[artworks] symmetrical bits, combining into one
- From: Jim Nagel (lists) <jim2.nagel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: artworks@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 31 Mar 2009 15:28:43 +0100
i've spent too many hours scrastching my head on this problem.
forgive me if it's a stupid question. for us who work as a one-man
show, this list can be a welcome chat with colleagues.
i'm trying to re-draw a simple heraldic design: it's a cross with
fleur-de-lys tips. i want to end up with a single closed shape that i
can fill with colour or hatching and that i can outline without any
internal lines to separate what were constituent parts of the drawing.
i'll put files here in case anybody wants to look:
www.archivemag.co.uk/JN/symmetryQ.zip (65K)
"shield" is the working file.
(first problem was getting Artworks to accept the scan, now sorted out
in a separate thread -- thanks, Martin.)
i imported the scan to its own layer in Artworks, and then made a new
layer ("trace1") for my drawing.
my first approach was to draw half the fleur-de-lys as a closed shape,
rather like a letter B, then duplicate and mirror-image it for the
other half. that arm of the cross was then a simple rectangle.
i grouped this then duplicated and rotated or flipped to make the
other three arms of the cross, adjusting the length of the rectangle
where necessary, and adding another rectangle to fill in the gap at
the centre.
i couldn't work out any way to make a single outline around the entire
shape. i could not disappear the outlines of the component bits.
on the layer "trace2" i tried a different approach. instead of solid
shapes, i drew a LINE from the tip of the fleur-de-lys down one side
to the centre of the cross. then i mirror-imaged this line and made
the tip coincide with the first line.
then duplicated, flipped or rotated as before to make the other three
arms. where the lines meet at the centre of the cross, i zoomed in
and made sure the points were coincident, even checked the
coordinates.
now HOW do i get this to behave as a single closed shape, so that i
can colour it or hatch its interior and have a continuous border
around the whole, single, shape?
i can get the whole thing to register as a single line, so that
changing line colour will affect the whole, but i cannot get it to
fill with colour.
i tried the Shift-F1 dialogue (Line/Shape info) and ticked "Filled"
there. the result is the file "pretty" -- not quite what i want.
i tried the old trick of putting big fat arrowheads on the ends of
lines to spot end-points that aren't quite coincident. see the file
"arrows". i used different colours to show up the line segments.
back in the Line/Shape Info dialogue, i tried "Reverse path order" in
case it had to do with some arrows pointing at an arrowhead instead of
an arrowtail.
i have tried copying the original half-fleur-de-lys line to a fresh
document and starting over. still no luck.
so what IS the general principle of joining separate lines into a
single closed shape?
this comes up quite often when trying to draw something symmetrical --
are there general techniques to do with symmetry that i have been too
thick to discover?
can somebody put me out of my misery, please?
--
>>> no need to reply my entire message back to me ;=]
Jim Nagel www.archivemag.co.uk
Abbey Press 32 Norbins Rd (01458) 83 3603
Glastonbury BA6 9JG pocket 0797 415 3861
------------------------------------------------------------
To change, suspend or cancel your subscription go to
//www.freelists.org/list/artworks
------------------------------------------------------------
Other related posts:
- » [artworks] symmetrical bits, combining into one - lists
