Dashed stroke that breaks on a grid?

[Sirenetta]

Hello,

I have a 10X10 grid. Is it possible to create a dashed stroke that breaks on the grid? I tried different dashed settings, but I was unable to make the dash break where the grid intersects. Thanks!

 

 

dashed line.afdesign

[GarryP]

My first guess would be that you probably can’t do what you want because the first and last – ‘outside’ – strokes of the dashed line will need to be of different lengths to the ‘inside’ strokes.
See my attached image where the ‘outside’ strokes in red are of different lengths to the ‘inside’ strokes in blue and the arrows show the differences.
(Even if it were possible, because the stroke width alters where the gaps are, you might have to do some manual arithmetic to get something close and you would have to repeat the arithmetic on every line which has a different length/stroke width.)
I might be wrong though, so check back later to see if someone has a solution.

[firstdefence]

Based on Garry’s observations, I simplified things by reducing the stroke width to 1px made a dash of 8 units and a space of 2 to total 10, I then adjusted the phase and ended up with this.

[carl123]

3 hours ago, GarryP said:

My first guess would be that you probably can’t do what you want because the first and last – ‘outside’ – strokes of the dashed line will need to be of different lengths to the ‘inside’ strokes.

The appearance panel allows multiple strokes.

If the OP requires that the first and last strokes start and end on the grid lines then it should be doable with multiple strokes.

[GarryP]

Might be tricky to use in in a real-world situation, especially if the line length changes, but it can certainly do the job in a quick test.
Just need to get the dash settings right.

[R C-R]

Because getting the dash parameters perfect can be so hard, I think I would be tempted to instead use snapping & a combination of multiple straight lines expanded to curves placed in a compound object, something like this:

 

By using a compound, the gaps can be adjusted as desired by selecting all the subtracted curves & using the Transform Objects Separately feature of the Move Tool together with the resize around center modifier key to keep the gaps centered on the grid lines.

Dashed line fake.afdesign

[Sirenetta]

Thanks everyone! GarryP what settings did you use in your example? Thanks for your examples firstdefense and R C-R. This is very helpful!

R C-R, how did you create the "Compound" folder group? I'm familiar with selecting objects and then selecting the "add, subtract, etc.," but I haven't created them in the way you did.

 

 

[Alfred]

29 minutes ago, Sirenetta said:

R C-R, how did you create the "Compound" folder group?

I’m not @R C-R (obviously!) but to create a ‘Compound’ object from multiple selected objects you either (a) choose ‘Create Compound’ from the Layer menu or (b) hold down the Alt key and click on one of the Geometry icons (‘Subtract’ in this particular case) on the Toolbar.

[GarryP]

15 hours ago, Sirenetta said:

GarryP what settings did you use in your example?

I’ve attached a document which shows how the two strokes can be put together.
Line C is a version of the idea that firstdefence gave,
Line D is a version of the idea that carl123 gave.
Line B is a combination of lines C and D using the Appearance Panel to add two strokes at the same time.
Line A is the same as line B but all strokes are coloured the same.
Select each line, open the Appearance Panel, then click on the “x pt” link (after “Stroke”) for each stroke and look at the Dash and Phase settings.

two-dashed-strokes.afdesign

[R C-R]

2 hours ago, GarryP said:

I’ve attached a document which shows how the two strokes can be put together.

Compare that document to this two-dashes vs compounds.afdesign one that uses the expand stroke + compound method I mentioned earlier. E is the same as A except that it is an 8 curve compound. Now imagine trying to create variations like F, G, or H using the two stroke method.

Those variations & many others can be made in a few seconds from the E one. In each one the grid alignment is exact & height, gap width(s), or both can be changed independently at any time without altering the alignment.

It involves a little more work to set up but by using power duplicate to create the verticals it is less than one might think.

Also, this method can be used with AP, which lacks AD's Appearance panel.

[Sirenetta]

Thanks everyone for all of these ideas!! This is very helpful!