Making double line of violin outline in Designer?

[Ballyshannon]

I'm working on a violin project in Designer and trying to create a black double line trim that follows the outline of the instrument top. I have a stroke outline of the trim outline and want to duplicate the line and place the duplicate just far enough to the inside to create a double line with the duplicate line following the contours of the original line precisely at a given distance. Copying and using the Transform function with aspect ratio locked doesn't work. Any help would be appreciated. I've included an image I'm working from to show the double trim effect I'm trying to duplicate.

[dutchshader]

Hallo Ballyshannon,

Duplicate the violin layer, set stroke to inside to the size you need, go to layer>expand stroke. Clean up.

[Pšenda]

 

[firstdefence]

Had a quick doodle before work just to see.

[Ballyshannon]

Thank you for the suggestions, but I guess I wasn't clear enough in what I'm trying to do. I've already created the wood binding trim around the outside. That's no problem.  What I want to do is create the black thin double lines to the inside of the wood binding (see image with arrows pointing to the lines I'm referring to), which is simply an aesthetic touch to this particular violin. I've created the first thin line, which is the stroke outline submitted in my initial post. I just don't know how to duplicate that same line at the same stroke weight (.4 pt), but separated from the first line so it follows the contours of the first line exactly to create the double line effect. Creating the first line to the outside and duplicating the line to the inside doesn't work, and as mentioned, Designer has no offset path option. I could go the time-consuming route and copy the first line, use Transform to set it at the basic distance I want from the first line, then tweak a lot of nodes to make it follow the contours of the first line, but I'm hoping there's a quicker, easier, and more accurate work-around.

[firstdefence]

You would do a second expand stroke on the previously expanded stroke and expand that stroke but you can flip the expanded stroke fill colour to be the stroke and increase the stroke width to emulate the two black detail lines.

 

 

 

[Ballyshannon]

20 minutes ago, firstdefence said:

You would still do the add stroke and expand stroke 

As mentioned, I did that and doesn't work. I'm obviously missing something. I've included the original outline stroke in .afdesign format with line width at .6 pt. If it wouldn't be too much trouble and when you have time, would you mind sharing the steps to create the double line from this file? Appreciate it.

Violin inner trim outline.afdesign

[MEB]

Hi Ballyshannon,
Select the line, go to menu Layer ▸ Expand Stroke, then set the stroke width again (for the expanded stroke since it's not a shape) and remove the fill colour. Note that if you set a large stroke width it may look you still have only one line. Zoom in and decrease the stroke width to see what's happening more clearly. You should see the two lines clearly.

[firstdefence]

Take a look at this: Violin inner trim outline detail black lines added.afdesign Saved with history so you can jog back and forth in the history panel. 

[Ballyshannon]

Thank you both so much for taking your time to help. The detailed process and explanation is exactly what I needed.

[Guest]

Hello Ballyshannon,

You can increase the line size, "Expand Stroke", adjust the color and thickness of the lines and the filling.
Then do "Divide".
Select the inner line, increase its thickness, "Expand Stroke" and adjust the lines and filling as for the original line.

For my screenshot I put the line at 7.5 pt and the inner line at 4.3 pt.

[Ballyshannon]

This has all been extremely helpful. Reading through the suggestions and starting with the basic stroke outline, I increased the width to how far apart I want the individual lines with Align set to Inside, expanded stroke with no fill, set line width to .6 pt Black, and done. No need to duplicate original line or Divide. Takes just a few seconds. Many, many thanks!

[firstdefence]

Looking good Ballyshannon