Inspiring

Question

Creating parallel curved lines

Forum|Forum|13 years ago
December 13, 2012
7 replies
52693 views

I have a unique implementation for curved paths that I have not been able to draw in Illustrator since I first learned it. I'm attempting to map railroad tracks by showing multple parallel lines which curve together. Typically either three or four tracks run side-by-side and I need to show how these sets of tracks are physically placed in relations to others (for example a north-south rail line meets an east-west rail line, four tracks downstairs, three tracks upstairs, that kind of thing. For many years I've just used Photoshop and drawn raster-based lines that are quite coarse where and when they curve. Illustrator is definitely the right program to do what I'm after but I've never found a viable solution.

I am still at "beginner" level with AI -- I can draw basic shapes, manipulate anchor points, do fills and strokes, add text and so forth, but that's really about it. This one task is a huge bottleneck for me and I would greatly appreciate any way to do it quickly, repeatably and without having to do 10 things every time I want to start working on a new map.

Many thanks in advance!

This topic has been closed for replies.

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wei33581321l347

Participant

itworks well

OldBob1957

Inspiring

This is fairly 'old school' (see drawing, below), but:

Make a black stroked line the width of your tracks.

Using the Appearance Pallet add a second stroked line above the black line. Make this line white, and the size of the space between the rails.

With the line selected Click on the top item in the Appearance Pallet (PATH). Then, in the Transparency Pallet click Knockout Group twice; until it is a solid black checkmark (as shown below).

The, back in the Allearance Pallet, select the layer with the white line and (in the Transparency Pallet) set its Opacity to zero. This allows any underlying color to show through.

The other advantage of this method is that you can use Compound Path to make clean intersections.

--OB

J

JackSparrow

Participant

You wonder how Adobe had managed to get business stuck with it and its pricey softwares but still can't figure out easy way to make parellel line. I am having problem to do parallel line for three days even using instruction from a Adobe tutorial book, I still don't get it right.

I was using the Accumark CAD at wok before and it has menu for Line> copy line> move line. 1,2,3 and I had a parallel curve line in seconds.

Monika Gause

Community Expert

You wonder how Adobe had managed to get business stuck with it and its pricey softwares but still can't figure out easy way to make parellel line.

Try Object Path > Offset path.

If that doesn't work, show us a screenshot of your artwork

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JackSparrow

Participant

Thanks Monika, your way is fast and it works. The book that I am

learning from doesn't know this option and his book shows 12 steps to

get a parallel curve line, and I still don't get it after many

attempts.

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Wade_Zimmerman1

Inspiring

This plug in might help you the developer is an art director for a few model railroad magazines and he creaed it for his own work.

He does amazing illustrtions of locomotives and railroad cars.

http://rj-graffix.com/software/plugins.html#trackplan

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W_J_T

Inspiring

W2IRT wrote: I'm attempting to map railroad tracks by showing multple parallel lines which curve together.

As already mentioned above have a look into brushes, However I would suggest looking into pattern brushes instead of art brushes.

Here is a basic "Pattern Brush" example, using a basic shape...

Seems like this approach would allow for many things, additions, modifications.

As for multiple parallel lines, you can have multiple tracks as part of a single "pattern" brush as seen below...

Hope this approach is somehow helpful to you.

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NJ AuthorAuthor

Inspiring

That's pretty neat stuff, although not precisely what I'm after. Each track will just be represented by a single line, not classic RR-tracks-with-ties. Here's a typical page I'm trying to re-create in AI: http://nyctrackbook.com/Images/P.45.pdf. This was all done in raster format and I'd slowly like to re-create it in vector. The layout and markings were all done in InDesign but the base lines for tracks and stations are in Photoshop.

As an aside, would you please tell me how you did that design with the parallel rails+ties? I understand the brush creation part but not the pattern. Well beyond my abilities, I'm afraid! Like I said, scale of 1-10 with AI, I'm a 2 if not a 1 in terms of skill.

Jacob Bugge

Community Expert

W2IRT,

You may create customized Art Brushes and apply them in intricate ways.

You may also consider the Trackplan Tools plugin, which may be bought here (scroll a bit):

http://rj-graffix.com/software/plugins.html#productivitypack

The explanation of rails and sleepers/ties by WJT is actually quite clear, especially when you also look at the images; you may need to read a bit in the Helpfile (formerly you might Read The Fine manual).

John Mensinger

Community Expert

If you haven't, you need to experiment with the Object > Path > Offset Path command.

The other method, perhaps a better one...art brushes. Make an art brush out of multiple straight parallel lines. Apply it to curved path.

1. Draw parallel lines. Select them all together and drag to Brushes Panel. Choose "Art Brush."

2. Draw or select curved path(s).

3. Click your new Art Brush in the Brushes Panel.

K

Kyle_Blue1

Participant

I would draw your lines the way you want them to look, select them all and go to your Brushes palette and select New Brush in the pull out menu. Select the radio button for art brush and there you go. Now just draw the lines you want and apply your new brush you made.

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