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Nedlaw
Legend
February 28, 2020
Answered

Trying to divide a circle into quadrants

  • February 28, 2020
  • 3 replies
  • 1441 views

Illustrator Newbie here. I'm trying to divide a circle into quadrants. I have reviewed two tutorials on this subject and -- despite TRYING to follow the directions, I am doing something wrong.

Here is the result I want:

Here is what I believe I am doing:

On one layer of the graphic...

  1. Choose ellipse, draw circle, make line width 60/color gray
  2. Draw 2 lines, line width 20, copy/paste/rotate so that I have a vertical cross.
  3. Select all and center H & V.
  4. Select the lines (only) cut/paste control-F so that they are in front.
  5. Group the lines (only) (using the layers panel and Group from the Object menu)

 

 

  1. Select all -- lines and circle 
  2. Choose Object | path | outline stroke
  3. Pathfinder | remove front.

 

This is the result:

 

I have been consistent in achieving this unremarkable result several times. Obviously, I am doing something wrong. It is possible that the tutorials are for an older version of Illustrator -- I have the latest CC version, 24.02 -- and that an extra or other step is now necessary. What puzzles me is that even though the cross is grouped, when I remove front, it removes one section of the cross, and does not remove parts of the circle. Puzzled.

 

Good suggestions here would be appreciated. Many thanks.

 

-j

 

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Bill Silbert

Initially, I had no problem making this work using your instructions. It then became an adventure in figuring out what you're not doing to achieve what you've been getting. It took a while to eliminate different variables which gave me some different wrong results. I finally matched your result by selecting only the grouped outlined cross before applying the remove front Pathfinder filter. So, when you get to the step for converting to outlines do a Select>All first then apply the outline stroke and then while still selected apply remove front.

3 replies

Bill Silbert
Community Expert
Bill SilbertCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
February 28, 2020

Initially, I had no problem making this work using your instructions. It then became an adventure in figuring out what you're not doing to achieve what you've been getting. It took a while to eliminate different variables which gave me some different wrong results. I finally matched your result by selecting only the grouped outlined cross before applying the remove front Pathfinder filter. So, when you get to the step for converting to outlines do a Select>All first then apply the outline stroke and then while still selected apply remove front.

N
NedlawAuthor
Legend
February 28, 2020

Bill's answer is correct. I was failing to select all before Pathfinder | Remove Front. This solved the problem. Thanks!!

Bill Silbert
Community Expert
Bill SilbertCommunity Expert
Community Expert
February 28, 2020

Happy to help.

Ton Frederiks
Community Expert
Ton FrederiksCommunity Expert
Community Expert
February 28, 2020

Does your circle have a fill?

Try to remove it before you do the Outline Stroke part.

A
alexs95275331
Known Participant
February 28, 2020

Booleans don't work well with paths. They need to be filled shapes.

  1. Align everything as intended
  2. Object > Expand all of it with fill & stroke checked
  3. Union the two lines (now rectangles) used as the cross
  4. Difference the newly-unioned cross from the circle behind it
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