joining objects in AI

[GP]

At the risk of sounding like a complete moron...

How do you join two objects of the same color so they do not cut as separate objects?

In this instance, I have a black strike through (more or less) running through a vector image. I, of course, want to weld the objects together so this intersecting line does not cut. How do I do this?

Sorry for my ignorance.

GP

 

[John Butto]

join

press command (apple) J at the same time after you select both objects

 

[Rick]

WINDOW>PATHFINDER>select objects you want welded (united)-select the top left icon in the PATHFINDER window>hit EXPAND....you are done

 

[GP]

Nice! Thanks to you both...

As a follow up---Is there a illustrator bible for tips and tricks...or even a tutorial that one might recommend for brushing up on the basics? Need to do some trade-relevant reading...

Thanks again!

GP

 

[GK]

SAMS - Teach Yourself Illustrator in 24 hrs is a good start. Personally I think you would benefit more from an annual Lynda.com subscription. Peachpit and O'Reilly make some good books as well but nothing beats Lynda's price for the video guides because you can download the project files and follow along.

 

[LightHouse]

I just use the merge button... not sure which box it is in.

 

[vid]

I just use the merge button... not sure which box it is in.

Becareful with that. It adds an unfilled, unstroked box in your holes --- like the inside of the letter "O". You'll need to find and delete those to avoid any double cuts on the plotter.

 

[LightHouse]

i usually have to clean it up afterwords. i am going to try the method described here later to see if it saves any time.

 

[Fred Weiss]

Becareful with that. It adds an unfilled, unstroked box in your holes --- like the inside of the letter "O". You'll need to find and delete those to avoid any double cuts on the plotter.

Here's a link to a script that addresses that problem.

Attached also is a great plugin named Select. It adds different object types to your select menu making it possible to select unfilled paths, open paths and about a dozen other attributes. It only works with CS or higher.