Knocking out strokes

Question

Hey, I have an applique plotting job to do on an old Mimaki plotter.

I used to be able to get away with plotting two shapes with the same overlapping outline on top of each other without it affecting the final line thickness, but my plotter is old and temperamental, so to get around the imprecision I can't have two outlines overlapping, the sewers don't know which one to follow, so I need to knockout the red stroke area from the gold.

Top is how it looks now, second is how that is made up, but I need it to look like the bottom. (Yes I know with the imprecision it won't look as good as this but it's better than what I'm getting with the double offset line, which is too confusing for them.)

I thought this would be easy with a combination of pathfinder and shape builder tool, but the clean-up after is taking longer than if I just did this by hand, and I'm just confusing myself with what needs deleting or not!

Let me know if this needs a better explanation.

Thanks.

Jacob Bugge · Answer

Met,

After pondering long over the (hidden) meaning, I have once more returned to the (mis)understanding that you can (it is much simpler to do than the detailed suggestion may seem to imply, and much of the safeguarding can be omitted):

1) Start out with the red RECON at the back and the golden RECON in front, both as Groups or individual letter shapes (outlined Type as you seem to have), both with Fill and no Stroke (so you can see clearly what you are doing);

2) Select the red Group/set and Ctrl/Cmd+8 to turn it into a Compound path, and do the same to the golden Group/set, copy both to the front and hide the originals (so you have them to fall back on);

3) Select the copies from 2) and Pathfinder>Minus front, then reapply the red Fill to the remainder of the red RECON;

4) Show the golden Group from 2) and copy to the front and hide the original (so you have it to fall back on);

5) Switch back and forth between hiding the red and the golden Group from 2) and 3) so you can make sure that they consist of what you want/need;

6) Copy both Groups to the front and hide the originals (so you have them to fall back on), then switch from Fill to Stroke (with properties as desired and switch back and forth again to make sure; preferably lock the full (formerly golden) Group.

If the closed paths of the red cut up Group is what the sewers and you really need (and which makes immediate sense), that ought to get you there with neat separable Groups, in a safe and simple way, where you let Illy show the way and just follow her.

But if yous (all) really need the open paths as shown at the bottom in your screenshot, you can finish as follows:

7) Copy the cut up (formerly red) Group in the background and hide the original (so you have it to fall back on);

😎 Switch back and forth between hiding and showing the full (formerly golden) Group and Direct Select the individual path segments within the cut up (formerly red) Group that coincide with corresponding path segments the full (formerly golden) Group and delete them, while the full (formerly golden) Group is hidden; you can select and delete them one by one and/or some/many/all together.

I believe that ought to get you there (still) with neat separable Groups, in a safe and simple way, where you let Illy show the way and just follow her.

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