Illustrator :: Brush Keep Resetting To Calligraphic When Trying To Use Variable Width Profile?
Oct 7, 2012
I'm working on a reflective drawing and using gradients on strokes. I've been using pressure sensitive calligraphic brushes I made. Now I'm trying to use variable width preset profile brushes. It works fine for the first stroke, but every time I make a new stroke, it reverts back to a calligraphic pressure brush. How can I keep my brushes the same profile until I manually select it to be different? I've gone back and forth between the brush tool and pencil tool and neither will keep any basic variable width profile past the first stroke. I have to select every brush stroke and change it again and again after drawing it.
I’m using Adobe Illustrator CS6 with a mouse rather than a pressure graphics tablet.
When I create a stroke using the Paint brush tool I would like the stroke to contain a variable width profile. For example narrower at the beginning and end of the stroke but thicker in the middle. Now I can do this by selecting the line after I have made the stroke and choosing the Basic Brush Definition from the drop down list. But if i try to draw a new line the settings are reset again. I cannot create a variable stroke while creating the stroke. The brush definition keeps resetting to 5 pt Round and stroke width 1 pt. It would be much quicker if the stroke remained as a varying width profile as I created the strokes.
I noticed the same problem with the blob brush tool except it's even worse. With the blob brush tool the stroke weight always resets regardless of whether or not I try to set a Variable width profile.
I tried deselecting "New Art has Basic Appearance" mentioned on another forum but that didn't work.
[URL]
Notice the variable width profile is maintained as the artists draws. It doesn’t keep resetting.
I have a pre-existing graphic uses a stroke with variable with profile (I think) or a special brush to make it look like it's hand drawn. I'd like to apply the same effect to a few new illustrations to keep the style consistent. For whatever reason when I ungroup the graphic and select one of the paths, the stroke weight and variable width profile remain disabled (see pasted toolbar graphic below). The brush still says "Basic" despite the fact that visually it is certainly not the basic brush.
Selected Path
Toolbar (I realize that it says Group instead of Path, but even if I ungroup again and select the path the same options are disabled).
This was not an issue in CS5, and I can't figure out how to change it in CS6. I like to Illustrate with the Pencil Tool. I set the stroke to width profile 1 (tapered on both ends) and the stoke to whatever makes sense for my current project, and it keeps changing back to Uniform and 1pt. I have tried to get my settings to "stick" with the Pencil Tool and Brush Tool, and have had no luck. The only way I can change the stroke profile is to do it AFTER the stoke is made.
I want it to be a variable stroke, so I loaded up “Width Profile 2” in the profiles. The trouble I am having, is that Illustrator defaults to start the larger dots in the bottom right hand corner, and I would like the “starting point” to be in the middle of the line if you know what I mean. I'm still happy for the dots to start big, then gradually decrease in size, but I want to control where the “beginning” is.
I am using Ai Cs6. I am trying to make a new calligraphic brush. The graphic I wish to create the brush for is highlighted on my screen, and I clicked on the New Brush icon in the Brush Menu. After changing the angle, roundness and size, the only options are "fixed and random". All other options are greyed out. How do I access the "tilt" feature for example?
Reducing the Roundness of a calligraphic brush to 0% seems to create 'flat' ends to a stroke, but, on closer inspection, the ends are not perfectly flat/straight.
The line seems to start and end with a slight 'S' curve; it's less visible when the stroke has a different bearing, but I need it to be gone - is this possible? I'm trying to create a calligraphic brush with perfectly flat ends.
I am using CS5.5, and I was watching a video of someone using CS6 inking a sketch with a calligraphic brush that has black stroke and white fill. I am trying to do the same thing, but every time I select the fill color and start using the brush it goes back to "none" as the fill option. Is this a CS6 exclusive feature?
Okay so I've browsed these forums and everybody keeps saying to turn off Align new Objects to pixel grid well I've done that and it still keeps resetting. I've been using a Print document since I am trying to draw illustrations for a children's book but somehow when I choose anything below 1 pt it keeps going back to 1 pt no matter what.
