Illustrator Question *New Advanced Question*

[Neverending Project]

I cna't seem to figure out how to take a Clipping Path and make it into an actual object. Let me 'splain. Suppose you want to cut a rectangular piece out of something much larger - say a bunch of circles. I drew the circles, then drew the rectangle over them and made a clipping path out of it. The result is exactly what I want, and looks something like this:


But the circles are still there, just being clipped. Like this:


I want to delete everything outside the clipping path. How can I do this?

Thanks.

Mods: I couldn't figure out if this belonged here or in software. Please move if necessary.

[Flip_Willie]

Funny you should ask this, as I just looked up how to do it.

Instead of making a clipping path, use the crop functionality in the pathfinder window.  Make sure that your rectangle is on top. Then select everything you want cropped, plus the rectangle, and hit the crop button. Unfortunately, strokes are not preserved when you use this function.

(Notice: the red strokes are gone in the cropped result).

[Neverending Project]

Well, it seems that almost works. But it doesn't. Just to be sure, I created a new document and added three circles. Then I drew a rectangle on top of them and grouped all four. I selected the group, and selected Pathfinder -> Crop and the result is the effect I want. But when I select it the outlines of the circles are still there. In fact, I can still edit the circles individually. It seems the crop only did the same effect as the Clip.

I'm using AI CS3, if that makes a difference.

[Neverending Project]

Hold the phone, I found it. I was looking at your screenshot again and noticed the little pathfinder window. If you use this window (Window -> Pathfinder) and select Crop from there, it works. If you select Effect -> Pathfinder -> Crop from the menu (as I did originally) it doesn't work.

Go figure. Thanks!

[Neverending Project]

OK, new question. I am using Illustrator to make a drop shadow, but there is no option to set the angle of the shadow. It seems to always go to the lower-right. But what if I want it to go in another direction?

The attached screenshot shows a piece of my control panel rotated. I want it so if this piece is rotated 90° CW, the drop-shadow is in the lower-right. But as is, after printed and rotated the drop shadow will be to the lower-left.

[Flip_Willie]

OK, new question. I am using Illustrator to make a drop shadow, but there is no option to set the angle of the shadow. It seems to always go to the lower-right. But what if I want it to go in another direction?

The attached screenshot shows a piece of my control panel rotated. I want it so if this piece is rotated 90° CW, the drop-shadow is in the lower-right. But as is, after printed and rotated the drop shadow will be to the lower-left.

I know this doesn't answer your question, but I usually just create a new shape for my shadows. For example, I just make a copy of the shape I want to have a shadow, place it underneath everything, and set it to black with a transparency. This usually looks okay. (Look at example below).

However, if you are set on using the "drop-shadow" effect, I think it would be better to wait and apply it in Photoshop once your vector work is complete. So, just import your ai file into Photoshop and use Photoshop to produce your final image. I know that you can easily change the degree of drop-shadows in Photoshop.

Anyway, that is just my opinion.

[Trebeck]

Heya,

If you want to re-direct your shadows all you have to do is mess around with the X and Y offsets.  These are located in the dialog box when you select drop shadow, or for shadows already placed look in the appearance palette and double click on drop shadow.
Now if you have offset X as 7, try a -7 and see what happens!

Beck

[Neverending Project]

Doh! I was so used to seeing the little wheel for selecting an angle, that I didn't even think about putting in a negative offset. Problem fixt. Thank you!