center part of circle transparent with 3pt colored stroke??

[Olimits7]

Hello,

I'm trying to create a circle with a black 3pt stroke, but I want the center of it to be transparent. I can get it to have the 3pt stroke and the center be white. I can't figure out how to get the center transparent. Can somebody help me with this?


Thank you,

olimits7

 

[itchybug]

0:

Have you tried removing the fill? In the color picker, activate the little solid box and then click on the box with a red diagonal line through it.

Bert

http://www.itchybug.com

 

[Olimits7]

Perfect!!! Thank you.

 

[Olimits7]

Now I have a new problem. Now I have a circle with a 5pt green stroke applied to it with a transparent center. But now I want to add a black outline to the stroke. Is there a way to do this?

I have text and its easy because I just use the stroke to make the black outline and fill the color with green, but I already used the stroke in the circle so I don't know how I would do this.

Thank you again,
olimits7

 

[itchybug]

0:

You have come to a fork in the road.

One thing you can do, is make a compound path. A compound path is an object that has holes in it, to put it very simplistically. You can make compound paths in different ways, the most direct one is to use the Pathfinder palette.

Let's set this up, you draw a circle, the size should be the desired outside diameter. Leave selected. Double-click the Scale tool, enter 50%, uniform, and hit Copy. Now, you have 2 concentric circles. Give them a green fill, and a black stroke. Now, here comes the fun part:

Open the Pathfinder palette (in case it isn't open already) by going to Window>Pathfinder. I forget the shortcut because I always have it open. The second button from the left is the "Subtract from Shape Area" button. This button is your friend! Select both circles, and click on "Subtract ...". Now, you have a donut, with green dough and black frosting on the side!

While you're at it, try some of the other functions of the PFP.

The shape you just created is still "Live", meaning that both objects have retained their own identity, and can be freed at any point. If you wish to make the object permanent, press the "Expand" button. If you want to make a compound shape permanent right off the bat, Alt-click the tool you're using.

The next prong of the fork is quite different.

Draw your circle, give it its green fat stroke, and leave selected. Open the Appearance palette (Yes everyone, I will find a way to incorporate the AP in ANY post). Window>Appearance Palette. Look at its contents. It should have the following line items (I don't have Illustrator running, forgive me if you have to interpret something):

line 1: Path
line 2: Stroke (5 pt Green)
line 3: Fill (None, a box with a red stripe through it)

You can add a new stroke in several ways, I would simply drag the existing stroke line item onto the little "new" icon at the bottom of the AP next to the dumpster. Boom! Now you should have this:

line 1: Path
line 2: Stroke (5 pt Green)
line 3: Stroke (5 pt Green)
line 4: Fill (None, a box with a red stripe through it)

Now, take the stroke that's line item 3 (activate it by clicking on it in the Appearance palette), and change stroke color to black, and stroke width to 7 points. Voila. A big advantage of this method, is that you only have ONE path, with 2 strokes. Change the shape of the path, and everything keeps fitting perfectly. Also try adding some fills.

OK this is the third prong: Select your circle with the fat stroke, go to Object>Path>Outline Stroke. Now, your stroke is a fill and you can give it a stroke! Too easy, though, and you wouldn't learn much from that!

Enough?

HTH

Bert

http://www.itchybug.com

 

[Olimits7]

Thank you again, all 3 ways worked perfectly.

Thank you,
olimits7

 

[itchybug]

No Prob, 0. Anytime. Merry Christmas.

http://www.itchybug.com