Compound path with multiple shapes question

Sorry, I have read the answers on this board but its just not working for me.
If you can imagine a film reel. I have a large circle with 5 circles within. I simply cannot get it to do what I want, which is the five circles within to 'punch through' the base circle.
I have the base circle at the back, and selected all to creat compound path, this just causes the fronter most circle to punch through, turning the other four circles the same colour as the back ground circles.
Have played with the path finders etc and not getting to a resolution. I gave up and purchased the vector on vectorstock, this one works perfectly and as far as I can work out mine is give or take identical, so why is the compound path not taking?
Illustrator CC latest and macbook retina with 10.10

just to be clear, you start off with this (orange circle behind, all objects separate):
and then you select all, hit ctrl+8 or Make Compound path or whatever, and you end up with something other than this?

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I have the following code that is supposed to be used to create "dog" objects for use in other graphics applets. However, there seems to be a problem with my setLocation method. My code is this:
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.geom.*;
import java.applet.*;
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E:\Java\Applets\Dog>javac dog.java
dog.java:32: cannot resolve symbol
symbol : method getWidth ()
location: interface java.awt.Shape
double bodyWidth = body.getWidth();
^
dog.java:33: cannot resolve symbol
symbol : method getHeight ()
location: interface java.awt.Shape
double bodyHeight = body.getHeight();
^
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symbol : method setFrame (double,double,double,double)
location: interface java.awt.Shape
body.setFrame(x,y,bodyWidth,bodyHeight);
^
3 errors
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Tom

it acts as thougth those methods don't exist, Well, there is no getWidth() or getHeight() method for a Shape. These methods do exist for a Rectangle2D which you can create by using the getBounds method of Shape. For example:
Rectangle2D rect=body.getBounds();
double bodyWidth=rect.getWidth();
double bodyHeight=rect.getHeight();;o)
V.V.

FaceTime with Multiple devices question...

If I have FaceTime on my Mac Book Pro, iPhone and iPad and someone makes a FaceTime call to me, can I take the call on any of those devices? If they are all in front of me can I choose what device I want to take the call on?

Ge0ph wrote:
If I have FaceTime on my Mac Book Pro, iPhone and iPad and someone makes a FaceTime call to me, can I take the call on any of those devices?
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If they are all in front of me can I choose what device I want to take the call on?
Yes.
EZ Jim
Message was edited by: EZ Jim
Mac Pro Quad Core (Early 2009) 2.93Ghz Mac OS X (10.6.6); MacBook Pro (13 inch, Mid 2009) 2.26GHz (10.6.6)
LED Cinema Display; G4 PowerBook 1.67GHz (10.4.11); iBookSE 366MHz (10.3.9); External iSight; iPod4touch4.2.1

How to create multiple gradients in a compound path?

Hi, I am trying to color a compound path with multiple colors? Kinda similar to the effect here
I tried using the blend tool and replace the spline but it does not give the desired effect.
Any tips as to how to approach this?
I have made the G by creating a compound path.
Thank you!

namk,
You may:
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If you wish to get the stroke back on top, you may:
4) Click the compund path with the Direct Selection Tool and reapply its stroke with the original weight.

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Hi - I am working with an illustrator file from another designer which has a compound path with linked files - when you link a new file the image is automatically resized and clipped to the path. I am able to edit it but i want to make my own from scratch and can't figure it out. I'm working with Illustrator CS6. Any help greatly appreciated. Thanks

Hi Steve - thanks for the reply - my question was a bit vague as I wasn't entirely sure what I was working with but I think your point about the new linked image scaling to the same size as the existing file has helped me understand it a bit more. What I want to know how to do is to make an entirely new file with a clipping mask that I then link an image to. I made a file with a clipping mask on the page and then chose file>place but the image I import is not being clipped (I ticked the link option when importing it) I see it working with the existing file I'm working with but I need to know how to make a new one myself.
If this makes it clearer here's what I want to do ...
I am making a banner, I have 3 flat jpegs of t-shirts that I want to place on the banner without their white background. I made a clipping mask the same shape as the outline of the t-shirt and now I want to import the jpeg so it is a linked file and is clipped by the clipping mask and so I can use it in future to import different t-shirt image in without scaling and clipping them each time.
REally appreciate your help, thanks.

CS4 Select all compound paths?

Hi all,
There was a fab plug in set by Rick Johnson/Graffix called Select Menu. It is not yet updated for CS4.
The only function from the set I truly need is the ability to select all compound paths. Just wondering if it is possible to do this with a script? I recently found a javascript to close all open paths, so that got me thinking there may be a way to select the compound paths with a script as well...
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Thanks for any swift kicks in the right direction!!

