Symbols in compound shapes / symmetrical shapes with stroke outline

[Michael A. Lowry]

I often need to make shapes that are bilaterally symmetrical. I have been doing this by creating a symbol that represents one half of the shape, and then combining two copies of the symbol — one reflected about the axis of symmetry. I sometimes often needed to create an outline stroke around the combined shape. So far I have done this the hard way — by creating copies of the original half-shape, adding them, and then applying the stroke only to the combined shape.

Today I learned about compound shapes and thought that these might offer a more elegant solution. Is it possible to create a compound shape out of two symbols — each containing a shape?

I have tried this but have not had success yet. It seems that the compound shape works correctly only if the shapes are immediately under the compound shape in the layer hierarchy. If a symbol is used, the symbol appears as an additional level betweeen the compound shape and the child shape. This appears to prevent the compound shape from working as desired. E.g., the fill of the compound and the child shapes does not work.

Alternatively, is there a better way to create symmetrical custom shapes with a stroke outline?

[AllAppsUser]

Can you post an illustration of what you're describing? It's very difficult otherwise for us to visualise what you mean, and is really hlepful to those who hope to help.

[DM1]

On 2/8/2021 at 6:35 PM, Michael A. Lowry said:

Alternatively, is there a better way to create symmetrical custom shapes with a stroke outline?

Designer has a ‘Symmetry' drawing setting but only in Raster brush menu, so probably not helpful. Though you could use imaengine (now called Vector Q), to convert raster to vector.