Outline Spikes

[mvpdigital]

I have a client who has a logo created in Illustrator. They wanted me to take a look at it. Getting it into Xara was another story, but finally I was able to import it as PDF.

Now I am noticing all kinds of strange "outline spikes" appearing at different magnifications. I have attached a portion of the logo with example "spikes".

If I delete the outline, the spikes go away, but I can not seem to recreate the outline, as it is around the complete finished drawing, and not each individual shape.

If you look at the file, at 100%, 200% and 300% you should see what I am talking about. The spikes disappear at some magnifications. Unfortunately, when I export, they are there.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

On the topic of outlining. Is there a way to create a drawing with many shapes, and them add an outline to the entire exterior object without adding the outline to each internal shape?

[jwhitham]

The two large spikes projecting outside on the right of the logo are extranious line segments that can be removed. The smaller internal spike two thirds of the way down can be fixed by setting the line attributes for that object to bevelled or rounded cap.

[PatentGuy]

I wonder if this problem is related to the zooming problem reported in http://www.talkgraphics.com/showthread.php?t=32462

Even though the spikes are caused by extraneous lines, they should not change shape at every magnification level. It is interesting to zoom slowly with the mouse wheel and watch the spikes move around. When I drag the extra lines around, I see artifacts left in the path.

There are also other extraneous lines and shapes. If you move the bottom semi-circular shape away from the other shapes and then break shapes, you see three different shapes. The two smaller shapes also cause spikes at various zoom levels.

[mvpdigital]

Even though the spikes are caused by extraneous lines

Can you point out the extraneous lines? I can't see them, even in line view.

Thanks.

[jwhitham]

Can you point out the extraneous lines? I can't see them, even in line view.

Thanks.

In outline view drag select the areas with the big spikes and you'll find some tiny line segments that can be deleted. Tidied up file attached.

[mvpdigital]

In outline view drag select the areas with the big spikes and you'll find some tiny line segments that can be deleted. Tidied up file attached.

Thank you for your efforts. I can still see one spike in your file. Maybe you left that one in.

I am now on the hunt for tiny little lines. What better way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

[gwpriester]

The spikes you are referring to are often the result of a Mitered line join. If you change the line join in the Line Gallery to Round or Beveled, it usually gets rid of the spikes.

[haakoo]

There were some extra shapes overlapping
black outlines nodes were wrong(turned)

jwitham has beaten me to it

Hans

[PatentGuy]

Can you point out the extraneous lines? I can't see them, even in line view.

Hope the two pics help. For the first one, I just drew a selection box around the spike and saw that something was selected. I used the cursor keys to move it so I could see it.

For the second pic I moved the bottom semicircle shape away so I could see it. Select Break Shapes from the Arrange menu and them move the semicircle shape away from the other two. Remember to unselect the shapes after breaking and then select only the semicircle shape.

It might be almost easier to make a new layer and redo the outline.

Yikes! Seems like there are a bunch of us looking at this all at the same time!

[handrawn]

...... I'm with Gary on this one