Skip to main content
flo40699462
Participating Frequently
January 16, 2018
Answered

Pathfinder Stroke Subtract

  • January 16, 2018
  • 5 replies
  • 2781 views

Hi!

I think this is kind of complex to explain but I'll try!:)

I want to create the shape on the right.. but by only using the appearance panel. no actual cutting of the circle, because I want to change the opening of the circle dynamically .. by changing the height of the rectangle...

hope this is understandable?

thanks for any feedback pointing in the right direction:)

Flo

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Kurt Gold

Currently, Illustrator’s „live“ ellipse shapes only allows you to create sectors, but not arcs of a circle.

Therefore, one has to rely on workarounds. Here is another workaround:

arc_maker_001.ai.zip - Google Drive

Instruction: Open the sample file, go to the Layers palette, select the object called „arc controller“ and move the sector handles to make the arcs (or use the Transform palette).

5 replies

Kurt Gold
Community Expert
Kurt GoldCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
January 16, 2018

Currently, Illustrator’s „live“ ellipse shapes only allows you to create sectors, but not arcs of a circle.

Therefore, one has to rely on workarounds. Here is another workaround:

arc_maker_001.ai.zip - Google Drive

Instruction: Open the sample file, go to the Layers palette, select the object called „arc controller“ and move the sector handles to make the arcs (or use the Transform palette).

Doug A Roberts
Community Expert
Community Expert
January 17, 2018

live paint? you're a genius, kurt.

flo40699462
Participating Frequently
January 17, 2018

AGREED!

Community Expert
January 16, 2018

You need the circle element too. And you can make it by shape builder tool Let me show you

acp.avi - Google Drive

Doug A Roberts
Community Expert
Community Expert
January 16, 2018

i could indeed manage this with the shaper tool, but as far as I can tell it needs to be nested in another group to create the outline, and can only be edited with the shaper tool, not selection tools:

flo40699462
Participating Frequently
January 16, 2018

That sounds and looks good! could you provide this file by any chance? I am trying to recereate but fail in seeing it in the appearance panel.

Doug A Roberts
Community Expert
Community Expert
January 16, 2018

i'll go through step by step and link the file too:

shaper.ai - Google Drive

draw your circle and rectangle first. make sure the circle has round caps in the stroke panel. deselect them. scribble over the red portion with the shaper tool:

you end up with this:

group it, then add another, slightly smaller stroke at the group level, again with rounded ends. make just that stroke 0% opacity. set Knockout group in transparency at group level again.

you should be able to use the shaper tool to 'access' the shaper group (see the documentation on the tool posted earlier) and adjust the rectangle to clip the circle and maintain the rounded ends.

Monika Gause
Community Expert
Community Expert
January 16, 2018

This could  be created by the plugin VectorScribe if you want it editable.

michelew83603738
Community Expert
Community Expert
January 16, 2018

You might try using the Shaper Tool. You can edit the rectangle.

Build new shapes with Shaper and Shape Builder tools in Illustrator