13 replies to this topic

[kpearson]

I am new to Illustrrator and I can't fugure out how to do a particular task. I have selection of roads and I have increased the stroke size so that the lines are very fat. I want to have a line placed on top of these lines that are a smaller stroke size and are white. It will look like the original fat lines are now split. Does this make sense?

[Hans van der Maarel]

I am new to Illustrrator and I can't fugure out how to do a particular task. I have selection of roads and I have increased the stroke size so that the lines are very fat. I want to have a line placed on top of these lines that are a smaller stroke size and are white. It will look like the original fat lines are now split. Does this make sense?

Yes it does

• Select your roads
• Copy
• Paste In Front (CTRL-F), this will place a copy directly on top of the original (rather than a normal Paste, CTRL-V, which centers the copy in the window).
• Change the style of the copy and you're done

Personally, I prefer to keep the roads separated out into 2 layers (top and bottom), so selections are easier.

[kpearson]

Thanks alot!! I was trying everything but that.

[kpearson]

If I wanted to keep the roads seperated out as two layers as you mentioned at the end of your reply, how would i do that? In case I wanted to alter either layer in the future.
Thanks,

[merft]

Two ways:

If all your roads are already on a single layer. Drag your "Roads" layer to the "Create New Layer" icon (looks like a page icon) on the bottom of your Layers palette. This will create a duplicate layer. Just rename your layer "Roads-Fill" or "Roads-Case" or whatever.

Otherwise if you roads are mixed with other items, click the "Create New Layer" icon (looks like a page icon) on the bottom of your Layers. Rename your new layer "Roads-Fill" or "Roads-Case" (depending on layer). Select all your roads (by color/stroke/etc). Ctrl+C to copy. Select your destination layer, Ctrl+F to paste.

-Tom

[gregory]

the easiest and fastest way is just Duplicate "layer". Select the layer you want to copy and the click small triangle button in the right upper corner of layer pallet. The Duplicate "your selected layer" button should be available.
regards
Gregory

[KennyRedman]

There is a better way to do this using 'Graphic Styles'

Instead of using multiple lines, you can assign multiple strokes to the same line, making things much less complicated.

Select a line and in the appearance tab, click the flyout button and select 'Add New Stroke.' Change the attributes just like you would a normal line. You can do this as many times as you'd like, creating all sorts of combinations:


 GraphicStyle1.jpg   139.95K   76 downloads


By saving it as a Graphic Style, you can assign certain preassigned combinations of lines and fills as you make new roads, much like you would with paragraph and text styles in InDesign:

 GraphicStyle2.jpg   145.26K   72 downloads


Just something I thought I'd pass on

[Sky Schemer]

There is a better way to do this using 'Graphic Styles'

Instead of using multiple lines, you can assign multiple strokes to the same line, making things much less complicated.

Except that, with this approach, you have less flexibility with how line casings and road centerlines render when the lines overlap, particularly with lines from different layers. By separating these elements into different layers, you can lay down the casings first, then all the road fills, then the centerlines, etc.

[KennyRedman]

That's true. It would work for non-intersecting lines, though

If the same line intersects itself, then you'll get proper merging, otherwise it wouldn't work.

 GraphicStyle3.jpg   20.2K   89 downloads

[Rick Dey]

Another advantage of using the second stroke in appearance or graphic style approach, is that if you need to edit a line you are only working with one set of points. All the other "layers" are part of the line and move along with it. If you have a stack of 3 or 4 strokes as in say a divided road, its next to impossible to get them all in the same spot.

[natcase]

First, quick useful carto term: "casing" is the lines on the outside of a road or other line. The "shoreline" of a road, as it were.

Consider using nested, styled layers.

To apply an effect to an enire layer, do not press the colored square at the right side of the layers pallette (that's how you select all the elements in a layer, not the layer itself). Instead click on little round button to its left. Then apply your graphic style, attribute, effect, etc.

If you apply a style (or simply an attribute) to a layer, it lays that stroke, fill or effect on top of any atributed lines in the layer, as if they were one compound path. This means that any new lines added to that layer would join this compounded style. If you want the effect to apply below all the exisitng artwork, move it below "contents" in the appearance pallette.

If you need to join different casings but a similar fill (say a red casing with a white fill and a black casing with a white fill), style sublayers with the differentating style, and then group them in a layer which is styled with the common element. Hope this makes sense.

[Adam Wilbert]

That's true. It would work for non-intersecting lines, though

If the same line intersects itself, then you'll get proper merging, otherwise it wouldn't work.

 GraphicStyle3.jpg   20.2K   89 downloads

By simply grouping the two lines on the left side of your sample, then applying the graphic style at the group level instead of the object level, your casings would merge correctly. I think thats what natcase is saying.

When I learned that graphic styles could be applied to layers, groups, and objects independently, it was kind of an epiphany for me. One of those ahh-ha moments that eluded me for so long, but makes perfect sense in hind-sight.

[KennyRedman]

By simply grouping the two lines on the left side of your sample, then applying the graphic style at the group level instead of the object level, your casings would merge correctly. I think thats what natcase is saying.

When I learned that graphic styles could be applied to layers, groups, and objects independently, it was kind of an epiphany for me. One of those ahh-ha moments that eluded me for so long, but makes perfect sense in hind-sight.

Ooh, I didn't realize that- awesome.

An ah-ha moment indeed!

[erik]

I used this nested or layer styles capability some years back for some of my giant wall maps. I gotta say it was convenient, but performance was a big hit when you have lots of roads as I did. You won't notice a problem with a small demo document of a few roads, but add a few thousand segments (representing hundreds of roads) and AI will slow down. I ended up turning the roads off most of the time.

erik