Draw inside disabled, and clipping mask workaround loses information

I want to use my compound paths, with styles, fills and strokes applied to "draw inside", but that command is greyed out when I select them.
However, if I "cheat" and instead use the compound paths as clipping masks first, I accomplish something which looks exactly the same way in the layer palette as when I do manage to "draw inside" an object.
The trouble is that all my styles, fills and strokes get killed using that workaround, and I have to reapply them.
Am I missing a step somewhere, or doing this in the wrong order?
Any advice will be appreciated.
Also, any word on why "draw inside" is disabled for compound paths?
PS. Another problem using my poor workaround is that when the compound path becomes invisible, I can't find a way to drag appearances to it or apply swatches, even when I select it in the layer palette. I have to redo all styles, gradients, etc. manually, which is not efficient, nor desirable, at all.

Monika Gause wrote:
eobet wrote:
So, if I understand this correctly, two people replying here can draw inside compound paths, and two people can't. Is this a design premium feature, or why does there seem to be a difference?
Has nothing to do with Design Premium.
Maybe you'd like to show us your art. There might be other ways to achieve what you need to do.
Well my problem is that I can't do either of these:
Now, the stroke aligned to the outside, I apparently can never get around unless I choose to outline the path on that stroke, which means I loose flexibility (or add steps to my workflow).
And drawing on the inside... I guess I could make a clipping mask manually, but then I loose that really nice gradient I spent a lot of time to position just right... (either way, more steps in my workflow).
Actually, the whole point of my question is completely lost if I have to outline any path, because the reason I want to work with compound shapes and clipping masks at all, is that I want to easily be able to move one of the sub-shapes which creates the final outline, without having to redo neither the gradient fill or stroke.
And yeah, thinking again, my workflow is completely wrecked either way, since compound paths don't allow aligned strokes.

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Line segment and Clipping Mask help

Hi,
I have created a complex shape using just line segments. I want to be able to create a clipping mask using a .jpg photo as the texture inside the shape I have created. I have tried Grouping the path, and also making it a Compound Path, but the most that happens is the line segments themselves get filled in, NOT the inside of the shape I would like filled.
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In CS5 you can select all you lines and then hit Command J and all but last two points will join you then select those two points and do Command J once again but if you wish to have your original art intact then just make a copy lock it and make not visib le until you need it.
Now make your clippping mask

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Ben

Ben,
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Calling all compound path and clipping mask experts...

I am attempting to get all the white areas in the attached "globe" artwork to knockout to the background color. I have tried making the entire thing a compound path, tried clipping mask and different combinations in pathfinder with no success. The image on the right is what happens when I make it a compound path. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

The simplest way, I think, would be to set the white line work as an opacity mask on top of the tan circle. That is not a clipping mask, but does the same thing and it's much easier.
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I have a curvy vector image that I want text to appear in, then create a clipping mask. When I try this I get a message saying that the text object is extremely complex and might not print. The file is impossible to move around and sometimes crashes my machine.
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http://www.aaronpenton.net/mask.html
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Inaccurate description. You are using the text as a clipping mask for the image. That's a lot of text, which means a very complex compound path with tens of thousands of points. No wonder this is slowing things down.
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I have a 2 color carton that I am trying to layout in Illustrator CS3. It has spot Black, a dieline, and a solid 109 yellow. I need to make the yellow bleed over the outline of the die by 1/8". I tried scaling the die larging and creating a clipping mask but I don't understand the process, and therefore have come up unsuccessful. Any help

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You should now have the shape of your carton filled yellow with a 1/8 inch yellow bleed with the original dieline showing the knives and scores on top of that.

Disabling "auto" clipping masks in layers

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I seem to have set this as the default. How can I set it back to it's normal default of not using the previous layer as a clipping mask (as it used to be and as my work version does as standard)
Thanks

»Clip to Layer« in the Adjustments Panel’s fly-out-menu?
And please read
http://forums.adobe.com/thread/375816?tstart=0

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I have photoshop 6.0. I was wondering how i could enable the clipping mask. This is the first time i've used an old photoshop. @Thank you in advance

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I made a drawing of a stone floor excavation and I used 'draw inside' to delimit the excavation borders as below:
and this is what it looks like with edit contents selected:
Sadly, I also wanted to carry on drawing in 'Live paint' mode to 'colour in' sections (the above is just a small section of a much larger drawing), but because 'draw inside' creates a clipping mask, this object is now incompatible with the 'Live paint' paradigm! So I thought I would 'expand appearance' to continue and this is what I get:
What's that about? Whatever it is, it's not very useful!
My question is, is there a way for me to successfully translate a 'draw inside' object to a 'Live paint group'? The above objects are just simple shapes with a single fill & stroke.
Thanks

Ahh, you're a gem Monika, thank you very much! I only had to modify your answer a little to achieve my desired result, and that was to (after releasing clipping mask) copy and paste in front (because I still needed a version of the boundary as part of the Live paint group).
Thanks again
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Clipping mask is clipping my lines and not the actual object.

Hi all,I'm using the latest CC Illustrator.
I'm so frustrated and hope someone can help me, I've already spent a few hours trying to figure this out and looked through a number of tutorials and troubleshoot forums and I cant find an answer.
How do I stop the clipping mask from clipping inside the line itself, instead of my within the object. I'm still a newbie and I know I've done something wrong somewhere. I just cant figure out what.
Here are a couple of screenshots of my problem.
The end result looks pretty cool, but since this is for an assignment, I need it to work properly.
Help!

