Merging it all (blob brush, pen paths/fills), How?

Hi Everyone,
I've been working of some abstract shapes etc over the past week, and now I want to clean it up so it's a solid and single filled path. How can I merge them all together to clean it all up? (not the full document, just certain shape designs, etc)
Thanks for your help!

First select all the objects you want to use and from the object menu choose Expand or Expand Appearance. If things drop out, reselect them and then from the Pathfinder panel choose the first icon, top row (Add to Shape). This should give you a single object (which might be a compound path).

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Hi,
I used the blob brush to outline the main shapes in my image and then used the fill tool for the inside. When I save as a PDF a white line is visible. I have tried merging the fill and blob brush in the pathfinder but there is still a white line. The background is a simple gradient. I tried saving as a JPEG and it does the same thing.
Any ideas to get rid of the white line?

Why are the paths so messy and inaccurate?
Looks like you need practice using the pen tool. The blob brush was maybe not the best choice of tool to begin with.
But anyway, since you're here, try expanding the appearance of the elephants and then do a Pathfinder Unite (Pathfinder palette).
You should get a reasonably smooth united object with the vector path on the outside.
"Expand the appearance of elephants" ??
I should have thought they were big enough already :-)

Feature Request - True strokes instead of path fills...

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One thing I noticed is that lines are not strokes but are path fills for the pencil brush. Can we have a brush that is a real stroke line - so we can use manipulate colors and thicknesses in Illustrator using strokes. Right now all lines are fills - it makes sense for pressure sensitive brushes where line thickness varies but not for a simple line brush.

I have just been pulling my hair out with this same issue! I'm fairly new to Illustrator, so figured it was me just not knowing how to do something simple.
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Joining two paths: fill problems

Hello,
I am having the following problem: I have a path entailing a simple closed curve
but when I try to fill the color won't extend to the whole area. To reproduce the
problem:
1. With the Ellipse Tool draw a circle.
2. In the Paths panel click Add Points twice to add points to the circle.
3. In the Paths panel click Knife On Points to yield individual segments.
4. Here we create two paths by leaving out two nonadjacent segments.
4a. Shift click four segments and then in the Path Panel click Join Paths to piece them together.
4b. Shift click four other segments and then in the Path Panel tool click Join Paths to piece them together.
4c. Delete the nonadjacent segments from the paths list under the given layer.
5. Ctrl-Shift click two of the endpoints in one of the two segments and click Join Points in the Paths panel.
6.Try to fill the area. The fill color won't extend.
What am I doing wrong? Or is this a bug? How do I work around this problem?
Thanks,
John Goche
Fireworks CS4 on Windows 7.

Hi John,
Thank you for your replies, I found them helpful, although I still think
the options 1 and 2 come down to a bit of buggy code which hopefully
will be fixed in the following releases unless someone can explain why
it behaves that way, perhaps I am missing something about paths and fills.
I wouldn't say there's anything buggy going on, but the way you are building a vector object is definitely not typical and reveals some awkward/confusing behavior. The important thing to understand is that:
1. A fill is rendered from a contour, which is a series of connected points
2. A standard "Path" has a single contour, for example an ellipse
3. A "Compound Path" has multiple contours, and it renders each contour like a filled path, and adds/subtracts from the final result based on overlapping areas per a vector "fill rule" (which can be toggled in the Path panel) -- this is just like Illustrator and other vector environments
4. Join Paths' behavior when points are not selected is to create a compound path from multiple existing paths -- ie if you have two paths, both with 1 contour, then you end up with a compound path with 2 contours -- NOT a path with a single merged/stitched together contour. (Conversely, Split Paths will separate each contour of a compound path into its own path.)
5. Like Anita said, Union Paths will actually merge paths, though it's not so much looking at points and merging points as it's looking at fills and merging overlapping areas, creating/deleting points as needed
So basically, you have to remember that if you want a continuous fill from multiple paths you are about to join, you have to make sure the points are actually connected in your final result. It's not enough to simply have 2 points that are close or even directly on each other then perform "Join Paths". Fortunately there are lots of ways to merge points to create a continous contour:
1. Select 2 endpoints with the Subselect tool and this will tell Join Paths to merge them if they are on top of each other, or connect them -- in both cases you end up with a continous contour which will be filled
2. Select an endpoint and drag it over another endpoint and release -- FW will snap them together and merge them
3. Select 2 endpoints or multiple adjacent points and use Weld Points in the Path panel
Applying all that to the situation of creating a symmetrical vector (which I do a fair amount myself), you could:
1. Draw your first half
2. Duplicate or clone and mirror
3. Position the mirrored clone where you want it
4. Select the endpoints you want connected and use Weld Points or Join Points
You'll end up with a fully filled shape.
That turned out pretty long-winded but hopefully it clears some things up!
Cheers.
Aaron Beall
http://fireworks.abeall.com

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Hi,
Lately I've been having some perfomance issues in Illustrator, when merging Blob Brush shapes.
Usually Illustrator can keep up with the strokes I draw, but after manually merging shapes that won't blob together, I need to wait between 1 and 3 seconds to make another stroke. If I create another stroke before the previous is "rendered", the stroke won't appear at all and I need to wait even longer to make the next stroke. I've had this problem during the creation of six fairly detailed illustrations, but the problem only ever appears when I start using tools like merge / unite / expand / flatten transparency on the completed shape. This is a problem if I need to make further changes!
Are these tools in conjunction with Blob Brush known to cause performance issues, or is there something else I'm missing? I have decreased the document raster resolution to 72, but saw no difference in performance.
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Well, it seems as through the slowdown occurs because the merged shape simply becomes too large or complex. Also, it seems like Illustrator automatically starts a new shape that won't blob together with the original, probably when it becomes too large to work with. That's why the problem occurs when I manually merge the shapes together.
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Multiple settings for Blob Brush,

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In my version it is the '<' and '>' key. In your version it may be the square bracket keys.

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Hello all,
I am a relatively comfortable user of Illustrator - but just now I have encountered a problem whereby my pen path tool is not visible as I draw. When objects are selected with either the selection tool or direct selection tool the path outline is not made available to select. All I get is a generic bounding box with the selection tool - with the direct selection tool I get nothing.
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If someone know it, from CS 5, Thanks a lot.

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(fileSystem::extract Blob From Local Path) after installing B.O. XI 3.1

Hello,
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Hi
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All the field must be fill

I have a form with 2 tables
I have here one button
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declare
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begin
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this alert also show me??

Moazam
Actual it is req.
I have 0ne form/document and I want to close this document, it means after close this doc / form we consider that now we can not enter any information and this document is competed.
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Merging it all (blob brush, pen paths/fills), How?

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