Fill 'er Up?

[ken tompkins]

I have been reviewing Gary's WebXealot #20 on Fills. I have also played most of the morning with a project I am working on.

In the attached .gif, I can see that if I draw a simple circle -- connecting both ends -- that the circle will automatically fill with whatever color I have set it at. I can also see -- Gary illustrates this in #20 -- that if I drag a color into that circle the new fill takes effect.

But the project I am working on requires a different kind of fill and I haven't been able to do it.

In the attached .gif, I have drawn four intersecting lines -- like tic-tac-toe. I can easily change the color of any of the lines with the fill but I can't fill the center square (I understand, btw, that one can't fill an incomplete form.)

My conclusion is that, while the center square LOOKS like a complete form, it is, in actuality, not one.

Am I correct in this? Is there another way to fill the central square (I don't need a tutorial; I just need to be pointed at documentation).

Thanks again for all of your support.

ken tompkins

[ken tompkins]

I have been reviewing Gary's WebXealot #20 on Fills. I have also played most of the morning with a project I am working on.

In the attached .gif, I can see that if I draw a simple circle -- connecting both ends -- that the circle will automatically fill with whatever color I have set it at. I can also see -- Gary illustrates this in #20 -- that if I drag a color into that circle the new fill takes effect.

But the project I am working on requires a different kind of fill and I haven't been able to do it.

In the attached .gif, I have drawn four intersecting lines -- like tic-tac-toe. I can easily change the color of any of the lines with the fill but I can't fill the center square (I understand, btw, that one can't fill an incomplete form.)

My conclusion is that, while the center square LOOKS like a complete form, it is, in actuality, not one.

Am I correct in this? Is there another way to fill the central square (I don't need a tutorial; I just need to be pointed at documentation).

Thanks again for all of your support.

ken tompkins

[Peter Clifton]

Ken

Short answer is it is not easy, you could try a mixture of cloning the lines and using the slice option and then joining the resulting curves. Or zooming in and using the shape tool and zooming adding and breaking nodes at the appropriate points and manually joining the resulting curves. In general in any vector package to fill areas such as you describe you need closed curves (or at least all of the lines joined so only one open section of the curve remains).

However there was a long discussion in the CorelDRAW newsgroups nearly 2 years ago (which I missed) started by a talented cartoonist called K.N.Pepper, a regular in the newsgroups who coined the term CCCFER (Create Closed Curves From Enclosed Regions), a few of the more talented users joined in and after the discussion one of the participants, Les Johnson, went off to work on the problem. This isn't of much use I know but he did produce a utility for CorelDRAW9 that does just what you want. I think it might be the only utility for any Drawing package in the sub $500 range that can do such a trick.

Wrong group I know but if any one is interested and has CorelDRAW 9 it can be found at

www.mistycreek.com


Peter

[Big Frank]

This forum's great for workarounds! This is probably not what you were looking for, but here goes anyway...

--
Big Frank was
http://www.wognum.org/files/madewithxarax.gif

[gwpriester]

I never realized you could do that, BF. I would have converted the lines to shape, then added shapes and used Break Apart. You saved one whole step. Cool.

I can save you a step. There is no need to add a fill color. For some odd reason lines (paths) have a default black fill. I have always felt this was unnecessary, until now.

Gary

Gary Priester

Moderator Person

Be It Rarely So Humble...

[Ross Macintosh]

I didn't know you could do that either. Would have come in handy had I known.

I made this attachment to help others see some of the potential of this technique...

Regards, Ross

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

[AjIsCoool]

I tried it, it is wierd (Good Thou) [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]
This is my attempt to do a mosiac (excuse my spelling [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_confused.gif[/img] )floor

[Peter Clifton]

Big Frank

Suitably humbled again (sigh)

Master artist and technician, what a guy [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

Next time this subject crops up in the Corel newsgroups You and Xara X get a mention.

Peter

[Big Frank]

Glad to have been there when the opportunity to help presented itself!

--
Big Frank was
http://www.wognum.org/files/madewithxarax.gif

[phurm]

I attempted to recreate Ross' doodle fill but couldn't

I created a 3-line "tic-tac-toe" type board with 3 vertical and 3 horizontal lines. When I followed the directions as given the "square" that got filled was the big one created by the outside lines. The individual small squares did not become individualized as I would have thought from Ross' post.

Ross, did you select the 4 lines making up each square and do each individually? If so then I am OK and I mistakenly got the idea that the process would break each square individually.

Any thoughts anyone?

TIA

Paul