Draw inside movieclip/graphic with Actionscript

Hi.
How I can draw inside movieclip/graphic element with Actionscript?
If i have example movieclip-element in my project and want to draw a single dot in its coordinate (10,10), how I can do that?
ty m8s!

The easiest way to draw inside a movieClip is the graphics class.
You could do something like:
this.graphics.lineStyle(1, 0x000000);
this.graphics.moveTo(10, 10);
this.graphics.lineTo(11, 11);
This isn't perfect when drawing pixels, however - it only has methods for lines and shapes(circles, rectangles etc).
If its important for you to draw a single pixel and accuracy is more important you may want to consider converting your Movieclip to a BitmapData class, which has methods for setting Pixels. Realistically though, if you didn't know about the graphics class, then that'll probably be what you're after.

Similar Messages

Indexing instances of specific class inside MovieClip authored with Flash Pro

Hi there.
I'm writing a class that extends MovieClip and that is linked to the MovieClip Object authored via Flash Pro during development (Father object).
The hierarchy of this MovieClip Object is hidden from me - everything I know is that it may contain instances of other Class that was authored during development and extends MovieClip in the same manner (Son objects).
I have no information regarding names or hierarchical positions of these Son objects inside Father object.
Now the question is: how to get them listed?
So approach I've taken was to implement current events:
public class Son extends MovieClip
     public static const INITIALIZED : String = "son_initialized";
     public function Son ()
          this.dispatchEvent (new Event (INITIALIZED));
public class Father extends MovieClip
     public var son : Vector<Son>;
     public function Father ()
          son = new Vector<Son> ();
          this.addEventListener (Son.INITIALIZED, this.onSonInitialized);
     public function onSonInitialized (event : Event)
          this.son.push (event.target);
Well, this code compiles with no errors whatsoever, but it turns out that onSonInitialized gets never called. I assume that's because children constructors are called ahead of their parent one.
Is there any way to get them listed?
Thanks in advance.

kglad,
I'm trying to get an array of references to Son objects (Son extends MovieClip), randomly located deep inside display list hierarchy of Father object (extends MovieClip too).
The Father movieclip is authorized in Flash Professional and is a black box for me - I can only manipulate Father.as and Son.as.
Since I can't know exactly their pathes and names (i.e. father.child1.child5OfChild1.son32 for example), I decided to make them self-aware, dispatching event during construction time, messaging everybody that this instance of Son exists:
public function Son ()
     this.dispatchEvent (new Event (INITIALIZED));
And then I attached a listener inside Father's constructor:
public function Father ()
     this.addEventListener (Son.INITIALIZED, this.onSonInitialized);
The idea was that this event listener should have been catching all the Sons, located inside Father. But it doesn't work that way - Father's constructor seems to be called after all constructors of its children, so this event listener catches nothing.
I've worked this around by straightforward display list traversing - it works, but doesn't look so elegant. May be there is still a way to make it work through events?

Visio Drawing Using Data Graphics with data that has a field that contains Multiple Values.

I am working on creating a drawing for SMTP connectors. I decided I would use a Data Graphic connecting to a spreadsheet. In the spreadsheet there are a few fields that are Multi-Value fields. For instance SmartHosts contains multiple Ip
address. I am trying to get this to format things so that the IPs show on the next line down instead of continuing on the same line until it wraps.
Does anyone know a way I could do this?
Jeff C

Hi Jeff,
Arrange the IP values in spreadsheet using Alt+Enter (Use this key pair as a separator between two IP values). Now link this spread sheet to Visio. The values should appear in the same manner in data graphics as your expectation.
Let me know if you meant something else.
Thanks,
Dheeraj

