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I have a graphic of three different instances of the same shape. The object has a 3-D effect applied to it, however, which means that for some reason a single layer is common all three shapes. I would like to reposition one of the shapes, but I keep getting the error message as written above when I select the one object and try to group it away from the other two. How do you get around this?
You can normally get around this sort of thing by direct selecting the object in question with Option/Alt held down. Cmd/Ctrl+X and then Cmd/Ctrl+F.
That way you have deleted the object from where it was and pasted it in the same X/Y position as it was, but it will now not be grouped with anything else.
A screen shot of your problem might help.
Thanks, guys. I used the pathfinder tool to divide then un group then select, cut and repaste in front and group the third object.
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The problem is that the layer in question which overlaps the three shapes is a compound path, so if I release the path, it alters the appearance.
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Use the solid arrow tool to make your selection and you will not get that error, as you will be selecting entire groups. If you find the solid arrow tool is making selections that are too large you will have to ungroup, should you have an effect applied at the group level, you will have to recreate that.
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That is exactly what worked... what a relief... thank you!
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worked for me too!
Thanks Mike!
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nope..not for me
Why is there a need for a workaround for something so common and necessary...? this is rediculous...
Thanks for you help though! I appreciate your efforts!
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well..it is not working any more...I am sizing and re saving PNGs of what I have created and have dozens of them that all need to be the same exact size, and fit into a template master doc...I do not see any difference with any of these files either. I thought it was me, but my notes reflect that I am repeating the exact same steps you guys have all mentioned..I don't get why this is so difficult, nor why they don't have a solution posted that works every time..
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well..it is not working any more...I am sizing and re saving PNGs of what I have created
By @zdvdla
PNGs?
In which way does that have anything to do with the topic of this thread?
In order to get help can you please describe your issue in a new thread?
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because I got that error, which is the title of this thread...
here is in case you missed it
"Can't make a group of objects that are within different groups"
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ok..sorry to post again, but I felt I owe it to you guys to tell you how I fixed MY problem. It really was MY problem. I have a large number of small elements so Grouping was a must. This issue was compounded by the error message that Adobe decided to return for this situation. "Can't make a group of objects that are within different groups" threw me off, but I decided to look into each of my many layers and dicovered that some of the elements were ticked as not visible. I created a layer called Not Used, and took forever, but, moved all of those into that Not Used layer that was located at the very bottom. I also check for locked elements, which also caused the return of the above error.
Thank you guys for always trying to help. I hope this helps someone!
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You can normally get around this sort of thing by direct selecting the object in question with Option/Alt held down. Cmd/Ctrl+X and then Cmd/Ctrl+F.
That way you have deleted the object from where it was and pasted it in the same X/Y position as it was, but it will now not be grouped with anything else.
A screen shot of your problem might help.
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Thanks, guys. I used the pathfinder tool to divide then un group then select, cut and repaste in front and group the third object.
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Genius! This worked.
Thank you.