Quickgrass McGrath

It seems I won't be able to do this sort of bit and have it all fill in. It happens to be crucial to the type of illustration I will do since there will be a gazillion things like tiny leaves of grass, foliage etc. These overlap parts become transparent sections, by the way. The corners of the sections are undefinable by points, which makes a beginning of a solution rather difficult. I do not know where to start. But whatever it is, it has to be an easy fix, since I will have hundreds of instances in just one illustration. I could do shapes on shapes and flatten of course, but if anyone has ideas for the above with just one shape that has overlapping elements, please pass it on.

It seems I won't be able to do this sort of bit and have it all fill in. It happens to be crucial to the type of illustration I will do since there will be a gazillion things like tiny leaves of grass, foliage etc. These overlap parts become transparent sections, by the way. The corners of the sections are undefinable by points, which makes a beginning of a solution rather difficult. I do not know where to start. But whatever it is, it has to be an easy fix, since I will have hundreds of instances in just one illustration. I could do shapes on shapes and flatten of course, but if anyone has ideas for the above with just one shape that has overlapping elements, please pass it on.

"Joining" your shapes (or stroked lines)? If so why? - It could be the cause of your problems. Lines and shapes can overlap without doing what you illustrate.

(I don't know how familiar you are with Xara - So forgive me if you already know this: Joining is not the same as grouping. Grouping a bunch of lines/shapes won't do what you've illustrated).

You mention "flattening" - I haven't heard of that in regards to a vector image. What do you mean? Do you have an example of the kind of design you want to achieve?

Regards, Ross

<a href=http://www.designstop.com/>DesignStop.Com</a>

Hi Shokan

Yes I kind of understand what you are having a problem with.

It's the fact that if you draw one closed shape with a fill, and if parts of that one shape overlap other parts then the overlap part goes transparent. Like you said the way around this is to have different objects/shapes which overlap, rather than one shape overlapping itself. But if you already have a large number of these self overlapping shapes then breaking them apart to stop this effect could be a big job.

Ross I think this is what is happening, maybe by flattening Shokan was refering to using lots of different overlapping shapes and then joining them into one shape ... not too sure though.

I've come across this before and I think it is some function of the vector mathematics that results in this. I will have a go and see if there is any way round that can help you but I don't think that there will be a shortcut or a way out, apart from breaking apart the shapes, so they can overlap without the transparent part.

Okay I've had another look. If the objects that are self overlapping are a flat colour with no transparency then you could try adding a thickish line to the shape. This has the effect of closing the transparent overlap part. The shape will be bigger overall due to the thickness of the line added so you could reduce the shape to try and match the original as much as possible.

I've only had a quick go at this, it would depend on the size of the transparent part to determine how thick a line you would need to add. Don't know whether this would be a quick fix or if it will work at all for you, as I don't know what or how many elements you will have in your drawing or how they will overlap. Because if the transparent part is quite large then adding a really thick line, and reducing the size will mean you cannot really match the original shape closely.

Hope I've understood what you are trying to do.

Regards

Su

[This message was edited by Su Lawrence on March 12, 2002 at 21:26.]

it appears that Shokan drew some overlapping shapes and then joined them. It doesn't look like he drew one shape with overlapping sections. The "join" command should be used only if you want to create shapes with holes in them (as described in Xara help). If you don't want the overlaps to be holes then you should group rather than join.

-- eky

Eky - yes I saw what Ross was saying with join shapes.

I wasn't sure how Shokan drew the shapes when I originally looked at the image he posted, as the 'grass' shapes are cut off by the edge of the bitmap. But having another look - looks like Ross is right.

When I originally read what he said about one shape with overlapping elements I thought he might have done what I mentioned before. Oh well nevermind.

BTW when I said this:
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> Ross I think this is what is happening, maybe by flattening Shokan was refering to using lots of different overlapping shapes and then joining them into one shape ... not too sure though.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

What I meant was this:
Ross I think this is what is happening, maybe by flattening Shokan was refering to using lots of different overlapping shapes and then adding them together into one shape ... not too sure though.

Using the wrong terminology there.

Regards

Su

Yes, it is the mathematics of it, and I will just do shapes on top of shapes and group. I understand the thick line idea, but I will just accept that I cannot have elements of one object overlapping another.

(I am posting this as a seperate thread for a solution to "Quickgrass McGrath" and "when a filled closed shape has an overlap" so people can find it later if they need it)

If you have a single shape that has elements of itself overlapping, thereby creating a transparent common area, and you want to get rid of that effect, the following works:

In the image Overlap 1, you see the original shape with the transparent intersection area. Using the Freehand Tool with a low Freehand Smoothing level (for accuracy), draw a shape through the four corners that define the intersection (Overlap 2). Select All. Then: Arrange >> Combine Shapes >> Add Shapes to achieve Overlap 3.

Notes: When you draw that amorphus shape intesecting the four points (Overlap 2), at high Zoom it isn't hard to pass through the exact intersection spots. But if you should miss towards the outside a little, you get a little extra bump in the crook of the final shape. If you miss on the inside, you get a little loop jog in the line in the final shape. But it all does work.

If I decide to go this route with my illustrations in all instances where grass or foliage overlaps for example, I'll certainly have my hands "filled". I may just use it to correct overlap that happens accidentally within one shape... as is the case when the paths of Shape Editor or Freehand shapes (at higher smoothing level) bow out into an adjoining area of the same object. As I mentioned in the other threads, I will also simply draw on top of other shapes and group to create an overlapped effect.

Have you thought about making and using a grass brush to make the process less tedious?

Example using a grass brush I made:

eky,
That grass brush is so cool. That could be very useful.

Dale Fipp...

shokan:

Thanks for that min Tut! I was able to follow it better than the other ideas mentioned earlier. It worked very well.

I also noticed setting the line width to "none" in the "Overlap2" shape helped make it seemless too.


Bob C.