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Inspiring
September 5, 2023
Answered

How do I create this in AI?

  • September 5, 2023
  • 1 reply
  • 910 views

I've created this thing in Fusion 360, which will be 3D printed.  Two of them will slide over the objective lenses of a pair of binoculars.

I need to laser-cut a piece of film to cover the top, fitting around those crenelations.  I've used AI for years, but I'm still basically a novice, and, try as I might, I can't figure out how to come up with a drawing that works (must be a PDF made from continuous lines for my laser-cutter).  I can output a DWG from Fusion 360 that's close:

I need to delete some of those arcs, though, so it looks like this:

but the arcs come through as complete circles (the inner one and the outer one), even after ungrouping, so I can't just select a part and delete it.  It seems like it should be easy to create from scratch in AI, but I can't figure out how.  I created the figure above initially using the Shape Builder tool, but the line segments aren't individually selectable, so it ended up kind of being a mess that I cleaned up in Photoshop, and the result (above) was a bitmap which isn't ideal for cutting on my laser-cutter.  I can do it if I have to, but I'd prefer to vector cut rather than raster.

Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

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Correct answer Monika Gause

Aah, OK.  Here's a Google Drive link to file.


Thank you. You haven't expanded the repeat object.

You need to do that for the shapebuilder to work.Object >. Expand, check only "objects" in the dialog box

 

1 reply

Monika Gause
Community Expert
Community Expert
September 5, 2023

For the SHapebuilder tool to work, you might need to make those straight lines londer so that they really cross the circle.

Inspiring
September 5, 2023

That was my problem.  They crossed both circles but then I couldn't figure out how to trim them exactly TO the circles.  Hence, to Photoshop.

Monika Gause
Community Expert
Community Expert
September 6, 2023

The artwork you used for the shapebuilder is tiny. It's impossible to see why it was not working.

 

You selected it all, when using the shapebuilder, no?