Stop and Play All Child MovieClips in Flash with Actionscript 3.0

I am stuck with the ActionScript here. I have a very complex animated flash movie for eLearning. These contain around 10 to 15 frames. In each frame I am having multiple movie clip symbols. The animation has been created using a blend of scripting and also normal flash animation.
Now I want to create pause and play functionality for the entire movie. I was able to create the pause function but when i try to play the movie it behaves very strange.
I was able to develop the pause functionality by refering to the below mentioned links:
http://www.unfocus.com/2009/12/07/stop-all-child-movieclips-in-flash-with-actionscript-3-0 /
http://www.curiousfind.com/blog/174
Any help in this regard is highly appreciated as i am approaching a deadline.
I am pasting the code below:
import flash.display.MovieClip;
import flash.display.DisplayObjectContainer;
import flash.utils.Timer;
import flash.events.TimerEvent;
import fl.transitions.*;
import fl.transitions.Tween;
import fl.transitions.easing.*;
import fl.transitions.TweenEvent;
import flash.events.Event;
import flash.events.MouseEvent;
stop();
// function to stop all movieclips
function stopAll(content:DisplayObjectContainer):void
    if (content is MovieClip)
        (content as MovieClip).stop();
    if (content.numChildren)
        var child:DisplayObjectContainer;
        for (var i:int, n:int = content.numChildren; i < n; ++i)
            if (content.getChildAt(i) is DisplayObjectContainer)
                child = content.getChildAt(i) as DisplayObjectContainer;
                if (child.numChildren)
                    stopAll(child);
                else if (child is MovieClip)
                    (child as MovieClip).stop();
// function to play all movieclips
function playAll(content:DisplayObjectContainer):void
    if (content is MovieClip)
        var movieClip:MovieClip = content as MovieClip;
        if (movieClip.currentFrame < movieClip.totalFrames) // if the main timeline has reached the end, don't play it
   movieClip.gotoAndPlay(currentFrame);
    if (content.numChildren)
        var child:DisplayObjectContainer;
        var n:int = content.numChildren;
        for (var i:int = 0; i < n; i++)
            if (content.getChildAt(i) is DisplayObjectContainer)
                child = content.getChildAt(i) as DisplayObjectContainer;
                if (child.numChildren)
                    playAll(child);
                else if (child is MovieClip)
                    var childMovieClip:MovieClip = child as MovieClip;
                    if (childMovieClip.currentFrame < childMovieClip.totalFrames)
      //childMovieClip.play();
      childMovieClip.play();
function resetMovieClip(movieClip:MovieClip):MovieClip
    var sourceClass:Class = movieClip.constructor;
    var resetMovieClip:MovieClip = new sourceClass();
    return resetMovieClip;
pauseBtn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, onClickStop_1);
function onClickStop_1(evt:MouseEvent):void
MovieClip(root).stopAll(this);
myTimer.stop();
playBtn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, onClickPlay_1);
function onClickPlay_1(evt:MouseEvent):void
MovieClip(root).playAll(this);
myTimer.start();
Other code which helps in animating the movie and other functionalities are as pasted below:
stage.addEventListener(Event.RESIZE, mascot);
function mascot():void {
// Defining variables
var mc1:MovieClip = this.mascotAni;
var sw:Number = stage.stageWidth;
var sh:Number = stage.stageHeight;
// resizing movieclip
mc1.width = sw/3;
mc1.height = sh/3;
// positioning mc
mc1.x = (stage.stageWidth/2)-(mc1.width/2);
mc1.y = (stage.stageHeight/2)-(mc1.height/2);
// keeps the mc1 proportional
mc1.scaleX <= mc1.scaleY ? (mc1.scaleX = mc1.scaleY) : (mc1.scaleY = mc1.scaleX);
stage.removeEventListener(Event.RESIZE, mascot);
mascot();
this.mascotAni.y = 100;
function mascotReset():void
// Defining variables
var mc1:MovieClip = this.mascotAni;
stage.removeEventListener(Event.RESIZE, mascot);
