weave two 3D lines over and under each other

[spinhead]

In the attached I've done it, but the patches are clearly visible. Can't figure out the correct method or a workaround. (At each red arrow, the yellow line should go under the blue; at all other intersections it should go over.)

20210522-over-and-under.afphoto

[firstdefence]

• Rasterise the short blue overlay layers by right clicking and selecting Rasterise
  
   
• Uncheck the Preserve fx option and Click Rasterise
  
• Use a basic brush with the erase tool to cut of the ends of the overlays see image below for the result

 

[Alfred]

Instead of using line segments for the overlaps, use a clipped copy of the original blue line.

1. Duplicate the lower (blue) line and move the duplicate on top of the upper (yellow) line:

2. Where you want the blue line to stay on top (as indicated by your red arrows) cover the overlaps with small shapes:

3. Boolean ‘Add’ the new shapes and change the fill of the resultant Curves layer to ‘None’:

4. In the Layers panel, drag the upper blue line and drop it in the clipping position for the Curves layer (indicated by a thick horizontal line below and to the right of the target layer’s thumbnail when you drag):

Voilà!

[spinhead]

@firstdefenceThat's the direction I was trying to go but didn't think to rasterize

@AlfredAh, yes. Probably the direction I'll go.

Thanks to both of you.

Both ideas depend on the lines (these are just scribbled examples) being in their final shape before creating the overlaps. Any way to make them editable if one or more lines is moved?

[lepr]

9 minutes ago, spinhead said:

Any way to make them editable if one or more lines is moved?

Yes, use Duplicate Linked command instead of Duplicate command.

Edit: I should have warned that using Move Tool to move one of the linked curves will not move the other. Node Tool must be used for moving the entire curve so that the linked one will follow. To move an entire curve with Node Tool, press cmd-a (ctrl-a on Windows) to select all the nodes of the active curve and then drag any node.

[spinhead]

@anon2 Got it. Thanks.

[spinhead]

Re-reading your comment, it appears that you're speaking of moving the whole line. I'm hoping to grab it and edit it, shoving nodes around independently.

Though it's already not behaving as I expected; in the attached, if I move the blue line using the node tool, once it has moved beyond the ellipses I used for the mask, the added blue line bits disappear.

20210522-over-and-under-2.afphoto

[lepr]

15 minutes ago, spinhead said:

Re-reading your comment, it appears that you're speaking of moving the whole line. I'm hoping to grab it and edit it, shoving nodes around independently.

I understood that you would be moving nodes independently. The bit about moving the entire curve was additional information in case you ever wanted to do that.

 

15 minutes ago, spinhead said:

Though it's already not behaving as I expected; in the attached, if I move the blue line using the node tool, once it has moved beyond the ellipses I used for the mask, the added blue line bits disappear.

The behaviour is correct. You will need to manually adjust the clipping shape (the collection of elliptical paths). The software has no way of knowing that you want the clipping shape to be applied at regions where one curve crosses another. The Node Tool is useful for that too: select the four nodes that define an ellipse and then drag them to relocate that ellipse.

[lacerto]

(...)

[spinhead]

19 hours ago, anon2 said:

The software has no way of knowing that you want the clipping shape to be applied at regions where one curve crosses another.

Right. Of course. Thanks.

@Lagarto I do have Designer, so that's also helpful.