6 replies to this topic

[Rob]

Here's a design problem, kinda hypothetical at the moment because I'm not sure I even want to do this, just sort of curious if it is possible in AI:

I'd like to have a road network symbolized with a cased line and have the middle part of the line transparent, or semi-transparent, so that the data or texture beneath it would show through.

I can think of some ways to do this in photoshop, but was wondering about AI.

My gut instinct is that this isn't possible, but thought I'd throw it out there to those who know CS2 better than I probably do. any thoughts?

rob

[Hans van der Maarel]

Actually...

It might be possible...

Previous discussion

However... the article that was linked to, can no longer be found on the Directions Mag website...

What you can do in Illustrator is move the stroke a certain distance away from the actual line. If you then duplicate the stroke and move it a certain distance in the other direction, you have a double-cased line. That's all I can remember... I have no idea how to actually displace the stroke. A quick try in Illy didn't help much either.

[Rob]

i've tried to accomplish this by creating a two parallel line brush, but the intersections don't work at all. I've also tried to outline the stroke, fill it with a gradient, but can't figure out if it's possible to control the transparency of just one of the gradient colors. This would probably also result in messed up intersections.

[Claude]

Hi Rob,
this is actually really easy in Illustrator. Just draw your line and give it a thick stroke, like 2 points. Then go to Path/Outline Stroke. Turn off your fill color and voila!

[Rob]

i'd actually tried that before I was filling it with a gradient. I now realize that the desired effect is possible, but the way intersections are handled is not at all suitable for cart. It should be easy to do in photoshop by making the cased roads the standard way, importing to PS, selecting the centerline color, and deleting.

I'm just trying to learn more CS2, and in the process trying to figure out what is best done where.

thanks.

[Martin Gamache]

Rob,

If you make all you intersecting paths compound paths first then the intersections should be handled correctly.

[Rob]

that was the missing step. thanks for point it out.

rob