You are welcome. No you don't need to undo, you are on the right track, you expanded the lines in order to clip mask with a lighter image, now you need to use PathFinder to fill the holes (the turtle's shells) and clipmask them with a darker image like two turtle I created a few years ago. To use pathfinder, place a large rectangle behind the turtle expanded lines (compound path), select the expanded artwork and the rectangle and click PathFinder Divide button, at this point you will have the holes filled with paths and grouped with the original paths, so ungroup them. Then you select the newly generated paths and clip mask with a different and darker image. This attach image was done with PathFinder, pen tool and live paint. The images I used are real wood species, that I scanned into .jpg files.

Selecting objects AFTER they have a clipping mask applied.

Hi There,
What really disturbs me about Illustrator is that after I apply a clipping mask to a set of objects, the program assumes that I would want to actually select that object if the cursor hovers above that masked object if it is outside the boundary of the clipping mask. It's like selecting the "invisible". Is there an option that will allow me to turn that function off?
The logic should be something like:
if object has a clipping mask and
cursor hovers above clipped object OUTSIDE of the clipping mask boundary
then
do not highlight or allow user to select the clipped object
Likewise, this logic should be implemented in the interface:
if object has a clipping mask and
cursor hovers above clipped object INSIDE of the clipping mask boundary
then
highlight the clipped object and allow them to select it.
Anybody know any work arounds? Did they address this in CS4? It's really annoying to have to lock and unlock objects all the time.
Thanks,
Laz

It's not a problem. In PostScript thinking it's
quite normal that a couple of graphic objects
defines one or more paths, and that a clipping path
is applied to the whole underlying path system.
If those paths or path fragments which are outside
the clipping path could not be selected, then it
would be rather difficult to handle paths which are
simultaneously inside and outside the clipping area.
Therefore it's necessary to have access to the whole
underlying graphic - not only to the path fragments
which are entirely inside the clipping area.
Best regards --Gernot Hoffmann

Eyedropper Bug? (Objects in Clipping Masks Report Different CMYK values0

1. Draw a box and fill it with c20 m40 y60.
2. Measure with the eyedropper. Result: c20 m40 y60
3. Draw another box and clip the first into it.
4. Measure with the eyedropper. Result: c16.47 m38.1 y58.41 k4.22
5. Release clipping mask.
5. Measure with the eyedropper. Result: c20 m40 y60
Additionally, if you output the file to PDF or through the RIP the results are c20 m40 y60, which indicates this is an eyedropper bug.
Is there any legit reason why this might happen (I can't think of any) before I submit a bug report?

>Perhaps it happens because the document color space is RGB.
Exactly right, Gernot.
I was able to replicate the 'problem' by using RGB mode. Eyedropper readings within the masked object are 19.61 / 39.61 / 59.61 / 0.39.
Differences between my readings and the OP's might be caused by different color space settings.
Or, it might be a version-dependent thing.

Some help required with Clipping Masks

Hi,
I'm quite new to illustrator - I've made designs before but really just playing at it.
Now, though, I have a design which I had "grunged" up by applying a texture and knocking out the sections of the design with it in Photoshop. However, I want to learn how to do that in illustrator and thought that clipping mask was the answer.
I can get the clipping mask to work except it creates the opposite effect I am after...It masks the portions of the image I want to keep visible leaving those areas I want masked visible.
In effect I need to inverse the mask but I don't know how to do it in illustrator.
Hopefully, I've made it clear what I mean and I appriciate any advice.
Ta
Malc

You can use the Transparency panel to make an opacity bask as well and inverse that.
Or if you wish use the pathfinder panel to minus front. I think the second icon on top from the left.
Read the help files about opacity masks, pathfinder and clipping mask
and it might also work as a compound path Command 8 or Control 8.
Read about compound paths

Basic Draw Inside mode Questions

In CS5:
1.) I am drawing in Draw Inside mode. I Draw a rectangle, select it, and enter the Draw Inside mode, and I drew a star over it and since it was not inside the rectangle it disappears. When I move the Selection Tool over the shape, the outline of the star appears and disappears. How do you select the star and delete it?
2.) I have a shape drawn inside of another shape. The shape drawn inside the other shape was done while in Draw Inside Mode. How do I now select the shape drawn inside the other shape? The Direct Selection tool works, is there a way to do it with the Selection Tool?
Thanks.

The Layers Panel holds great clues
Both items can be selected via the Layers Panel. Or you can double-click with the Selection Tool to enter Isolation Mode.

Is it possible to add an inside/outside stroke to a clipping mask?

I'm pretty new to Illustrator so there's a chance this is a stupid question, but I'm pretty stumped on this. If I have a path with a stroke that is set to either inside or outside, it disappears if I draw something inside of it to convert it into a clipping mask. The stroke shows up again if I align it to center, but even this seems to have some quirks as it won't display multiple strokes. After searching the web for a bit this is the best description/example I've been able to find for this problem: http://blog.rockymountaintraining.com/?p=2186.
Does anyone know if there's a work around to get inside/outside strokes or multiple strokes to work correctly in this scenario? If not, is there a logical reason for this or is there a bug?
Thanks for your help!

Seems to be a long-term bug that I hadn’t noticed before.
You can of course rectify it by copying the masking path, deselecting and pasting to front.
Then you can give the path any stroke you like.

Draw inside disabled, and clipping mask workaround loses information

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