.typename === 'CMYKColor') {
var s = c.strokeColor.name; // This returns undefined - not sure what I'm doing!!!
}
Is there an easier way to achieve this, other than getting the typename of each item, and then trying to figure out it's color name? I was hoping something like this would work:
var c = app.activeDocument.pageItems[0].strokeColor.name;
I am trying to loop/iterate through all layers, determine if it's a "text-layer", if it is, set it's opacity to 0.This is what I have so far:
var iapp = new Illustrator.Application();
var openoptions = new Illustrator.OpenOptions();
var idoc = iapp.Open("c:\myFile.pdf", Illustrator.AiDocumentColorSpace.aiDocumentRGBColor, openoptions);
Illustrator.Layer mainlayer = idoc.Layers["Layer 1"];
[code]....
I'm trying to figure out if Javascript is my answer to my problem. I've been able to re-write all my Applescripts that manipulate Illustrator except for the ones the need to use the file system. We have switched to PC's at work and now I'm forced to figure this out. Our art files are saved with a 7-digit number, followed by the name of the art in the file. Ex: 1000049-Bob's Garage. My applescript had a recursive loop that worked it's way down through the file structure on our art server until it found the lowest folder to which it belonged, then saved itself there. Here's an example of how the server file structure (these are folder names) is layed out:
1000000-1004999
1005000-1005999
1010000-1014999
and so on.
The script would load all the foldernames in the first tier of the directory, loop through them and look at the first and last name of each these folder names, then compare the Illustrator filename to them. If my file was between the two, then the loop called itself, loaded the folders inside that folder, and by doing so, worked it's way down through the folders, through the tree structure until there where no more folders. At that point, the file was saved, in order, where it should be.
In Illustrator I have a path, I choose the add anchor point tool and am positive I have the cross hair exactly on the path but it keeps telling me I can't add the anchor point.
View 1 Replies View RelatedI want to get the coordinates of anchor points in every path layer. Can illustrator itself offer me a list of corrdinates X/Y?
View 14 Replies View RelatedI've noticed that in Illustrator CC (17.1) the pen cursor doesn't automatically let you add or delete an anchor point anymore, when in Pen tool mode (P). It used to be an automatic feature in CS5, where a + or - sign would show up whenever I hovered over a selected path with the tool.
View 5 Replies View RelatedI draw with the pen tool a rectangle... When I click with the direct selection tool on the left side anchors, none of them have the corner widget... The right side anchors / both have corner widgets appearing.
I have tried clicking the left-side anchors and converting them to 'corners' both nothing happens..
[Illustrator CS5]
I need to copy and paste path segments in order to create uniform serifs for letters. (For example, specific path curves).
So imagine I have a horizontal segment and a curve segment. I mouseover each one seperately and I can see they have anchor points where I want them to merge afterwards. I drag one towards the other to make them intersect. Then I try to select both anchor points and press CTRL + SHIFT + ALT + J, but it displays this error: "To join, you must select two open endpoints. (...)" Which makes me think I'm not really selecting both anchor points when they're overlapped.
I have the idea that they can't overlap, because my path segment won't detect the anchor point in the other path. They're just visually intersected but not connected.
If I try to join them when they aren't overlapped, they will join but distort the original shape of the path segments. I select them both with the Direct Selection tool, pressing Shift to add the second anchor point to the selection, which won't work when they're overlapped because Shift + Clicking will deselect the anchor that seems on top.
I also tried various shape modes in pathfinder and nothing works.
How can I properly overlap and join / merge them?
(I'm using a white fill so I can see the shape forming as I add more anchor points so I'm sure they aren't joined).
I want to move two opposite anchor points in opposite directions so that they are equally spaced. So if I have one anchor point I want to move right and the other left how can i make sure that they have equal spacing apart without having to resort to rulers. Is it possible to select both points and get them to move in opposite direction together?
View 4 Replies View RelatedThe direct selection and lasso tools keep selecting entire paths. I thought these tools were for selecting individual or small groups of anchor points so that they can be edited. I am using Illustrator CS6, and I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong or if my program is being buggy.
View 2 Replies View RelatedI wonder if there's an easy way to have the result just as if I used scissors tool on every anchor of a path. Clicking on every anchor is a tiresome labor.
View 4 Replies View RelatedIn PS you can drag the center anchor point of an object anywhere within the object or canvas, allowing you to rotate around that custom location versus the dead-center of the object.
View 4 Replies View RelatedIs there a way to somehow define a shortkey to the process of removing our last anchor point's unused handle?
I am talking about this:
To be able to make a sharp corner I have to manually click on the anchor point so the handle which is still unused gets deleted. The anchor points are particulary small and the don't scale when zooming so sometimes it's just hard to click them and therefore I would love if I could automatically remove the handle with a key/key combination.
I have made a curved path in Illustrator CS6, just a simple stroke (left in picture). Is there an easy way to round the corner of the end of it? Something like the image on the right? (I just tossed a circle over top to give an idea)
View 3 Replies View RelatedI have a shape I made with the pen tool, and now I want to align one anchor point of the shape with the middle of a rectangle. How can I do this? It doesn't seem like I can do what I do for objects, which is select both objects, click the object I want to align to, and hit align. If I'm not describing this properly let me know and I can try to clarify.
View 7 Replies View RelatedHow do I measure a path between two given anchor points?
View 5 Replies View RelatedIn the above image, I have four symmetrical corners of an ellipse which I'm trying to join together into one ellipse that is perfectly symmetrical. I am trying to line up the anchors perfectly (one corner at time) and then do a join, yet the result is always slightly off. I've been selecting the two points I want to join and using Path -> Average, then Path -> Join to do this, yet as mentioned it's not coming out precise.
View 10 Replies View RelatedI 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?
View 12 Replies View RelatedI have Illustrator CS6 for mac ox mountain lion. I was working with a vector image and everything was working fine. Now when i try to move any anchor point, it acts as if its not calabrated, for lack of better terms. If i try to move it one way it snaps twoards another, or if i try to adjust the hadles, they do the same. it doesn't follow my direction like it did befor. Its now impostible to use!
View 2 Replies View RelatedWhen using the pen tool in illustrator I see the handles as I create the object, but when I go to modify it sometimes some of my anchor points don't have handles to manipulate them. I went to show edges, bounding box, and clicked the little handles box but it still doesn't bring handles to certain points I want to curve or straighten.
View 3 Replies View RelatedI am working on a scanned black and white image that I image traced in Illustrator. I am now in the process of seperating certain parts of the image from each other for changing colors. I know how to do this, but my way is by using direct select and going in and picking out points and joining them which is going to take ages. Is there any way to say select a range of anchor points on a path (not the whole path, but not individual points either) like shift clicking a range of files in windows explorer? Are there any other ways I can go about this in a more time efficient manner? I am using the Creative Cloud.
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