Inspiring

Answered

Pathfinder crooked path issue with circles

Forum|Forum|6 years ago
January 20, 2020
4 replies
2070 views

Hi,

I have an issue when I use pathfinder operations, for example on two intersecting circles. For some operations that need to determine the intersecting points between the circles (like divide or outline), Illustrator places that point (or those points) slightly off where it should be. This results in a small portion of the curve to no longer have the same radius as the circle it stems from. It is very subtle but can be visible at times.

I understand this may be due to how Illustrator draws circles with Bezier curves. If that is so, is there a workaround which would allow me to divide and still maintain the integrity of the circles?

This is for CS4.

Thanks.

Draw and design

This topic has been closed for replies.

Correct answer Kurt Gold

What is your setting in Pathfinder palette menu > Pathfinder Options > Precision?

Kurt Gold

Community Expert

I'm pretty sure that the precision setting caused this issue.

Specifically (very) small objects are often penalised by the default setting (0,028 pt).

S

sPretzelAuthor

Inspiring

Are there any unwanted consequences or side-effects that may result from increasing the pathfinder precision (ie. lowering the figure from the default 0.028pt?)

S

sPretzelAuthor

Inspiring

It might create a lot of anchor points.

I don't mind that, in some cases. I wanted to make sure I am on the lookout for unwanted outcomes, like the one I described in the original post here or what Kurt pointed out.

I wonder where that default value 0.028pt comes from. Is it a round number in a different unit?

Also, speaking about default values in Illustrator, is there a way to reset a value to its default once it has been changed (and preferably that would not reset every parameter in the program to its default!)?

Kurt Gold

Correct answer

Community Expert

What is your setting in Pathfinder palette menu > Pathfinder Options > Precision?

S

sPretzelAuthor

Inspiring

Hi Kurt.

It is 0.028pt. I changed that to 0.001pt and it does appear to make a difference, with the yellow (original) and black (divided) paths being pretty much on top of each other. I'll have to explore more but so far, this looks promising. Thanks.

I had not explored this menu before!

meganchi

Legend

Have you tried expanding the stroke on the circles before dividing them?

S

sPretzelAuthor

Inspiring

No, but I just did after your suggestion. I get a similar mismatch. But I must keep the stroke anyway.

Monika Gause

Community Expert

"Align to pixel grid" still needs to be watched with that ancient version

S

sPretzelAuthor

Inspiring

Hi Monika,

Please remind me where "Align to Pixel Grid" is in the menu.

Before you ask me, I am attaching a picture here. The yellow lines on top show the two circles (here, they happen to have the same radius). The black lines on the bottom show the same two circles, in the same position, to which I applied Divide. You can see that there is a mismatch between the yellow and black lines near the intersection point. It is very subtle but more clearly visible as you perform the Divide operation (you can see the circles change shape).

The fact that the curve changes (and is probably no longer a circle) for a small portion of the circle leading up to the intersection point is not clearly visible here.

Monika Gause

Community Expert

THat looks a bit too subtle for an align to pixel grid issue (the setting is in the transform panel)

You could also check the pathfinder precision. Maybe it needs to be higher.

https://www.vektorgarten.de/problems-align-to-pixel-grid.html

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