Page 56 - CS6_AI_Look_Inside.pdf

16. Using the Selection tool, select the smaller circle only and choose
Object>Path>Outline Stroke.
This command changes the object stroke to a filled object. You drew the white circle to
“cut out” the smaller black circle from the wedges. The Pathfinder functions recognize
strokes for cutting apart shapes, but the stroke weight is not considered when the new
paths are generated. To create the thick white space in the actual icon, you need to
convert the heavy stroke to a filled shape.

The original The Outline Stroke command
object had a 5-pt changes the selected object
stroke weight. to a filled shape with no
visible stroke attributes.

17. Select all the objects in the icon, and then open the Pathfinder panel Note:
(Window>Pathfinder). Press Command/
You can drag a marquee with the Selection tool, or choose Select>All. Because you Control-A to select all
locked the snowflake artwork in the first icon, those objects are not selected. unlocked objects on the
artboard.
18. In the Pathfinder panel, click the Divide button.
Options in the Pathfinder panel allow you to cut shapes out of other shapes and merge
multiple shapes into a single shape.
It’s important to realize that many Pathfinder options can be applied in more than one
way. We’re using the Divide and Unite options in this exercise to give you an idea of
what you can accomplish with the Pathfinder.

The Divide function slices apart
all possible shapes of the
selected objects. Everywhere
two objects overlap, a new
shape is created.

Divide button Because the straight lines are
open shapes, they divide the
circles into sixths, but the
open ends of the lines
(outside the area of the
larger circle) are removed.

19. Save the file and continue to the next exercise.

64 Project 1: International Symbols