line combination to color

[existonz09]

how do u go about colouring the inside of the line segments with that of the same colour as of the lines IF possible or any other colors..
it's not rasterized yet...

 

[Eggles]

Do you mean filling in the rectangle with colour? Wouldn't it be better to actually draw a rectangle rather than 4 line segments? Then it is easy to fill the rectangle with any colour - the same or different to the line colour.

 

[existonz09]

i was stating an example and i wanted a soultion out of it.. i know by making a rectangle i could fill the shape with the color i want but what i have in my situation is complex shapes made frm lines but i am no where near to fill it with colors.. is there no possible way ? if there isnt i am throwing away all my designs and removin illustrator CS..

 

[Eggles]

There's no need to get snippy. I don't know what your skill level is, so I answered on the basis of the information you provided. Why not just state that you have a complex shape made up of line segments, and that you wish to know how to fill the enclosed shape?

In Illustrator, the only way you can fill with a colour is if the lines form a closed path.

 

[blueark]

If you use the direct selection tool, you can drag over the point where two lines meet. Then go to Object > Path > Join (or learn the shortcut key). Repeat for each point until you have a closed shape that you can color. It may be quite time consuming though, but it depends on the shape.

If you give each line a fill anyway, and start joining a few points, you might get away without having to join all of them. If it looks filled in, you should be able to do a pathfinder operation to finish the job. Another option might be to import the artwork into Flash, which has a more organic way of working with lines and shapes. This can be re-exported later.

Shapes constructed of individual lines are not common in illustration programs, and are more likely to be from CAD applications. That's why Illustrator doesn't cater for them. It's not a failing on the part of Illustrator, although it would be nice if the pathfinder could handle them.

 

[blueark]

To create a closed path from your shape, the following might help:

1: Select all the lines that compose your shape.
2: Go to Object > Expand... and make sure "Stroke" is selected.
3: Open the Pathfinder palette if it's not open already (Window > Pathfinder)
4: Option/Alt click on the first button (Add)
5: Object > Compound Path > Release.

Now you should be able to select the "Fill" area of your shape and color it in. If you have a lot of shapes to convert, I would suggest creating an Action to automate steps 2 to 5. You might also want to delete the old "Stroke" and add one directly to the new shape.

Shapes composed of lines are quite common in CAD applications, but they're very rare in illustration packages. It doesn't mean one way of working is better than another, but it can cause frustration when switching between them.