Can I edit an outline as two lines?

[Hue]

New user and non-artist here. Sometimes I make outline style icons using wide lines / strokes. However, sometimes I'd like to modify the result slightly.

An outline is controlled by a line in the center. I'm wondering if it's possible to convert a stroke into two outlines representing the inner and outer edges, allowing more customization of the implied shape.

An simple example would be to create a circle with no fill and 10pt stroke.  I'd like to convert that so I can edit the inner and outer circle curves independently, with effective fill in between them. Naturally that's an overly simplified example as I could achieve the result I'm after by subtracting two different size circles. So a real example would involve a longer poly line curve.

There may be a completely different work flow that suits this goal better.

Edited May 6, 2023 by Hue

[MikeTO]

Hi Hue, try the Appearance panel. You can assign two strokes to the same object, so a thicker one in a black and a thinner one in white. That would give you two strokes around the same path or shape.

Cheers

[Hue]

Thanks for the suggestion @MikeTO. I tried 2 strokes with different offsets (outer and inner), but could not separate them or achieve what I need.  Perhaps I didn't describe what I'm trying to do clearly.

I'm trying to use the line (eg. pen, shape outline via thick stroke) feature to create shapes that are mostly just symmetrical outlines so many points/pixels in width. But sometimes I want to pinch or stretch just one side of the thick line to achieve a specific shape.

Say I went to make a 'speech bubble' from a circle outline. I might start with this:

But now I want to pinch the curve into a sharp point. But since the outline is a single curve, not two, I don't have control over both edges.

[thomaso]

Try menu Layer > Expand Stroke to turn a single line with a stroke into two lines with a fill.

You can separate the resulting "Curves" layer into two separate "Curve" layers via the Geometry option "Divide" or the menu command "Separate Curves".

[Hue]

45 minutes ago, thomaso said:

Try menu Layer > Expand Stroke to turn a single line with a stroke into two lines with a fill.

Thanks! That's exactly what I was looking for, and worked how I hoped it would.