Drop Shadows

[lynzele]

Is it possible to somehow link objects or lines so that they unitarily cast a shadow rather than casting shadows onto eachoter? If I have two lines that intersect each other, without drop shadows, they read as one object. If I try to drop shadows from them, the top object casts a shadow onto the bottom object. Can I group them so that when I drop a shadow from the objects I maintain their appearance as one object casting one shadow?

[micke]

Draw your paths, stroke them (no fill). Select both.

Object menu>Path>Outline Path.

Pathfinder>Shape Modes>Add to shape (Expand if you want).

Effects menu>Stylize>Drop shadow>set options.

Hope this is what you want. :)

micke

[lynzele]

That works fine, but it doesn't allow for an adjustments after the fact.

I could kick myself because after I wrote that question, I went back and experimented a bit and grouping the elements and then dropping the shadow does the same thing. The only problem with that is if you ungroup it, the shadow disapears. Nothing's perfect I guess :)

[The Repro Kid]

You can edit the elements of the group without ungrouping. To do this change selection tools.

[Lukas Engqvist]

Just a word of warning, preflight alot of art. remember as soon as you use transparency or meshes your art work is no longer resoloution independent. So if you work with drop shadows you must save your art as AI or newer version of PDF 1.5 or 1.6 for live transparency.