expanding Patterns in AI
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- transmission
I have a series of angular geometric shapes filled with a pattern I created that I want to expand, essentially converting them to vector objects.
I found a tutorial that says I should expand, then ungroup and then from pathfinder divide them.
But I end up with the pattern continuing outside my shapes.
Is there a step I'm missing that would help me get this done.
- acescence0
what are you using CS4, CS5? I don't get that result in CS4 at least, your steps work ok for me.
- inkpink0
when you expand the pattern it creates a clipping mask using the shape which the pattern was originally applied to.
ungrouping is release the clipping path.
why do you need to use pathfinder > divide?
- inkpink0
... try it with just one of your shapes and it'll probably work.
your multiple objects released into a clipping path becomes a compound shape and a little more confusing to handle with pathfinder.
- transmission0
it works but instead of dividing i had to use crop for some of them.
- orrinward0
Did you ungroup after divide? I forget if divide does that, I just habitually hit shift+ctrl+g with pathfinder stuff and I've always been able to do this with symbols.
Is it worth uploading the symbol? I'd be happy to see if I can figure the solution out, or joining you with the problem. It just sounds very simple to me.
- fiver0
expand, merge, and flatten transparency?