7 replies to this topic

[BEAVER]

"Does
anyone know how to cut/remove all objects from the map in a certain
area. I have a map that is 72"" long and 36"" wide, now I want to make a
map showing only half the existing area. This means that I have to
remove the other half so that I can make a map that is 36"" x 36'. I
have 118 layers with thousands of roads, lakes, rivers, labels. How can
I cut away the other half of the map in Illustrator from all the
layers. I know I can mask the other half, but the geometry is still
there and the file size slows everything down making every operation
too slow for me to handle. If I can somehow remove the other half and
work on them individually, things will go much smoother.

Any help would be appreciated. "

[Nick Springer]

"First... make a copy just in case

What
I typically do is unlock several related layers at a time, unmask them
if necessary, get the direct selection tool (the white arow), and drag
a box around the extraneous bits, leaving a decent ""safe"" margin.

The
selected nodes will be black squares and unselected ones unfilled
squares. Take a look to make sure each line still has one unselected
node outside your map margin. Once you have verified this you can
simple hit the delete button.

Some of the Pathfinder tools can
basically do this, but they have issues. Basically you would have to do
it one layer at a time to avoid all the layers being flattened, and you
still have to manually ungroup and delete all the object outside the
bounds. "

[BEAVER]

That's
what I've been doing, but I thought there is a better way. On this map
that I'm working on, it would take me days to split the map since the
map is printed on both side of the paper map, they have to overlap wich
means, I have to split it twise in two different places. With all the
roads , rivers and lakes that I have to split, it's going to be long
week.

[Rick Dey]

"Make sure you have Rick Johnson's Cutting Tools Plug-in, available at:
[url="http://"http://rj-graffix.com/software/plugins.html"]http://rj-graffix.co...re/plugins.html[/url]
The table saw tool is ideal for this purpose, and will save you countless hours.

Using
a box with the Object>Path>Divide Objects Below command is also
useful for dividing up those polygons and keeping them closed.

I
usually find that selecting a slightly oversized area with the direct
selection tool, then Object>Hide>Selection, then select all,
Delete, and then Unhide is a good start to getting rid of the bulk of
the material.
"

[BEAVER]

Thank
you very much. This is great tool and exactly what I was looking for.
What other cool plug-ins others use. I never used any before so I don't
know if there are any usefull for map making.

[Matthew Hampton]

"

What other cool plug-ins others use.

Rick Johnson's ""Concatenate"" can be very valuable when using exported GIS layers. "

[Nick Springer]

I use Rick's Concatenate tool all the time, but didn't know about the Saw tools.

Rock on!

[Matthew Hampton]

One
of my favorites from Rick (it still loads when I boot AI8) is the Alien
palette. Not the most useful, except when you really need it...