pattern swatches - simple 45 degrees lines?

Back from the abyss.

Thanks Teri,

I thought my method would be OK, but completely forgot about the repeating nature of the pattern.

Steven

Divide Objects Below works with the cutting object being a closed shape, but it does not cut objects that are unfilled open paths. It also requires that you select only a single object.

I don't know what was happening with the other objects on the layer. It would be hard to tell without seeing what the structure of your document is.

If you are going to use the method you describe, then you should use the Outline Stroke command on your stroked stripes first. But really it is better to make an unfilled, unstroked tiling rectangle and leave the stripes extending past the bounds of that rectangle.

In your method, if you did not make your tiling rectangle an exact multiple of the horizontal or vertical distance between the stripes, then they would not stitch correctly after the pattern was made. But since they were made with the separations being defined before rotating, it is going to be extremely hard to get the tile size right. (It will need to be your original horizontal separation, which is now the diagonal separation, divided by the square root of two.) That is why I recommended making a single diagonal line, and then copying that diagonal line a known vertical or horizontal distance.

I tried making the diagonal stripe pattern by:

1. Creating a rectangular grid of 1 row and many columns, then ungrouping it and deleting the border (end result = parallel lines).
2. Rotating the lines 45 degrees.
3. Drawing an unfilled square over the top.
4. Using Object>Path>Divide Objects Below.

For some reason, though, the square wouldn't cut the parallel lines. As a test, I tried cutting the parallel lines with another (single) line which did work.

I also noticed that once I had several objects on the layer, not all of which lay 'directly below' by cutting object, the Divide Objects Below seemed to not work.

So, a couple of questions:

A. Can shapes (eg. squares) be used to Divide Objects Below?
B. Why does the function sometimes not work, seemingly if there are other unrelated objects nearby?

Thanks to anyone who can tell me what I'm doing wrong.

Steven

I often use masked blends for repeating line patterns... especially for an irregularly shaped area I want to fill.

1. make a copy of the shape you want to fill - use this for the clipping mask
2. draw two or more lines for your blend
3. select the lines and click Object > Blend > Make. After you make your blend, you can select it and go back to the same menu and choose Blend Options to configure spacing of the lines. (play around with this to get the best effect)
4. put the copied shape on the layer above your blend, then select both the shape and the blend and go to "Object > Clipping Mask > Make". Voila!

Also, this was so simple, but I had a hard time hunting it down. When you have your tiling pattern the way you want, all you have to do to make it a pattern is select what you've drawn and drag it to the swatch palette. That's it!

WOW ! Thanks Teri. Very helpful!

:-)

Have a great day!

Luke

Luke,

To fill objects with diagonal stripes, by far the best way is to simply create a pattern with straight horizontal or vertical stripes, and then rotate the pattern within the object. This is much easier than getting diagonal lines to stitch correctly within the pattern design.

Any of the following methods can be used to rotate pattern fills within the selected objects:

1. Alt-click with the Rotate tool, or invoke Rotate from the Object>Transform menu, and in the resulting dialog, uncheck Objects and check Patterns, and enter your rotation angle.

2. In the Transform palette's menu, check "Transform Patterns Only", and then enter the desired rotation in that palette's angle field.

3. Hold down the tilde key (~) while rotating interactively with the Rotate tool. (Unfortunately there is no preview of the pattern contents during the drag. It just shows the bounding box rotating.)

The same methods can be used to Scale, Shear, Reflect or Move pattern fills (using the appropriate tool or dialog, of course.) You can save rotated (or otherwise transformed) pattern fills in the Graphic Styles palette.

If you decide that you still want to define a pattern design with 45° diagonal stripes, then the following method should be used:

1. Make a diagonal stroke or a diagonal rectangle that is long enough that the line including any stroke width extends past the desired size of the tiling box.

2. Using the Move dialog, Copy-Move that diagonal line a specified distance horizontally or vertically, such as 12 pts. Do not move it diagonally!

3. Ctrl-D to Transform Again until you get enough copies to make it look square.

4. Draw an unfilled, unstroked rectangle that is some multiple of the distance you moved in step 2, and small enough to be completely covered by your copied stripes. For example, if you moved your stripe 12 pts, you could make your tiling box 24 pts or 36 pts or 48 pts.

5. Send that rectangle to the back.

6. Select the rectangle and all the stripes and define your pattern.

There is an example file called "diagonal_stripes.ai" in my ftp download directory.

ftp://tpettit.best.vwh.net/

(I am posting the directory path rather than a direct link to the file, in case you want to browse the directory for other content.)