[l008com]

I need a way to turn paths into something similar to the double dashed lines in this image.
I don't wanna outline the stroke though, because I wanna keep them as single paths so I can easily edit them. I guess I need a way to change the stroke to something that will give me the double dashed lines, or at least double solid lines, but dashed is MUCH preferred.

[godzookie2k]

Stroke pallet----> make sure 'show options' is on. on the bottom half of the pallet you'll see a checkbox marked 'dashed line'. check it. then play around with the length and spacing point settings, these will vary depending on line length and thickness, but its not hard to figure out.

[l008com]

Thats half way there, but I need the double dashed lines, not the solid dashes, you know?

[hewart]

G'day guys..

Pretty simple once you've done it a few times....

Start with your first, or bottom line, be it black or whatever colour. Make it dashed with dash 4pt, gap 6pt 0, 0, 0 and 0 and a stroke of say 5 pt.

Copy (command c), paste in front (command f)

Make the "top" line white or same colour as the background on your map. Leave the same dashes of 4, 6, 0, 0, 0 and 0 (or whatever you decide on) and make the stoke 3 pt.

You can play around with the colours, thickness of the lines and lengths of the dashes. Also easy to edit... just delete the "top" line first, do your editing, then copy and paste in front again etc..

Good luck with it....
Hewart...

[hewart]

G'day again...

Sorry, the top line dosen't need to be dashed if you don't want it to be.. as long as it's the same colour as the background.... up to you, and how you're using it...

Cheers....

[SunSeeker]

While Hewarts method will work fine on a continuous background colour, it wont look good over any kind of gradient or photo. It will also be very labour intensive if you need to add lines or change things later.
I think it may be easier and more elegant to set it up as a pattern brush, then you can just apply it to any line that you draw.
I don't have much time to explain now, but you should be able to find out what you need in illustrator help.

Edit;
Farkit, I made time.
In Version 8 (I am assuming it should be similar in 9 or 10).

1. Draw the two dashes exactly as you want them (use shift option drag to make an exact aligned copy of your first dash), and set the stroke you want
(you should have something that looks like an = sign

2. Select the = sign

3. View the brushes palette, Window>Show Brushes

4. Click the arrow at the top right and select New Brush and select New Pattern Brush

5. The first box should be filled with your two lines

6. Set spacing to 100% to make the gaps equal in length to the lines

7. Click OK

8. Draw any curved line

9. Make sure the brushes palette is set to show pattern brushes

10. Select your line(s)

11. Click your new brush, it will probably be at the bottom of the brushes palette You can apply this style to any lines you draw in Illustrator

12. Bow Down and Seek the Sun Grasshopper

[l008com]

Wow I really should have gotten a refun from my School, the Illustrator teacher didn't teach us ****! Thank you that works perfectly! you should see this map O' mine! Actually you can at http://www.fellsbiker.com/maps but you can't see the double dashes yet

[SunSeeker]

"Those who can, Do. Those who can't, Teach" as they say.

I can't talk though, I haven't for a year and am seriously considering going into the teaching of Photoshop, Illustrator & Digital Imaging

Anyway the map looks great, are you drawing it using the pen tool?
What about colours? Are you aware of the advantages of using Spot Colour Swatches for illustrations like maps, with lots of similarly coloured items?

[l008com]

None of the colors are set in stone, but this map is probably rarely if ever going to be professionally printed, mostly just on the web, or from peoples ink jets at home. Besides when im done, there will be enough colors that CMYK will be best. I'd rather have it look its best than save a buck or two printing (don't tell Mr T). I am using the pencil tool to draw it. Its working out quite nice. And I'm using it with my mouse, not my tablet. My tablet is a gift from god in photoshop, but thats about all its good for. (still worth the $99 price tag though)

[SunSeeker]

Thats not what I had in mind, I was talking about productivity.
Say you have 5 different shades of the same green colour in your map, if you specify these as different percentages of the same spot colour then you can edit the spot colour itself and all all objects using that colour will also change in one step.

[l008com]

Oh I see what you're saying... but I don't see myself wanting to change, for instance, all the greens at once? Theres not that many, and some are very specific colors to match my site. But thanks for the suggestion.

[splode]

Originally posted by SunSeeker:

Say you have 5 different shades of the same green colour in your map, if you specify these as different percentages of the same spot colour then you can edit the spot colour itself and all all objects using that colour will also change in one step.

Wow.

That's a handy tip. Especially for those of us with limited knowledge of color management (know just enough to f*ck us up) and LCD monitors to boot. Nice to know you could lighten up every "green" with one click when the first test print comes out muddy.


splode