Road shape line with Pen tool no brush

[Bad_Wolf]

Hi everyone,

Please, can you give me some suggestions how to draw a pad for a maze?

What I want to accomplish is drawing straight and curved paths fenced with a thin black line and in between the lines a fill (light grey). When I draw the line, both fence lines are automaticle drawn.

I tried the brush tool but the result was disappointing. Also, I could not find the brush I needed. See the following image, to get an idea what I want:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Cd4TH9oPEx1ZbdzgjmWuPsKxFBwnmNuX/view?usp=sharing

I want the structure as in the rectangle (black parrallel lines with light grey fill) and the shape like in the brush below but without those black divisions.

Any ideas or suggestions how I can accomplish that in Affinity Designer?

Thank you in advance for your help.

Chris

 

 

 

 

[Lee_T]

Hi Bad_Wolf, 

I can't see any file on that link, but to take guess at what you are looking for, you should create a new textured image brush with the texture that you are requiring from an image saved as a PNG.

 

Then set up your brush with settings roughly as below.

Lee

 

[Alfred]

20 minutes ago, LeeThorpe said:

I can't see any file on that link

I viewed and downloaded the file without any issues. Here ’tis:

Can’t the desired result be achieved quite easily in AD via the Appearance panel? A grey stroke bordered by black lines is just a broad black stroke with a slightly narrower grey stroke on top.

[G13RL]

Hi @Alfred, yes, but the crossings are non-overlapping

[Alfred]

15 minutes ago, G13RL said:

Hi @Alfred, yes, but the crossings are non-overlapping

Thanks, @G13RL, that’s a very useful observation.

[G13RL]

If the type of maze does not require overlapping crossings, as in my example, this method can lighten the "walls".

[thomaso]

5 minutes ago, G13RL said:

this method

Which is it?

[G13RL]

2 minutes ago, thomaso said:

Which is it?

Sorry, I was referring to the method mentioned by @Alfred, (the Appearance tab)

[thomaso]

Thanks, unfortunately I still don't understand your method in details. How did you avoid the overlapping of the black background stroke where Pen curve layers meet each other?  – Also I wonder about these slightly different appearance (offset + grays) at for instance this T-cross, and even at the corner:

[G13RL]

22 minutes ago, thomaso said:

Thanks, unfortunately I still don't understand your method in details. How did you avoid the overlapping of the black background stroke where Pen curve layers meet each other?  – Also I wonder about these slightly different appearance (offset + grays) at for instance this T-cross, and even at the corner:

 

I drew the black line (square cap), then, in the "Appearance" tab, I added a grey stroke a little less thick than the black, also square caps. 
I don't do anything special to avoid overlapping, it just happens by itself
The overshoots you mention only appear at certain zoom levels and are not present when printed.
See outline view mode attached.

[G13RL]

Short explanatory clip.

[Old Bruce]

5 hours ago, Bad_Wolf said:

What I want to accomplish is drawing straight and curved paths fenced with a thin black line and in between the lines a fill (light grey). When I draw the line, both fence lines are automaticle drawn.

Here are a couple of styles, One open ended and one closed. You will have to apply them to the strokes after you draw them. They use the appearance panel to make two strokes.

experment.afstyles

[G13RL]

7 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

Here are a couple of styles, One open ended and one closed. You will have to apply them to the strokes after you draw them. They use the appearance panel to make two strokes.

Very clever to make them into styles, I wouldn't have thought of that!

[thomaso]

4 minutes ago, G13RL said:

square caps

Ah, that's it! Thanks! – Interesting that it auto-handles overlaps within 1 curve.
Unfortunately this works only at ends of roads which meat rectangular (T, H, F), but not when two curves meet at +, X, Y, A, R, …

5 minutes ago, G13RL said:

Very clever to make them into styles, I wouldn't have thought of that!

I had to. Because to me the button to Add a Stroke was grayed-out as soon I had more than 1 curve selected, regardless of Move or Node Tool. I can't imagine that's normal, – what did I do wrong?

