January 2014 Video Tutorial : Drawing Plastic and Chrome What's the Diff?

[Gare]

Actually, Larry hit upon a related topic when he mentioned simplifying a text character to reveal control points.

I don't know if any of you have ever tried to import an EPS vector file, not an AI Illustrator file or a PDF, but an EPS that contains only vector info. I've attached a Xara file that contains what appears to be three hexagons, but they are not shapes...but instead they are a line, and this used to be a perennial problem between me and clients: EPS allows open paths to contain fills, unlike Xara. When Dover Publications offers EPS files, same problem. Illustrator doesn't mind filling and open path, but it tends to flummox Xara users.

So how do you make a shape out of a line? It's not as simple as closing the line, because a line can have hundreds of control popints...will you spend hours finding the control points needed to close it?

You do what Larry suggested: you put a square or a circle right on the colored area of the EPS design, select both and then choose Arrange>Combine Shapes>Add Shapes.

The result is a shape, not a line, that you can now work with.

My Best,

Gary