Pathfinder Divide?

[jonnyh1968]

I have a tic-tac-toe board grid made of several lines. How would I convert those apparant squares in the center to objects which I could then select and fill.

Thanks.

 

[dimoj]

Select all lines.

Object>Expand (to make them into fills)

With all lines still selected Alt-Click on Add To Shape Area in the pathfinder. (the lines become a compound path with the square in the middle being the transparent part of the compound path.)

With the object selected go to Object>Compound Path>Release (the square in the middle will now become a filled object, ready for you to change the fill colour to whatever you want).

 

[jonnyh1968]

hmmmm. I tried it on a simple 4 line by 4 line grid and it worked! However, when I try it on my 10 by 50 line grid it flips out and connects my top horizontal line to my bottom horizontal line. It also gives me a dialouge box after I option click the "add to shape" that says "This filter produced one or more complex paths that may fail to preview or print". The end product looks like a sharks mouth because of that extra path it created from top to bottom.

 

[dimoj]

Hmmmm that's odd jonnyh, I just tried it with about a 20 x 20 and it worked fine.

All your lines were individual strokes right (lines created with the pen or line tool and then given a stroke value and NO FILL COLOUR)? And then all lines were selected and then expanded?

There were no other stray lines or objects that got caught up in the 'add to shape area' selection?

What version of Illy are you using?

I don't really know what to say as it will work by my original description but something has obviously gone wrong as you have done it.