Opened up transform panel too but it's not checked and grayed out so I can not turn on / off again. I am using Adobe Illustrator CS5.
i click on the brush and change its color and or size then, when I go to paint it goes back to previous settings. (after that I can change its setting and it will work, but I always have to make a mark with the settings I don't want before I can change it to desired settings)
I use Illustrator CS5 and can not blend variable width strokes in Illustrator. I can not do that even with the same width profiles unless they are expanded. I could not find any questions similar on the net regarding this, but wanted to double check before I just made the necessary changes. I'm a bit confused because Adobe 'help' shows how powerful the blends of objects are, but we can't do them as strokes?
I want to keep the blend as strokes not expand them. What is the best way to view how the blend will look with variable widths without expanding and then 'undoing' a bunch of times.
but is there a hot key for expanding the blend without going into object-blend-expand?
Ive been messing around with the variable width tool, Im not sure I i changed something, I did try to restore defaults but when I make a change it changes the opposite side of the image. For example In screen shot I changed the width on the left and the effect showed up on the right.
I would like the width to change where I change it.
In Illustrator CS6 and CC, when the stroke width tool is used on a curve, the curve is actually made up of a series of straight lines instead of smooth vector curves:
whereas in CS5 it looks perfect.These images may be too small to see the details, but the difference is there. Is there a workaround for this? Or is it recognized as a bug?
I can't believe Illustrator doesn't do this automatically. If you create a stroke profile on one side of the stroke by holding Alt/ Option while dragging with the Width Tool and then mirror the object, the stroke profile doesn't mirror accordingly. You have to go to the Stroke panel and click one of the flipping buttons for each stroke of the mirrored artwork. This makes mirroring complex artwork very time consuming. Mirroring with transform effect doesn't have this problem but this makes the usage and editing of the mirrored object difficult.
I'm just posting this before making a feature request in case I'm missing something. And to check if this problem has been already raised and the feature request made.
i have made a custom stroke width profile and want to back it up for future use i found two files called variablewidth or something but the date modified wasn't congruent to when i created the profile.
where can i find the files that contain this preset to back up?
When creating strokes with the calligraphic brush (using an Intuos5), I noticed that the eraser tool breaks the stroke thickness when apllied to the calligraphic stroke. The entire stroke defaults to an undesired,uniform thickness.
See video here: [URL] ...
So why does this happen? Is there some way to prevent the eraser from destroying the stroke thickness?
Is it possible to create a wall in AutoCAD Architecture that will change in size along its length. At one end of the concrete wall the wall thickness is 12", at the other end the wall thickness is 24" thick. The wall will grow in size from one length to the other.
how to make the line smaller in the start, and wider at the end. With a brush, I can only figure out how to draw with the same thickness all the time..
I have an area that needs batt insulation show in it that starts at 6" wide and go to 12" wide. Is there a lisp or hatch that auto scales batt insulation in the same manor a poly can do so?
I have several brush styles that I routinely distort with custom stroke profiles. Unfortunetly, every time I change the brush style, the profile is lost. Can I prevent this from happening?
I am trying to create a custom message box with variable width and height by passing width height title and list of text. I can get the routine to work if I use preset width and height, but would like to make the box adjustable.
Trying to use the width tool, I ran into the following problem. I would like to have a smooth transition of the stroke width between two width points while keeping the original stroke width unchanged outside of that line segment.
There are four width points here: two end points and two in between. The original stroke width is 200. The two on the left have one side set to 100 while the two on the right have one side set to 50. I would like to eliminate the distortion of the line width occuring in the first and third line segments. The only solution that I have come up with so far is to place two additional width points very close to the two middle width points: one with a 100-unit side to the left of the second point in the picture and one with a 50-unit side to the right of the third point in the picture. Yet there will be a small distirtion in between.