Hi,Thanks!!
This does work but on a complex document it is very slow as it seems to be redrawing all the compound paths? It worked fine on a simple file but when I tried it on the kind of complex file I would actually use it on it has Illustrator hung up with a spinning beach ball....
The Graphix plug in to select all compound paths worked instantaneously. Is there a different way to write this that would not be as processor intensive?
Ah, the beachball just stopped spinning and all the correct paths are indeed selected...

How to cut a hole that is part of a compound path

I have spent many hours using all the tools available in Illustrator CS4 to reshape the hole that is part of a compound path with no success.
The compound path consists of a square with a round hole, I want to for example, cut the round hole in half. Erase, Knife, Pathfinder do not work. I can do it if first release the compound path, cut the round hole, then make compound path again. While this method is easy for this example but not good for very complex drawing, because it would be too time consuming to convert back and forth the compound paths and remembering which holes belong to which compound path. Please help. I am to the point where I am willing to spend money to get a good cutting tool plugin, any reccomendation?

Sure....
Place or Open raster image.
Live trace (whatever settings you like) I'm assuming it's a 1 color trace (line art) and not a photo or color image
Click the "Expand" button in the Control bar
Everything should be selected/highlighted
Click the Merge button on the Pathfinder Panel (3rd from left, bottom row)
*optional -- Choose Object > Ungroup from the menu (Using Pathfinder command creates Groups for some reason. These groups aren't always needed.)
Deselect all (Command-Shift-A or Ctrl-Shift-A or just click somewhere empty to deselect the artwork)
Select the Direct Selection Tool (the white arrow)
Click the center of a "hole" or counter. This will select one of the superfluous white shapes.
Choose Select > Same > Fill & Stroke from the menu. All the extra shapes should highlight.
Hit delete.
You should be left with just black compound paths with no superfluous shapes anywhere. In fact, after this if you Select All, the color panel shoudl show a simple black fill and no stroke. Of course, this somewhat depends upon your Live trace settings.
What this does is merge all black and white shapes into the simplest form and at the same time it cuts through bottom objects with top objects. So if you have a white shape sitting on top of a black shape, it cuts that white shape out of the black. This ensures all the black has the correct compound shape assignments. Sometimes with Live Trace you can get white fill areas and not get the corresponding compound hole below it. Or the compound hole will not be exactly the same shape as the white object sitting on top of it. Using Merge corrects that. Then deleting the white shapes just removes all the unnecessary objects. If you want a color for the compound holes, just draw a rectangle or shape below the black and fill it with any color. All you need to is alter the counters or compound holes now to correct anything. No more double paths.
All these steps are not always necessary. But it's sometimes good practice depending upon what you are tracing. Once you do it once or twice you'll see it's only about a 1-2 minute processes and most of that will be waiting for the Merge command to complete.

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Hi guys,
I have a vector Speech Bubble and i would like to transform it in a solid shape. How to do that? I tried "Oultine Stroke" but is when i try to put a Fill it as a background it does not work. The idea is to crop a flag besides the Speech Bubble. It supposed to be easier but somehow i am stuck.
Here is the Illustrator file with the flag image.
http://s000.tinyupload.com/?file_id=58867619721593592195
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Best,
S

Never mind...i found a way to do it...just fill the the path with a shape make them both a group or unify in one piece and expand and voila!