[G13RL]

17 minutes ago, thomaso said:

Ah, that's it! Thanks! – Interesting that it auto-handles overlaps within 1 curve.
Unfortunately this works only at ends of roads which meat rectangular (T, H, F), but not when two curves meet at +, X, Y, A, R, …

 

I had to. Because to me the button to Add a Stroke was grayed-out as soon I had more than 1 curve selected, regardless of Move or Node Tool. I can't imagine that's normal, – what did I do wrong?

Did you select "Add New Curve To Selected Curves Object" in the pop-up bar?

Edit

Unfortunately, this only works with "Pen Tool", not "Pencil Tool".

[thomaso]

8 minutes ago, G13RL said:

Did you select "Add New Curve To Selected Curves Object" in the pop-up bar?

What bar, where? The Appearance panel always defaults to No fill | 1 black stoke as soon I have more than 1 layer selected, also with Pen Tool:

[G13RL]

9 minutes ago, thomaso said:

What bar, where? The Appearance panel always defaults to No fill | 1 black stoke as soon I have more than 1 layer selected, also with Pen Tool:

Sorry, I did not make myself clear.
When you are working with the Pen Tool, its contextual bar appears, and this is where you have access to "Add New Curve To Selected Curves Object".

[Old Bruce]

Just now, G13RL said:

... working with the Pen Tool, its pop-up bar appears, ...

The proper name is the Context Toolbar. View > Show Context Toolbar.

[G13RL]

3 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

The proper name is the Context Toolbar. View > Show Context Toolbar.

Thank you for the clarification, as I am not an English speaker, I sometimes find it difficult 🙂

[Old Bruce]

1 minute ago, G13RL said:

... as I am not an English speaker, I sometimes find it difficult 

I can only speak English* and I sometimes... often find it difficult. I am continually checking the dictionary for definitions of words I have used for 50+ years.

* la Francophonie has a restraining order preventing me from even thinking about speaking French. Something about my pronunciation and grammar being criminal.

[G13RL]

3 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

I can only speak English* and I sometimes... often find it difficult. I am continually checking the dictionary for definitions of words I have used for 50+ years.

* la Francophonie has a restraining order preventing me from even thinking about speaking French. Something about my pronunciation and grammar being criminal.

Personally, I use DeepL or Google Translate, especially for answers. I am French and when I realised (in high school, in the sixties) that my English pronunciation was catastrophic, I gradually gave up.

[thomaso]

37 minutes ago, G13RL said:

When you are working with the Pen Tool, its contextual bar appears, and this is where you have access to "Add New Curve To Selected Curves Object".

Merci. No, for a road map I would not want this option to be active but prefer each street as a separate layer instead.

However, does it mean there is NO way to define more than 1 fill + 1 stroke if more than 1 layer is selected – and it would require an object style to assign such to several objects at a time? – If yes, for what purpose or advantage might this limitation have been developed?

[Old Bruce]

1 minute ago, thomaso said:

However, does it mean there is NO way to define more than 1 fill + 1 stroke if more than 1 layer is selected – and it would require an object style to assign such to several objects at a time? – If yes, for what purpose or advantage might this limitation have been developed?

I don't think that this limitation was designed. It just is the way it is, perhaps an oversight, perhaps there is some fundamental programming difficulty that needs to be cracked. I wish there was a way of applying multiple strokes from the Appearance panel to many selected curves. I also wish we could use the Appearance panel with text.

[G13RL]

26 minutes ago, thomaso said:

Merci. No, for a road map I would not want this option to be active but prefer each street as a separate layer instead.

However, does it mean there is NO way to define more than 1 fill + 1 stroke if more than 1 layer is selected – and it would require an object style to assign such to several objects at a time? – If yes, for what purpose or advantage might this limitation have been developed?

Yes, there is apparently no way to assign different strokes/fills to multiple curves at once via the appearance panel. 

[G13RL]

24 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

I don't think that this limitation was designed. It just is the way it is, perhaps an oversight, perhaps there is some fundamental programming difficulty that needs to be cracked. I wish there was a way of applying multiple strokes from the Appearance panel to many selected curves. I also wish we could use the Appearance panel with text.

It is indeed a pity to have to convert the text into curves to add multiple outlines using the appearance panel.