mc1.width = 113.45;
mc1.height = 153.85;
mc1.x = (stage.stageWidth/2)-(mc1.width/2);
mc1.y = (stage.stageHeight/2)-(mc1.height/2);
// keeps the mc1 proportional
mc1.scaleX <= mc1.scaleY ? (mc1.scaleX = mc1.scaleY) : (mc1.scaleY = mc1.scaleX);
var interval:int;
var myTimer:Timer;
// function to pause timeline
function pauseClips(secs:int, myClip:MovieClip):void
interval = secs;
myTimer = new Timer(interval*1000,0);
myTimer.addEventListener(TimerEvent.TIMER, goNextFrm);
myTimer.start();
function goNextFrm(evt:TimerEvent):void
myTimer.reset();
myClip.nextFrame();
myTimer.removeEventListener(TimerEvent.TIMER, goNextFrm);
// function to pause timeline on a particular label
function pauseClipsLabel(secs:int, myClip:MovieClip, myLabel:String):void
interval = secs;
myTimer = new Timer(interval*1000,0);
myTimer.addEventListener(TimerEvent.TIMER, goNextFrm);
myTimer.start();
function goNextFrm(evt:TimerEvent):void
myClip.gotoAndStop(myLabel);
myTimer.removeEventListener(TimerEvent.TIMER, goNextFrm);
MovieClip(root).pauseClips(4.5, this);
// function to fade clips
function fadeClips(target_mc:MovieClip, next_mc:MovieClip, from:Number, to:Number):void
var fadeTW:Tween = new Tween(target_mc, "alpha", Strong.easeInOut, from, to, 0.5, true);
fadeTW.addEventListener(TweenEvent.MOTION_FINISH, fadeFinish);
function fadeFinish(evt:TweenEvent):void
next_mc.nextFrame();
fadeTW.removeEventListener(TweenEvent.MOTION_FINISH, fadeFinish);
// function to fade clips with speed
function fadeClipsSpeed(target_mc:MovieClip, next_mc:MovieClip, from:Number, to:Number, speed:int):void
var fadeTW:Tween = new Tween(target_mc, "alpha", Strong.easeInOut, from, to, speed, true);
fadeTW.addEventListener(TweenEvent.MOTION_FINISH, fadeFinish);
function fadeFinish(evt:TweenEvent):void
next_mc.nextFrame();
fadeTW.removeEventListener(TweenEvent.MOTION_FINISH, fadeFinish);
// function to show screen transitions
function screenFx(target_mc:MovieClip, next_mc:MovieClip):void
//var tweenTW:Tween = new Tween(target_mc,"alpha",Strong.easeInOut,0,1,1.2,true);
var tranFx:TransitionManager = new TransitionManager(target_mc);
tranFx.startTransition({type:Iris, direction:Transition.OUT, duration:1.2, easing:Strong.easeOut, startPoint:5, shape:Iris.CIRCLE});
tranFx.addEventListener("allTransitionsOutDone",doneTrans);
function doneTrans(evt:Event):void
next_mc.nextFrame();
tranFx.removeEventListener("allTransitionsOutDone",doneTrans);
// function to show screen transitions inverse
function screenFxInv(target_mc:MovieClip, next_mc:MovieClip):void
var tweenTW:Tween = new Tween(target_mc,"alpha",Strong.easeInOut,0,1,1.2,true);
var tranFx:TransitionManager = new TransitionManager(target_mc);
tranFx.startTransition({type:Iris, direction:Transition.IN, duration:2, easing:Strong.easeOut, startPoint:5, shape:Iris.SQUARE});
tranFx.addEventListener("allTransitionsInDone",doneTrans);
function doneTrans(evt:Event):void
next_mc.nextFrame();
tranFx.removeEventListener("allTransitionsInDone",doneTrans);
// function to zoom in
function zoomFx(target_mc:MovieClip):void
//var tweenTW:Tween = new Tween(target_mc,"alpha",Strong.easeInOut,0,1,1.2,true);
var tranFx:TransitionManager = new TransitionManager(target_mc);
tranFx.startTransition({type:Zoom, direction:Transition.IN, duration:3, easing:Strong.easeOut});
//tranFx.addEventListener("allTransitionsInDone",doneTrans);
/*function doneTrans(evt:Event):void
next_mc.nextFrame();
// Blinds Fx
function wipeFx(target_mc:MovieClip):void
var tranFx:TransitionManager = new TransitionManager(target_mc);
tranFx.startTransition({type:Wipe, direction:Transition.IN, duration:3, easing:Strong.easeOut, startPoint:9});
// Blinds Fx Center
function fadePixelFx(target_mc:MovieClip):void
var tranFx:TransitionManager = new TransitionManager(target_mc);
tranFx.startTransition({type:Fade, direction:Transition.IN, duration:1, easing:Strong.easeOut});
tranFx.startTransition({type:PixelDissolve, direction:Transition.IN, duration:1, easing:Strong.easeOut, xSections:100, ySections:100});

