Creating neat Geometry with transform origin

[phfoto]

Ok so. I've got some dash shapes I want to put inside different shapes (triangle, odd shape I drew) but I cannot figure out how to make these dashes go round the inside of the object to make it look like staples. I done one for a circle which was easy by using the transform panel and inputing 360/x for the R value, but I cannot figure it out for different shapes!

[GarryP]

Can you show us what your “dash shapes” are (and how you made them) and give us an idea of what the shapes you want to put them inside look like and how you want them to be “put inside”?
There will probably be various ways to do what you want but the best method will probably depend on the specifics of what you have and exactly what you want to do.

[phfoto]

Hi Garry. I'll link to some example. What I do is draw a line with the pen tool then place round the shape manually but it's very time consuming!

 

https://depositphotos.com/179851020/stock-illustration-blank-cardboard-price-tag-label.html

https://depositphotos.com/58990963/stock-illustration-denim-price-tag-label.html

https://depositphotos.com/181234980/stock-illustration-leather-labels-collection.html

[h_d]

One way is to duplicate the shape, set its fill to empty, give it a dotted stroke and make it slightly smaller than the underlying shape:

The above is a bit rough and ready, but can easily be refined. I've attached an .afdesign file.

Cheers,

H

stitches.afdesign

[GarryP]

h_d’s technique above is useful for some shapes but you might find problems when the shape is non-basic.
For more complex shapes you may need to do quite a bit of manual manipulation of the nodes to get the best look.
See my the top half of my attached image where the arrows point to areas where the gap between the shapes changes.
The up-coming Contour Tool in Designer (in 1.9, try the beta if you want to) may alleviate most of the problems with this.
The bottom half of my attached image shows the result with the Contour Tool, which looks more pleasing to me.

[phfoto]

Ah yes. I see! As I've now purchased designer I've got the fineliner brushes which actually has dashed strokes in them so I think I can use them until I need more manual manipulation. I like the look of the contour tool too!