Making a clipping group with a compound path

So, as of today I'm new to scripting for Illustrator, I'm using the ExtendScript Toolkit. However I'm not new to scripting my own solutions and I do have some experience with JavaScript already.
What I'm trying to do is this: For all selected Items->Duplicate selected item and make a simple clipping group with it
What I end up with visually doesn't change the picture, but gives me a lot of clipped colored areas which I then can edit in the isolated mode, allowing me far faster and better shading. Doing that by hand takes hours on some pictures, it'd take a second with a script.
The script itself already perfectly works for normal PathItems. As obvious in the title, as soon as I have to apply the same to CompundPathItems things stop working. My issue is somewhat similar to this old thread [Problem with compound path clipping], but I couldn't find a solution there because I get different behavior.
When I run the very same script that perfectly works with the normal PathItems with CompoundPathItems I get this: Error 9046: The top item in the group must be a path item to create a mask
Well that's a problem. In the GUI there is absolutely no difference between making a clipping mask with a simple path and a compound path. The reference guide has frankly not helped me with this issue at all, the only thing I learned from that is that the CompoundPathItem object doesn't have a clipping attribute, but those included PathItems do.
Here's what I have so far:
if ( selected[i].typename == "PathItem" ) {
var newGroup = doc.groupItems.add();
copy = selected[i].duplicate(newGroup,ElementPlacement.PLACEATEND);
selected[i].moveToBeginning(newGroup);
newGroup.clipped = true;
As I said, this part perfectly does what it's supposed to do for normal Paths.
For CompoundPaths I use this workaround.
if ( selected[i].typename == "CompoundPathItem" ) {
var newGroup = doc.groupItems.add();
copy = selected[i].duplicate(newGroup,ElementPlacement.PLACEATEND);
selected[i].moveToBeginning(newGroup);
compoundItems = selected[i].pathItems;
compoundIndex = compoundItems.length;
for ( f = 0; f < compoundIndex; f++ ) {compoundItems[f].clipping=true;}
var lineList = new Array(10);
for ( l = 0; l < lineList.length; l++ ) {lineList[l] = new Array( i * 10 + 50, ((i - 5) ^ 2) * 5 +50);}
newPath = app.activeDocument.pathItems.add();
newPath.setEntirePath(lineList);
newPath.moveToBeginning(newGroup);
newGroup.clipped = true;
newPath.remove();
Mind you, this workaround does work in so far that it bypasses that annoying and wrong error, and the Compound Clipping Path also works, with the only problem being that the Compound Clipping Path created like this is still displayed in its original colors in the Layers section, and is still selectable. When I lock the Compound Clipping Path I can work with it but still...
So the question is, what am I missing here? Surely there must be a proper way to do this.

app.executeMenuCommand()? That one eluded me so far, might be just the right thing. I'll definitely take a look, now just to find a ref on that, as unfortunately the official ref documents I have don't mention that command. Any place with a list of possible commands?
Ah, also of course I'm not only doing it for the isolation mode. If you care to hear the background, here is it:
As I said it's for shading the pictures I'm working on. I've iterated and tried through a bunch of techniques. For example gradient meshes on my first few real works. Now those meshes don't do well with complex shapes, which previously I alleviated by using a simple square or rectangle gradient mesh and using the original colored shape as a clipping mask. That did work, but it was a huge lot of work.
After a bunch of attempts at that I went over to using simple gradients as a background for the shape and then I'm doing the shading freehand with the blob brush tool, using a graphic style and filters to make it look right. That's better, but properly making all the clipping masks takes me much longer than anything else.
Now the problem is that the shading is not supposed to go over the lines, which is impossible to do properly without either messing up the order, or using clipping masks, hence the script. Because you know, if you use a blob brush with a strong Gaussian blur close to the lines you'll end up with stuff on both sides. If you don't start close to the line the shading won't look right if the darkest part of the shade needs to be close to the line. And that's where clipping masks do magic.
And finally here's an example how I work with the script and the result:
After I have traced a sketch, adjusted the line widths and everything to look neat I turn the paths to outline strokes and then make them into a live paint group (which would mess up the line widths, unless you turn the paths into outline strokes first).
With that live paint group it takes me just a few minutes to flat color my piece. Then I expand the live paint group, in case of doubt spend some more minutes to make compound paths from all areas I need to shade in one piece, then I select all the areas and use my script to turn them into neat clipping masks. Then I can click any area, enter the isolation mode and go up one level so I'm in the appropriate group, where I can shade freely without the problem of going over the lines.
At the end that allows me to apply a complex and in-depth shading, without wasting any time to get there.
PS: Well, I just found out that Draw Inside is pretty darn close to what I want to do, and oddly enough it produces the same visual discrepancy with compound paths that my script produces. I'll be taking a closer look at that, though my script does a little more than just the clipping mask stuff, so maybe I'll go for a hybrid solution. Whatever makes for a better workflow.

Compound Path to Shape

I have a questions about creating a single shape from a compound path. I have a grid of lines I created using the pen tool, made the stroke 25pt, then went Object-Path- Outline Stroke to make them into shapes. From there I used the pathfinder-Unite to create a compound shape. What I'm trying to do is get all the area within the 25pt stroke outline as a single shape with nothing in between the grid lines I made. Is there a way to accomplish this?

So the layer panel shows this as a "compound shape" (not "compound path") and there are still crossing lines in outline view?
In the pathfinder panel you need to hit "Expand", which will then turn it into a compound path.
You don't need a compound shape to get a hole. A compound path can also create holes.

