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Dashed/dotted outline issue

Forum|Forum|9 years ago
January 17, 2017
3 replies
4574 views

Hello,

I've been having an issue with getting a dotted line around a shape to work properly. In all my years of using Illustrator, I haven't had this problem until recently. I'm using version CC.

I've attached an example below. If I draw a square and keep the settings on projecting cap/miter join, it makes a nice, even border - evenly spaced with corners all the same. If I set it to round cap/round join, I get the split dot corners seen below. I've set it to align dashes to corners and path ends, adjusting lengths to fit. This always worked in the past.

Is anyone else experiencing this? Or am I doing something wrong now to cause this issue? Thanks for any help!

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Correct answer Monika Gause

I should add that this is working fine for the ellipse tool. It's all other shapes that have the issue - the corners go that split dot seen in the purple square above when I set them to align dashes to corners and path ends, adjusting lengths to fit.

Sure, that's the method to get a dotted line. You only need to input the first 2 values and then leave the 4 others blank.

I have tried to reproduce this, but can't. Maybe it's related to your graphics card or to the system that's 32 bit.

Maybe someone else can reproduce.

jane-e

Community Expert

The only way I could duplicate your corners was to create a pattern brush and select auto-between for the corner tiles. When I did it as a dashed line, it worked as expected. Please rule this out for me by looking at your brushes panel.

If that's not it, and it is probably not, it might be time to reset preferences.

FawnLeibowitzAuthor

Participating Frequently

Hello, and thank you all for the help! I'm kind of thinking it's my computer (see previous posts above) since I opened Illustrator CS6 and made the same squares, and they worked fine. When I copied and pasted the squares from CS6 into a CC file, I got the split dot corners again. Since I'm on a 32-bit operating system right now, the GPU Performance Feature isn't available to me. I'm awaiting a new computer (64-bit), and I'll be able to see that does the trick.

jane-e: I looked at my brushes, and I don't see anything amiss, but I don't use the brush for these kinds of outlines, so I'm not sure if I'd recognize anything.

S_Gans

Community Expert

WOW! Even copy/paste messed it up! That's GOT to be a problem then. With each Illustrator version, the system requirements change and the GPU power required changes. Please let us know how it works when you get your new 64bit system!

And, thank you for posting this - I can imagine others encountering the same issue - and now THEY have an answer, too!

Adobe Community Expert / Adobe Certified Instructor

S_Gans

Community Expert

Hi. I just wanted to confirm. On my Mac with OS 10.10.5 and Illustrator CC2017 21.0.0, the setting works perfectly. I tried varying sizes and using both the square end and the round end (to see if it would be a problem either way), and I just wanted to confirm that on my machine, it's working perfectly. I can't seem to break it.

Glad you found a workaround. If you do care to share the file, I'd be happy to see what it does on here as well.

Adobe Community Expert / Adobe Certified Instructor

Monika Gause

Community Expert

Try and View > Preview on CPU.

FawnLeibowitzAuthor

Participating Frequently

Thanks for the response, Monika. Unfortunately, I'm on a 32-bit operating system, so that feature isn't available. I'm awaiting a new computer (64-bit), so I won't be able to try this out until then.

Monika Gause

Community Expert

Can you please show how the dash is set up?

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