How to open up the center of an O, or D etc.

[Decal_Designs]

Hello everyone,

I wonder if the VMP pros could let me know how to open up the center of a closed letter, like an O or a D or a P etc.

Here is my situation. While working on a white magnetic sign in VMP I had to import a logo. It is Black and my page background is white. Everything is going OK as far as I can tell, but accidentally I noticed that the centers of the closed letters are white and not an actual hole.

I noticed this by playing around and changing the page color to yellow just for kicks. How do I get the centers to be holes?

Below is a screen-shot which will explain it better.

 

[THATgirl]

did you weld?

 

[Fred Weiss]

Don't know about VMP but this is how you do it most everywhere else. All inside shapes should be the same color as the outside paths and then all of that color selected. Then combine/compound them to make centers into holes.

What combining does is to bind two or more vectors together and to instruct outside paths to fill inwards - not outwards, and inside paths to fill outward - not inwards. This then creates a fill area limited to everything that is within the vector paths.

 

[Rick]

I don't have VMP but did you try "Compound" or knock out, or subtract in a pathfinder menu?

 

[Decal_Designs]

Hmmm, so far I haven't welded, blacked out or compounded the logo yet, but I'll try those things now and see what happens. Thanks for the suggestions!

 

[Scott Reynolds]

All you have to do is compound the logo.

 

[Decal_Designs]

OK, I tried to weld the logo, and the center of the O completely filled in with black , so I had an O with no center.

I tried to select by color, and chose white. Then I moved the white off the page, but still ended up with letters with no centers.

I tried to find the Punch Out option which ended up being buried in the Manual Welding Module. While there, I selected the center of the O and click the punch out Icon, but that only left me with an O with no center again.

Then I noticed an Icon in the Welding Module that said change to a hole, so I selected the center and clicked change to a hole, but that didn't work either.

Any other ideas?

Thanks!

 

[Decal_Designs]

All you have to do is compound the logo.

I've looked up compound in the help files for VMP because I could find a compound command. VMP calls compound (combine). However combining the logo didn't work.

 

[Fred Weiss]

Here are the steps in Illustrator in order.

1. Select all black objects (vectors in this case).

2. Make them all the same fill color.

3. Combine/Compound them.

You are probably not assigning them all to be the same fill color.

 

[uneedasign]

check to see if your imported image is the same color that your software defaults to. For example if your software used lab colors, and the imported image is cmyk, that can sometimes cause trouble. Convert the imported image to the same color that you software uses.

 

[Scott Reynolds]

In Flexi, Combine and Compound are two different things.

 

[Fred Weiss]

Combine is a term that Corel uses. I think Xara uses "Join". Most other apps use "compound" for the routine under discussion.

Welding, cutouts and other path cutting terms can really get confusing. Flexi uses combine. Illustrator use Pathfinders with individual names like Trim and Merge. Gerber calls them Special Effects and calls welding "contour" which to most people means a discreet outline surrounding an object. Except Flexi has both a contour outline and a contour term used for a cut path in a print and cut setup.

It can make communicating difficult. I think we should form a committee to take all these folks out behind the barn and whup a little sense into them.

 

[Dave Drane]

Hi Decal, I'll tell you what I tried. I put the letter "B" on a yellow square. I then went to "curve edit and then "convert to curves", which gave me the desired effect that you have. Box off all the letter and go to weld module. You will see the blue outline of your "O" with a red centre. click on the outline and the whole shape will go black. Now touch the centre or by holding the control key if you have more than one centre and they will change. Now use the "hole" button and it should work. Hope 6that helps.

 

[Decal_Designs]

OK, I tried to follow Fred's suggestion, which I couldn't get to work at first. I colored the white centers layer the same as the black letters with no centers layer. Then I tried to combine them which didn't seem to work. I tried to punch them out which didn't seem to work and then I did something which may have been what Fred was actually telling me to do, and it worked, however I don't know what it was I did anymore! I tried so many things that I don't know how to repeat it.

:

Dave, thanks for the idea, but I think my problem was slightly different. This was a downloaded eps file that already had curves and nodes etc., but it had two layers of color, one white and one black. the black was all the letters, but without any centers. The white was just the centers.

 

[Fred Weiss]

It is also important to select all the vectors to be compounded and to assign them all the same color at the same time. It is altogether possible to have two different blacks assigned without realizing it. Also insure that all grouping has been ungrouped and that all existing compounding has been released before you apply the Compound command.

 

[Dave Drane]

Decal, can you post the eps. file so i can play with it. i am sure there is a simple answer.

 

[Fred Weiss]

Dave I inspected it. It was in good condition. The only problem was the letter centers were white instead of being black. Once they are made black and compounded to the outside of the letters the file is fine.

But just because I like you ... here it is.

 

[Bobby H]

It might be worth noting that most of the brand marks posted on the Brands of the World website are treated in the same manner as that Host logo. Most don't have any compound paths, just simulated holes using different colored fills. Not all are like this, but most are.

 

[Dave Drane]

Dave I inspected it. It was in good condition. The only problem was the letter centers were white instead of being black. Once they are made black and compounded to the outside of the letters the file is fine.

But just because I like you ... here it is.

Thanks Fred, but some things in VMP you just have to know what you are doing as it does not refer to compounds. I have worked it out for VMP users.
1. I removed the white square around the logo.
2. select the centre and make it the same color as the letter (black) and select the lot (letter & center)
3. Go to "weld" module and you will see it as a red outline with the hole as a blue outline.
4. Tap the blue outline and go to "Advanced application tools" and then turn into "Change to hole" and then accept. You will find this turns into a path etc.
Now lets all have a good strong drink.

 

[Scott Reynolds]

Wow! VMP sounds like a pain, in Flexi,

1. Select logo
2. Click compound

I have to do this to 90% of the logo's on BOTW.