How to contour a group of objects?

[gaftalik]

Hello everyone,

In my attached example i need to make a white contour line on the exterior side of my grouped of hexagons (pattern).
First i tried to add lines but it also added lines to the interior hexagons the thing that i dont want, then i tried to use the contour tool but it made an altered contour and changed the interior cells too.

Any suggestion please?

Thank you for your help !

Gaf
Xara pro designer X11

[handrawn]

you could try

clone your group of hexagons - ungroup this clone [twice] and then combine the shapes to one shape
put this behind your oringinal group and apply your contour to this shape

[handrawn]

that may result in a jaggy contour - so instead of cloning, just draw a shape around the perimeter of your hexagon group and use that at the behind instead ?

[gaftalik]

that may result in a jaggy contour - so instead of cloning, just draw a shape around the perimeter of your hexagon group and use that at the behind instead ?

Indeed i've made a hexagon shape cleared the fill color and kept the line to 10 pt and placed it behind.

Thank you or your support.

[handrawn]

you are welcome _

[Acorn]

The overall shape is just a Hexagon (QuickShape 6-side with Rounded Corners).

Adding a Line of 10pt means 5pt goes inwards.
Making it 1pt and adding a Contour of 10pt and more than 16 Steps to give a nice bevel effect.

Acorn

[ss-kalm]

Group them and add a glow shadow. Adjust the glow shadow size as necessary. Change colour to white. Change transparency to 0% and blur to 0. If necessary for the hexagon lines to stay black, make first glow shadow black, and very small, and group again to add the white glow shadow to the group.

[gaftalik]

Thank you Acorn and Keith, both are great solutions too !