5 replies to this topic

[MostlyHarmless]

I am trying to merge the roads as shown in the attachment. I have the grey road with the black casing (simple grey is just the background). At intersections I want the casings to break to show an intersection. I've been able to do this using layers:

1. road
2. casing

This gets a bit complicated when I have more than one road class, and it makes the line work difficult and tedious. I have read online and I keep hearing about using the Pathfinder tool. I can't for the life of me get this to work properly. Are there step by step instructions out there? Or an easier way to do this?

 8_13_2012_4_41_54_PM.png   11.81K   37 downloads

[frax]

This is a question that comes up now and then - here is another thread discussing that, I think there are more topics if you search around on the forum. (Tip: the best is to search through google, rather than using the builtin search, like: https://www.google.s...3Acartotalk.com)

[MostlyHarmless]

Thanks. I'll have a look at these other topics.

[hotrodart]

I am trying to merge the roads as shown in the attachment. I have the grey road with the black casing (simple grey is just the background). At intersections I want the casings to break to show an intersection. I've been able to do this using layers:

1. road
2. casing

This gets a bit complicated when I have more than one road class, and it makes the line work difficult and tedious. I have read online and I keep hearing about using the Pathfinder tool. I can't for the life of me get this to work properly. Are there step by step instructions out there? Or an easier way to do this?

 8_13_2012_4_41_54_PM.png   11.81K   37 downloads

Pathfinder tools work on objects but not outlines, you may keep getting an error saying "The filter produced no results. Please select two overlapping paths." This would tell you that your only working with outlines and not objects. If you're working in layers already the trick I use is to create one layer with your casing, making the outline slightly large enough in stoke width to your liking. I use typically 2.5 point (or close). Then I select that object and copy.

Creating a new layer I paste in place that outline, changing the color and width of the stroke to something close to my liking and still within printing tolerances typically 1 or 1.75 pt. Visually the cross roads will intersect and give you a casing outline around the road. It's similar to making a knockout.

Hope that helps.

[WayneM]

I am trying to merge the roads as shown in the attachment. I have the grey road with the black casing (simple grey is just the background). At intersections I want the casings to break to show an intersection. I've been able to do this using layers:

1. road
2. casing

This gets a bit complicated when I have more than one road class, and it makes the line work difficult and tedious. I have read online and I keep hearing about using the Pathfinder tool. I can't for the life of me get this to work properly. Are there step by step instructions out there? Or an easier way to do this?

 8_13_2012_4_41_54_PM.png   11.81K   37 downloads

You could consider arranging your layers so that all road layers are placed in order, then the casing layers. For example:

1. primary-road
2. secondary-road
3. tertiary-road
4. primary-casing
5. secondary-casing
6. tertiary-casing

Alternatively, if your road widths are the same but differentiated only by colour, then you could nest all road layers in a single road layer, then click on the top-level layer and use the Appearance palette to add a new stroke to the layer. Make it wider than the width of the roads, then move it down in the Appearance palette so that it's below 'Contents'. For example:

1. ROAD (with casing added below Contents in the Appearance palette)
a. primary-road
b secondary-road
c tertiary-road

The problem with this approach is that you have to have the same casing width for all your road layers, which means the roads need to have the same width or the casing will appear thicker on thin roads.

[tom harrison]

For each layer with cased roads I use two Graphic Styles. The first Graphic Style is a stroke with no fill. The second and final Graphic Style is the road and casing combination consisting of a single line that has two strokes applied - the lower stroke is the black casing, the upper stroke is the color "fill". When I have finished plotting all the same type of roads on a layer - say the primary highways - I Select All then apply the first single-line stroke. I then Group them and apply the second final Graphic Style. That gives a nice clean intersection.

 road_casings.jpg   13.25K   7 downloads