This movie is an animated movie from the start to end. I mean to say that though it stops at certain keyframes in the timeline it stops for only a certain time and then moves on to the next animation sequence.
Its not an application where the user can interact.
On clicking the play button i want the movie to play normally as it was playing before. If the user has not clicked on the pause button it would anyhow play from start to finish.
Is there anyway where i could send in the fla file?

Basic graphical question (actionscript/flashbuilder)

I'm a totally newbie trying to create a library of graphical components that I can reuse in applications. I've created two projects in my workspace, one for the widgets and one for the application. When I draw the components onto the design screen, they now paint themselves as opposed to just being empty rectangles, great. They is something I'm missing however in the graphical heirarchy, b/c when I resize them they don't clear. Below is my class hierarchy:
public class WidgetBase extends Canvas
        public function WidgetBase()
            super();
        override protected function commitProperties():void
            // The idea here is that since this is a graphical object, all of its properties are probably
            // going to cause a redraw
            this.invalidateDisplayList();
        override protected function updateDisplayList(unscaledWidth:Number, unscaledHeight:Number):void
            super.updateDisplayList(unscaledWidth, unscaledHeight);
            draw(unscaledWidth, unscaledHeight);
        protected function draw(unscaledWidth:Number, unscaledHeight:Number):void
            graphics.clear();
public class MyWidget extends WidgetBase
        public function BreakerWidget()
            super();
        protected override function draw(unscaledWidth:Number, unscaledHeight:Number):void
            super.draw(unscaledWidth, unscaledHeight);
            graphics.beginFill(0xee0000, 0.9);
            graphics.drawRect(1, 1, unscaledWidth-1, unscaledHeight-1);
What do I have to add to get MyWidget to clear properly?

Hi Bob, thanks for getting back to me.
quote:
Originally posted by:
Bob Pierce
"_root.goRandom(this.slideshow_rand_mc.topslide_mc);"
There's a typo in that line - if it's in your code, it won't
work!
Ah, true. The typo actually happened when I was re-writing
the code in post. The actual code in the movie is
_root.goRandom(this.topslide_mc);
This is attached to a keyframe of the container movie-clip
containing the slides MC.
I've put the fla file on our server.
slideshow_random.fla.zip
If you, or someone else could download it and help me find
out what I'm doing wrong, I'd be ever-so grateful. I'm sure it's
something really obvious. Without being very familiar with Flash
and Actionscript, it's hard to explain things, and much easier to
show you the actual Flash file.
The 2 functions are on a keyframe on frame 1 of the root
timeline. The 'goRandom' function is supposed to be called from a
keyframe in 'slideshowRand_MC'. I envisaged calling the random
pause function from another keyframe in the same movieclip.
Thanks again,
Alex

Painting with Actionscript

Hi all,
I have some pictures of the interior of a house and I want
the user to change the color of the walls. When I try to fill some
areas of the image with a specific color I get some "unreal"
results, and the final picture is not neat. I wander if there is
some clever way to change the color leaving the lighting, shadows
etc as they are to have a more realistic result.
I'll appreciate if someone have any useful links or
guidelines for this, thanks in advance

jgeorgiou,
> there is an EXCELLENT desktop application I found in
>
http://www.crownpaint.co.uk/expcolour/create/
following
> the link "Dowload My Rooms in Colour Tool", but it's
> not made with Flash.
I didn't download the app, but I did watch the Flash
demonstration.
> Is it possible to have this result with ActionScript?
The demo showed a user clicking around a photo to define
anchor points,
then filling the enclosed shape with a color. This sort of
thing is indeed
possible with ActionScript, and when combined with blend
modes might give a
reasonably "realistic" rendering.
What you're after is a collection of MovieClip class methods
known as
the Drawing API. Look up MovieClip.lineTo() in the
ActionScript 2.0
Language Reference and you'll find the others. :)
David Stiller
Adobe Community Expert
Dev blog,
http://www.quip.net/blog/
"Luck is the residue of good design."

Moving movie clips with ActionScript

I am trying to move four movie clips with actionscript in a
circler motion with two buttons, one to rotate the mc’s to
the left and one button to rotate the mc’s to the right. Here
is a link to what I am trying to do;
http://www.us.playstation.com/Lair/
and it is undrer game features.