Adding multiple paths into a compound path

If I use the gui to add multiple paths into a compound path all I have to do is select multiple paths and choose Object->Compound Path->Make (or ctrl-8). When I do this then the bottom path which is filled has holes 'punched through' creating a window in the shape of the smaller paths which were on top of the larger one. For example, a large rectangle with a white fill color is the bottom item and two smaller paths are on top. I create a compound path and whatever is below the new compound path shows through in the largest shape of the previous two smaller paths.
If I use JavaScript and create a new compoundPathItem and move 3 paths into it, with the largest being first, then I get a compound path but only the first of the smaller objects creates a transparent space.
Here is a simplified example:
    var grpMask = doc.groupItems['mask group'];
    var compound = grpMask.compoundPathItems.add();
    var pathobj = grpMask.pathItems['bigbox'];
    pathobj.move(compound,ElementPlacement.INSIDE);
    pathobj = grpMask.pathItems['PathLeft'];
    pathobj.move(compound,ElementPlacement.INSIDE);
    pathobj = grpMask.pathItems['PathRight'];
    pathobj.move(compound,ElementPlacement.INSIDE);
In the above example the 'bigbox' path has the left and right paths on top of it but only the left path creates a transparent space in the original box.
I also tried using PLACEATEND instead of INSIDE and grouping the two smaller paths together and moving the group to the compound path.
Merging path items together won't work - I want to keep the original path's closed and intact without drawing a line between them so I can't just add their pathpoints together.
Is move() the best way to add existing paths to a new compound path?
Thanks!

Im at work at the moment so only have access to CS2 where the second script works… The first script worked at home with CS5…
here were my test files… Before
and After…
As you can see with this I did not change the polarity of the last path as in this test case I knew it was the largest of the shapes not sure if that had any bearing on my results…?

Compound Shapes vs. Compound Paths

Hello all,
I have to give a presentation on paths and the pathfinder, and one of the topics I wish to cover are compound paths/compound shapes. I myself do not really know the fundamental difference. I have been searching all over the Internet for a basic difference between these two, but I can't seem to find any solid answer.
Can anyone clarify this a little better for me?
How would these even be useful while working in Illustrator?
I am running Illustrator CS4 on a Mac.
Thanks in advance.

You are confusing yourself with the feature labels.
Don't think of Compuond Shapes as being parallel to Compound Paths. Think of them simply as the four basic area combination routines (union, subtract, intesect, difference) applied as a live effect instead of as "nailed down" destructive change.
Most commonly, combining 2 or more paths into a Compound Path is to create a closed path that has a "hole" in it (exclude). That's just one of the four kinds of combinations that can be created as Compound Shapes, and which may or may not result in a Compund Path (if expanded).
JET

Compound path text & shape mode problem

Hi there,
I'm working with some text that I've outlined and converted to a compound path. Then I'm applying a subtractive shape mode onto, but I'm noticing that it's actually changing the weight of the type. Can someone tell me why this is happening & perhaps suggest how I can retain the weight after applying the subtraction please? Thanks!

I could possibly use a opacity mask, you're right, but I'd still like to know what the reasoning is behind the change in weight is when I outline text -> convert to a compound path -> subtraction shape mode. Strange thing is, is that it's happened to one set of letters & not another set of the same font done in I think the same way
Thanks rcraiqhead however for the suggestion.

How to deal with multiple disk path's

hi
i'm setting up a new server with virtual servers with extra io domain's
now i have a question on how to deal with multiple disk path's
so following questions:
- can i enable multipath on the primary and on the alternate domain?
i tried this but when rebooting the alternate the alternate keep's freezing and the only solution is to hard stop it and it's depending host
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Hello
1.-can i enable multipath on the primary and on the alternate domain? Yes. i understand for multipath mpxio or similar.
2.-i tried this but when rebooting the alternate the alternate keep's freezing and the only solution is to hard stop it and it's depending host
if you are going to use alternate domain you have to give this IO the all bus root nexus, what you describe sounds like DIO,
3.- - if i can't enable multipathing how to handle this for example a disk has on the primary domain 4 path's to a disk
If you have 4 path to the same disk in the primary and you are using multipath let's say mpxio, then you will have only one disk in the primary, which is a virtual device that handle the 4 paths. That's is what you have to use in a vds.
Please check this doc to see the best practice to ldom
white-paper-ldom
regards
eze

Compound path with multiple shapes question

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