Outlining Objects

Working with my second AI CS2 file.

First one came with four layers, turned off fills
and had outlines to work with: Or should I say
strokes ? In any event, exported into DXF using
a third party utility. File worked fine in CAD.

This second file comes with a single layer and
when I attempt to cancel the fill am left with a
blank rectangular outline. Objects show as
Ungrouped. Live Trace option is greyed out;
Flatten Transparency is not greyed out.
Not sure how to tell when there are strokes,
or when you generate an outline using Live
Trace. Or is there a means to explode from
one layer to several ?

Any suggestions on how to proceed ?

Thank you.

Slind

" First comes the learning, then the unlearning. "

Welcome Slind,
to the bowels of the Talk Graphics forum. The problem could be two things: It could be a mask, try Alt+ctrl+7. which would release the clipping mask. You can also do it through, Object, Clipping mask, release or your the shortcut given. It also could be bitmap in a file type like tiff which is not supported by Live Trace or other types of files but as you can take the fill out I think it must be in vector format.

If you still have problems with the object after trying the clipping mask how about posting the file here so we can have a quick look and help. If the file is very large that the forum will not upload it you can always write me a private message and we can exchange email addresses and do it that way.

Here is the file. ( uploaded )

inst land final cutout.pdf

There is a higher rez version of the same file,
but otherwise identical. Whatever light you
could shed is most appreciated.

Slind

" First comes the learning, then the unlearning. "

It turns out that this is a Photoshop file,
converted into a PDF. Not sure if the Bridge
application is appropriate for this situation.

Slind

After toggling the layer on and off twice,
then selecting, unselecting, and reselecting
the object, Live Trace > Make option becomes available and outline exports without incident.

Have absolutely no idea at all why or how this works.

Slind

" First comes the learning, then the unlearning. "

Yes I should have come back to you sooner but I was at work. Will have a quick trace (manual trace) of the drawing tomorrow morning and will post results but it will be rough so be warned.

As promised a rough manual trace of the Jpeg. Started with circles on one side only and using the Pathfinder pallete combined all circles into one shape. Then drew the circles which formed part of the maze, then drew the connecting lines and then made those lines to a shape by using Object-Path-Offset path. Then Back onto the Pathfinder abd combined the circles and the connecting lines. After doing that I used the Pathfinder again to combine the centre circle shape and the rest into one half of the drawing. Copied and pasted a duplicate then with the transform tool reflected the other side and again with the Pathfinder combined the 2 halves into one.

There is a mistake on the top circle on each side the line which I though was far enough in was not but it could tidied up fairly easily. If I was doing this drawing again and not rushing it I would change the default settings on the Offset path as it made too many nodes and some of the lines are poor. I have to restate that this is only a very rough drawing for you to look at

This is a much better approach. After exporting the
outlines, I was rewarded with two sets of lines atop one another, even though in a single layer.
Particularly nasty to remove as the overlapping lines as they had differing termination points.

Next time, I'll follow your example and draw as you have exampled.

Thank you for the enlightening.

Slind