Yes, that's what the code I gave you is intended to do....
you replace that code with whatever action you need to take to turn
your movie around.
I have no idea what your movieclip is doing, but I'm guessing
by your response that if it was an arrow pointing left to right
(just an example), you want it to be pointing right to left when
the left arrow is pressed. If you want an immediate turn around,
then the simplest way to do that is to have another frame
containing the movieclip that it moves to where it faces the other
direction--and to have it appear turned around, from the toolbar
you select Modify -> Transform -> Flip Horizontal.
So the movieclip would live inside another movieclip that has
two frames with stop()'s for each frame. In the first frame you
would have the subclip facing left to right, and in the second you
would have it facing right to left. If we call that 2-framed
movieclip "walker", the code I provided before would
become...

SimpleButton inside MovieClip Symbol

I want to create various button panels contained in separate
MovieClip(symbols) created and laid out in a movie clip. I want to
use flash button objects on each panel. Then swap panels at will
that bring the buttons along with the panel so all I have to do is
call..panel1 = new panelOne; panel2 = new PanelTwo, etc...If I
create a class for each button with its functionally built in how
can I access the button from the panel? I figure I have to import
the buttons in the panel class before it will work? I tried
panel1.getChildAt(x) but that didn't seem to work. Do I have to
dynamically add the buttons as children to be able to access them
with actionscript.
Thanks!

From inside a movieclip you can talk to the _parent object/timeline using "_parent" to target it. So if you wanted to tell the _parent to move to a certain frame, inside the movieclip you could use...
_parent.gotoAndStop(some frame);
Or if there was a function in the _parent you could use...
_parent.someFunction();
or maybe...
_parent.someFunction(RoXYZ); // passing the RoXYZ variable as an argument
And if you needed to target the main timeline from inside some buried movieclip, you can use _root instead of _parent.

Accessing shape data with actionscript

Hello.
I'm wondering, is it possible to access shape data with
actionscript. I want to draw simple lines with "line tool"
somewhere in my movieclip and then to access information about my
lines with actionscript to get startX, startY and endX endY of
every line. Is it possible?
thank you.

I do not believe so. Once you draw a primitive on the stage
with the api I believe that is all you get. If you create a sprite
object and then draw into that you might be able to get the sprite
properties. You may also be able to do the same thing with a
container movieclip. I don't think just drawing a line with the api
on the stage will give you anything the reference.

Drawing Inside Keeps Painting Behind Other Brush Strokes

I am currently using the draw inside feature on an object of mine. I find that when i come back to it, like if i save and close the program and then come back, whatever new stuff i paint vanishes behind rather than appearing on top. The main solid colored object I always have to send behind before i could paint over it every single time. But now that I have some details over top of that, they are cooperating the same way and need sent behind as well im assuming, with the main object being at the very back. I'd hate to try and select everything because everything around it would need locked and this and that to select what i need and its just allot of hassle, especially if i have to do it every time i re open the program. Shouldn't new brush strokes paint above everything rather than below? Any help would be highly appreciated.

I submitted something similar to this about two version back. I know
when I'm trying to draw a long line, it would be nice to be able to use
some sort of guide. I think I was imagining a tool that you could hold
with a second hand while drawing with the wacom pen. I think they really
could corner the market if they came up with something like this.
Unfortunately, I think they hold back...after all, if they give it all
away, they have nothing to upgrade to...right?
On a similar note, I vaguely remember back when ver 2or 3 of Illustrator
came out and one could fit graphics(text?) in an envelope. At the time,
it was a plugin that was subsequently removed.
For the next 50;) versions I whined about this. Finally, I think it was
version 9 or 10 that brought this feature back to Illustrator.
So given that track record, I think we might get it in version 17. Let's
cross our fingers. ;)

Change the "Font size" in a TLF Textfield with actionscript?

I could not realize how should I resize my TLF Textfiels in flash cs6 with actionscript??
None of these worked:
if (....)
     myTLFText.textSize++;
     myTLFText.fontSize++;
Error: Access of possibly undefined property size through a reference with static type fl.text:TLFTextField.
I appreciate your kind help please??

