Connecting closed paths

[Guest]

Hello, I'm pretty new to Ilustrator so I need a bit of help with this.

I'm trying to make a world map. I alredy have a closed path outlining the US. I was outlining Mexico and noticed that I couldn't connect it with the US border. So I'm stuck, I can't fill in Mexico because it is an open path and can't use the join tool because it draws a straight line between the two end points. Please help.

[Monika Gause]

You can't join paths in a Y crossing. There can be only two segments joining at each point.

Try the live paint tool to solve your issue: https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/using/live-paint-groups.html

[Simmer1]

Hi,

I would try drawing Mexico and the US as two individual shapes with closed paths using the Pen Tool

https://helpx.adobe.com/uk/illustrator/using/drawing-pen-curvature-or-pencil.html

I hope this helps,

Sim

[Jacob Bugge]

Axel,

Smart Guides are your friends.

If the end Anchor Points of the open Mexico path coincide with the USA path segments (as in Smart Guides saying path when you place them), and if you wish to have Mexico as a closed path (so you can move it away or wish to give it a different stroke colour including the border or for whichever other reason or just to have it nice and tidy), you may either:

1) Select both Mexico and USA, then Pathfinder>Divide, then Ctrl/Cmd+G to Ungroup,

2) Deselect and select Mexico and reapply the stroke, or copy it from the US stroke.

This will give you Mexico as a closed path, the northern border being an exact copy of the southern US border.

If you need no strokes, you may remove the stroke from the USA path and just perform 1).

If you wish to have the stroke, as an alternative you could also remove the stroke from USA, perform 1), and then apply the desired stroke to the paths which are already selected.

[Monika Gause · Accepted solution]

"1) Select both Mexico and USA, then Pathfinder>Divide, then Ctrl/Cmd+G to Ungroup,

2) Deselect and select Mexico and reapply the stroke, or copy it from the US stroke."

Live paint or the shapebuilder tool will do the dividing automatically.

But if you want to avoid using an appropriate tool at any cost, I would suggest to just connect those endpoints of Mexico in a curve and then put the Mexico shape below the USA shape and apply fills, so it's hidden.

[Guest]

This really help. Thank you, but now I'm having another problem.

(I'm doing in spanish, just in case)

(I'm doing it in Spanish, just in case) As you can see there's the border that separeates Poland and the sea. I alredy made the line Live Paint, but Illustrator doesn't seem to detect it. What can I do to fix this so I can fill in Poland?

[Monika Gause]

Is the line part of the live paint group? You might need to select the line as well as the live paint group and then Object > Live Paint > Merge.

If the line is part of the live paint group, the gap settings might need to be changed. You need to activate the gap detection and adjust the treshold. See Object > Live paint > Gap detection.

[Guest]

I did merge them and it work, but when it merges all the text disappears.

[Monika Gause]

Probably the countries now moved on top of the text.

Open the layers panel to check that and then you could also set up the layers. Create a new layer on top and then put all of the text on it.

[Guest]

It worked, thank you very much Monika 🙂

[Monika Gause]

You're welcome!