Ittara Map Problem; Ai CS4

[damonjynx]

Hi Folks,

I've run into a bit of a problem with my map. What I'd like to be able to do is copy what is in the red square on the map shown and paste it into the inset maintaining each thing as a vector. Each element, i.e. Mountains, Hills etc is on separate layer. The problem is I don't want to copy complete paths, I've tried that but I can't seem to get rid of the bits I don't want using the options on the Pathfinder tool. Is what I'm thinking doable? Or am I better off finishing the major map, exporting it as a PNG and then copying and auto-tracing the bit I want so I can enlarge and whatever to make the inset?


Sample Image
Wip_Ittara_Regional 20180405-01.png

[nopkin]

Hey damonjynx,

What you want is possible in the CC 2018 version, but it might as well work in CS4. Here's how I did it. It basically involves making a clipping mask, expanding the shapes and cropping. You should probably work on a copy of you art - preferably in a separate document - and when you are done, just copy the resulting shapes and paste them to your original document.

- Make sure the red shape is on the topmost layer (you can move it to a layer of its own and drag this layer all the way to the top). This shape will be used as a mask and will be destroyed in the process, so make a copy if you want to keep the red border.
- Select the red shape and all the objects that should be inside the box. I think select all might work here too.
- Menu > Object > Clipping Mask > Make. At this point, only what's inside the red square should be visible; but the rest of the shapes are still there, just masked out. Without touching anything (ie. select, deselect etc.), perform the next 3 actions.
- Menu > Object > Expand Appearance (if available)
- Menu > Object > Expand
- Menu > Effect > Pathfinder > Crop (or click the Crop icon in the Pathfinder panel)
- Ungroup the resulting objects if you want

Again, this has worked in my AI version, so give it a try. Otherwise, you can google "illustrator clipping mask crop" and see what you will find.

I hope it helps.

[damonjynx]

I hope it helps.

Did it ever. You sir, are a flipping genius!

Thank you, Nopkin!

As you can tell I'm not familiar with clipping masks, in fact didn't even think of them TBH.

I think the expanding the paths may have worked with the whole, copy, paste in front, minus back Pathfinder method, but I think it would've been a bit of trial and error to get the same result as your simple instructions that worked an absolute treat and gave me exactly what I was looking for!

Again, thank you.

Here is the sample map (BTW: The regions will be altered as they currently don't line up with the text):

Wip_Ittara_Regional 20180406-01-01.png

[nopkin]

Awesome, glad I could help.