breaking apart a line

[covono]

hi, thanks for helping.

is it possible to take 2 simple lines that cross each other "ask illustrator" to add intercetion point at the middle and by that creating 4 indevidual lines?

if i wasnt clear.... imagine the letter X becoming 4 short lines instead of 2 long lines.

thanks

[alcbevtesting@alltel.net]

If you have CS3 you could use the eraser tool and cut through two intersecting lines. Try Typing an X and create outlines first. If you do not have CS3 try adding pen anchors at the center of each line and cutting with the scissors tool. I tried to overlay two lines and divide objects below but I think you need filled not stroked paths for this to work.

Or create and duplicate 4 short lines and arrange around a defined center point.

YES - your best bet - draw a line. Click the rotate tool once and alt click the end of the line to set the rotate point. Then click the rotate tool again to get the rotate dialog menu- set angle to 90 degrees and hit copy. Ctrl D (if on Windows) to reapeat the line two more times. Each segment can be direct selected and colored/moved or edited as you wish.

[joeparis]

You could select both lines and make it a Live Paint Group. Give the stroked lines a different colour with the Live Paint Bucket and then Expand. You will then have four lines. It seems you have to give the lines different colours in order to "split" them but you can easily change the colour back to whatever you want afterwards.

[alcbevtesting@alltel.net]

Joe,

I could not get this one to work. Not too familiar with lines and the Live Paint tool.

Care to elaborate a bit more on this?

Gary.

[joeparis]

Sure. I don't have Illustrator in front of me now but after selecting the two crossing lines I selected the Live Paint Bucket and made them a LP Group. At first I expanded this but if you use the white arrow to select you will see that only one anchor has been added and both lines are still intact.

Repeating the above (minus the expanding) I then used the LP Bucket to change the colour of each line segment (lines can't have a stroke that changes halfway after all!). Anyway, after changing the colour you then have an "X" with four different coloured lines that meet in the centre. Clicking Expand gives you four ordinary independent stroked paths. Selecting them all and changing the stroke colour to black takes you to the original "X" but divided.

I hope that explains it.:)

[alcbevtesting@alltel.net]

Joe,

I can do that with two rectangles (filled - no stroke) but I cannot get lines (crossed but drawn with the line tool) to accept any paint (even when the Bucket tool is set to fill strokes). Any suggestions on how you prepare the lines to accept paint?

As I said doing it with crossed rectangles works a charm but not with just stroked lines.

Gary.

[joeparis]

Gary,

I've just fired up Illustrator and did it with the pen tool (stroke, no fill) as described. Going to put the kids to bed but I'll do some screen shots when I have the time.

Joe

[alcbevtesting@alltel.net]

OK, Joe. I got it. I tried with the pen tool - success, then the arc tool (two crossed arcs) - success and finally got it to work on two lines. I guess I just needed to learn the live paint-tool operations.

Did discover one neat thing though. I kept all the bits on the artboard (from the arcs I had extended and curled out the edges), selected all and did 3D>revolve (as objects were all simple and just strokes it did not take much RAM to render) and got a neat set of revolved shapes. I had never thought to try revolving several grouped shapes at once before. COOL!