Here is the part of code I am using to resize the textfield (and other elements).
/******SET POSITION**********/
function setPosition():void
      //Position appBG
      appBG.height = stage.stageHeight;
      appBG.width = appBG.height;
      //Fit the appTXT in middle of screen (AppTXT is a MovieClip contains sourceText - RTLTextField)
      appTXT.sourceText.width = stage.stageWidth * 0.9;
      appTXT.sourceText.x = stage.stageWidth * 0.05;
      appTXT.sourceText.y = stage.stageHeight * 0.1;
      //Fit the maskText layer on top of text;
      maskText.width = appTXT.sourceText.width;
      maskText.height = stage.stageHeight * 0.8;
      maskText.x = stage.stageWidth * 0.05;
      maskText.y = stage.stageHeight * 0.1;
      //Set buttons in their proper position
      if (stage.stageWidth > stage.stageHeight)
            appBG.width = stage.stageWidth;
            appBG.height = appBG.width;
      appBG.x = stage.stageWidth / 2;
      appBG.y = stage.stageHeight / 2;
Everything works fine, but when I install the apk on my Google nexus (800x1280), the font size looks VERY SMALL and I can hardly read it!
If I increase the Font size pt (Red Arrow in above PrntScr) to 40. then it reads perfect on phones with 800x1280 screen size. Ok? But then any OTHER smaller screen cell phones will see the font TOO BIG!
So I need to set the Font size pt by CODE based on a percent of stageWidth to could solve this. thx.

Moving an image with actionscript

I'm trying to move an image from position Y:0 to Y:-100 using
actionscript when the .swf file loads, as this is smoother than
conventional tweening??

Well Sim-Enzo is almost correct. You will have some problems
though because it is not really complete.
When you want to do things over time (move, fade, scale,
etc.) with actionscript you have two main choices –
onEnterFrame and setInterval. For the example given by Sim-Enzo I
would rewrite it like this:
myImageClip.onEnterFrlame=function(){
if(this._y>-100){
this._y-=10;
}else{
delete this.onEnterFrame;
this._y=-100
Here are why I would make these changes.
First the onEnterFrame is poorly named and confuses a lot of
folks. So remember onEnterFrame means "do this next bit of code at
the frame rate of the movie – even if the timeline is stopped
or there is only one frame."
Next. Each movie clip instance can only have one onEnterFrame
handler defined for it. So it is a good idea to assign each one to
an appropriate clip to avoid problems. By attaching this one to the
clip you want to move, myImageClip, you will also be able to assign
other ones to other clips and do whatever they need to do.
Then inside the event handler, notice how I refer to the clip
by "this" since the onEnterFrame is scoped to the myImageClip.
Finally, and this is probably most important, I have added an
else to the conditional. This makes sure that once your clip has
move to where it is supposed to go that the onEnterFrame is
stopped. Otherwise the onEnterFrame would just keep going –
it wouldn't move the clip anymore, but it would be using up
processor time. One errant onEnterFrame like this wouldn't probably
bring down your swf, but if you didn't do it with many different
ones you would notice.
I also added a little bit there which put the clip exactly at
the place I wanted. There are times in Flash where rounding errors
or other issues can make for surprises. I think it is good practice
to set the value to the exact required value.

I have my macbook pro 17" 2.5 Q.C. i7,750GB HDD 5400rpm, 4gb ram, amd radeon 1gb dedicated graphics with intel hd graphics 3000,antiglare screen when i turned on my laptop and see the specs is not showing the 1gb graph. only 512mb.

i have my macbook pro 17" 2.5 Quad. Core. i7,750GB HDD 5400rpm, 4gb ram, amd radeon 1gb dedicated graphics with intel hd graphics 3000,antiglare screen when i turned on my laptop and see the specs is not showing the 1gb graph. only 512mb is there anybody out there have the same problem please how can i know or is there any other way to be sure what's the real capacity of my graphics?take note this is brand new late 2011 model made to customize MD311 with anti glare screen...

I have the same machine, except it's running the blessed fast Snow Kitty,
"when I turn on my laptop and see the specs is not showing the 1gb graph, only 512mb is there"
What specs are you refering about?
Hold the command shift and 4 keys down, draw a box around what your seeing and upload the desktop image in your post response here.

Hi, i can't click on the 'Draw Inside' button

i am unable to click on the 'Draw Inside' button at the bottom left to place a pattern into an image that i got off google, how can i place a pattern that i have made into my image?

Sophie,
It only works with a single vector object, not a raster image. My guess is that you have the latter.
https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/using/drawing-basics.html

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.

Draw inside movieclip/graphic with Actionscript

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