THOUSANDS OF NODES

[Bowzer]

I’ve created a star with a maximum of 48 points, then I selected ‘convert to curves’ , then I ‘created outlines’ and ended up with this. What Is with all the nodes?

[Wosven]

Try expand stroke instead of converting to curves.

[Bowzer]

Ok, will do, thanks Wosven

[Alfred]

On 11/16/2021 at 5:35 AM, Wosven said:

Try expand stroke instead of converting to curves.

Isn’t ’Expand Stroke’ the same as creating outlines?

On 11/16/2021 at 5:13 AM, Bowzer said:

then I ‘created outlines’ and ended up with this

Converting to curves merely turns a parametric shape into a closed curve with editable nodes. Expanding a stroke turns it into a filled shape that mimics the stroke (so that, for example, expanding a 5 px horizontal stroke will produce a rectangle whose height is five pixels).

The ‘Expand Stroke’ function has been problematic for quite some time, but what the OP shows seems more like what you often get when subtracting a curved shape from another shape (e.g. a circle overlapping a square).

[Bowzer]

Yes Alfred as the ‘expand stroke’ is what’s needed for a piece of ‘text’ with stroke applied after converting to ‘curves’ for the use in cnc machines and other high end print outputs correct? I’ve found after applying ‘create outlines’ you then, select both layers and ‘add’ them or weld them together. I’m not sure in AI but with AD it leaves behind unwanted nodes that need cleaning up otherwise cnc machines cut these minute bloody holes all over the place. Selecting a layer when visible turned ‘off’ helps spots the annoying things. Is there a clean-up function or am I really pushing it? Also a ‘pen or pencil’ select option would be great to get at nodes around curves and so on. 

[Alfred]

1 hour ago, Bowzer said:

Yes Alfred as the ‘expand stroke’ is what’s needed for a piece of ‘text’ with stroke applied after converting to ‘curves’ for the use in cnc machines and other high end print outputs correct?

Doesn’t a CNC machine expect a stroke rather than a filled shape?

1 hour ago, Bowzer said:

I’ve found after applying ‘create outlines’ you then, select both layers and ‘add’ them or weld them together.

In AD if you select two open curves you can combine them with the ‘Join’ command to create a single curve (where the nearest ends of the original curves are joined by a straight line segment). The ‘Add’ command performs a Boolean addition between two or more closed shapes: if the shapes are originally unclosed, the app will close them first (as above, using a straight line segment to do so).

1 hour ago, Bowzer said:

Is there a clean-up function or am I really pushing it?

AD desperately needs a ‘Simplify’ command to reduce the number of nodes to a minimum, but it doesn’t have one yet.

1 hour ago, Bowzer said:

Also a ‘pen or pencil’ select option would be great to get at nodes around curves and so on.

It would be enormously helpful to have a freehand option for node selection instead of being restricted to a rectangular marquee.

[Wosven]

6 hours ago, Alfred said:

It would be enormously helpful to have a freehand option for node selection instead of being restricted to a rectangular marquee.

On Windows, using the Alt modifier with the Nodes tool will give you a lasso to select nodes. You can select nodes from different objects already selected with the Move tool.

Or it's something else you had in mind?

[Alfred]

1 minute ago, Wosven said:

On Windows, using the Alt modifier with the Nodes tool will give you a lasso to select nodes. You can select nodes from different objects already selected with the Move tool.

Or it's something else you had in mind?

No, nothing else in mind. I simply had a massive memory lapse! 

[Wosven]

1 minute ago, Alfred said:

No, nothing else in mind. I simply had a massive memory lapse! 

No problem, it's the best way to discover — again  — great things and forget the other ones