Cut several objects and paths out of a circle

[benediktwinckler]

Hi there,

I am new to Illustrator and I am currently trying to cut several elements out of a circle. My current setup looks as follows:

As you can see, the layer consists of several paths and compound paths, some also with a stroke.

I am now trying to cut out the white shapes to make them transparent. I was already trying to use the pathfinder tool but it didn't work out that well because the strokes were gone. 

Is there anything I can do? Thanks in advance 🙂

[SJRiegel]

Group all of the elements of the truck, and then reverse the colors so it has white strokes and a black fill.

You can then position it over the circle, and use Transparency Mask to get the transparency.

[Ton Frederiks · Accepted solution]

You don't need to reverse colors first.

Select the grouped elements of the truck together with the black circle

Click Make mask in the Transparency panel, Uncheck Clip and Check Invert Mask

[pixxxelschubser]

At first:

A special Thank You to @Monika_Gause for showing this nice technique ("Layer Clipping Mask") at our last event "AIUG Hamburg meets IDUG Stuttgart".

Given: all paths in a layer (or more)

• create a new layer above
• drag the given layer(s) into this new layer
• create a path for the mask above the sublayer(s)
• click the button for create Clipping Mask

Done

(But in the end it's better to save that (editable) file version and made a second file with flattened transparency and joined areas.)

And a bit more complicated:

(But in the end it's better to save that (editable) file version and made a second file with flattened transparency and joined areas.)

[Ton Frederiks]

I like(d) Layer clipping masks and used them to hide stuff outside the artboard with a rectangle of the same size.

But View > Trim View is easier and has the advantage of not hiding layer content on other artboards.

Artboards mostly have common layers and that means that clipping them on one artboard, clips them on the other artboards too.

I once thought that I had accidentally deleted objects from other artboards and went back to a previous version until I found that the layer mask was causing it.

layer masks have the advantage that you don't have to collect your artwork in a single group, but keep them in their own layers. But they can surprise you!

[pixxxelschubser]

One "Golden Rule" to avoid that:

If you have multiple artboards and you use a Layer Clipping Mask – always give every artboard his own Top Level Layer.

😉

[Ton Frederiks]

Unfortunately that golden rule does not work.

Layers are global and appear on every artboard.

[pixxxelschubser]

Yes, they are global.
But the rule says - all items of one artboard on its own (different) Top Level Layer. In that case they are not affected from other Layer Clipping Masks.

😉

[Ton Frederiks]

Layer Clipping Masks can be useful.

And when the layers that are used  are set up to only have objects on a single artboard, it works.