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Precious_artB88B
Participant
October 3, 2017
Question

Images traced won't ungroup

  • October 3, 2017
  • 5 replies
  • 9974 views

I'm using Adobe Illustrator cc 2017   I'm able to create a trace of a simple silhouette or more complex imager and expand the trace into vector paths however I've not been able to Ungroup the paths. This is true for a simple trace as well as one using advanced settings; Threshold, Corners, Paths, Snap curves, Method, number of colors. The Trace is successful, the vector paths and anchor points are there but Ungroup doesn't work. I'm not in Isolation mode. In searching on the internet I found that I should choose, Object, Live Trace and  Expand. The resulting image will be Ungroup to all its various parts.  However while this is what I want this command must be for a earlier version of Illustrator since I can't find it. Also not only am I not able to Ungroup drawings I'm also finding that the vector Anchors are all Corners with no Smooth points even thought I tried both high and low Threshold settings. 

Any help will be very much appreciated.

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    5 replies

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    Precious_artB88BAuthor
    Participant
    October 4, 2017

    I thank all of you for your response to my question. It didn't occur to me that in the process of tracing the resulting paths would end up lock as one in a compound path. With this understanding and my learning how to fine tune the tracing advanced adjustments I'm now getting results that please me.

    Mark_Norris
    Mark_Norris
    Participant
    October 4, 2017

    I had the same problem but I used the object/expand command and then the object/ungroup command.

      chanaart
      Community Expert
      chanaartCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      October 4, 2017

      Checkout the layers and see if you have a compound. you can release a compound as well.

      Monika Gause
      Community Expert
      Monika GauseCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      October 3, 2017

      Open the layers panel and check what you have. Probably it's a compound path.

      P
      Precious_artB88BAuthor
      Participant
      October 3, 2017

      Yes, thank you so much Monika. I didn't figure out how to check in the layers panel as to if I had a compound path or not but I did find the command for releasing a compound path, Alt,Shift,Ctrl + 8 and it worked. I wonder do you have an idea of why I seem to be getting only corner anchor points when I trace. It is my understanding that lowering the Corners and Threshold should result in more smooth anchor points however I seem to only get corner points.

      Again thank you for your help.

        Monika Gause
        Community Expert
        Monika GauseCommunity Expert
        Community Expert
        October 3, 2017

        It's true that lowering the corner option makes fewer corner points, but if the Image Trace module is of the opinion that there need to be corners, then it will create them anyway. It's kind of a threashold that you set with the option, although it's not an angle that you define there.

        Can you show the template and your result?

          Bill Silbert
          Community Expert
          Bill SilbertCommunity Expert
          Community Expert
          October 3, 2017

          The option under the Image menu is called "Image Trace" not "Live Trace". It is there in CC 2017.

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