[techtrucker]

This is I'm sure a basic thing to do in Illustrator, but I have the feeling I'm going about it the wrong way. Say you have a circle that you've drawn, whether it was with the Pen tool or the Ellipse tool. Now say you want to "extract" two segments of the circle, as circled below. I've experimented with the scissors and knife tools, and I've tried outlining the stroke, then adding anchor points then using the scissor tool to cut up the path...I can sort of get it to work, but again I suspect that I'm approaching it the wrong way. One might suggest drawing the segments individually rather than cut up a circle, but I'm not that good with the Pen tool yet, and it's important that these segments be uniform in thickness and radii (it's basically technical illustration work). I would like the end, or "cap" of the stroke to appear as if a line were drawn across the stroke, like the red lines in the drawing.

Clear as mud, right?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

[travisimo]

LOL i've read your post 4 times and i'm not totally sure what you're asking yet.

[peeb]

You want something like this?

[techtrucker]

I know, I wrote that post between phone calls, emails, etc, sorry!

Here's an example of what I'm after. I drew the following by drawing the black circle, then offset the path to the inside and gave that a yellow 3 pt stroke. Then I plopped the black rectangle over top of it all. Now I want the "exposed" parts of the yellow circle as 2 separate paths. Since this is for something that is going to be pad printed they have to print the black first, then hit it with the yellow.

I hope that's clearer than my first post, thanks again!

[travisimo]

select the objects open the pathfinder tab f10 i believe and try the second option over on the top, then click "expand" and viola

[techtrucker]

I tried all the options on the pathfinder pallete and wasn't able to get the desired result, I suspect maybe it has something to do with the order I select the objects..I'll keep tinkering, thanks!

[travisimo]

you want to select the cutter first, if you cutting the square out of the circle you select the square first, then the circle, if that dosn't work make sure the square is on top but still on the same layer, i just did it so i'm sure it works.

[techtrucker]

I've made sure everything is on the same layer, tried selecting them nine ways to sunday..I can only get the following:

[techtrucker]

Well, I finally achieved the desired result, but I lost track of all the steps. I moved the stroke of the black rectangle to the inside, then I selected the yellow circle, outlined it's stroke, used Pathfinder's Subtract from Shape Area, and I forget what else! But it resulted in exactly what I needed. Thanks to all for humoring me and for the advice, you got me where I needed to be.

[KeriVit]

Illustrator is actually kind of a painintheass with that. For years, I have been trying to rememember "the trick" of how I got it last time. It really should be a case of slicing.

[JonoMarshall]

I'm not sure where you were going wrong with Pathfinder?

Select both shapes,
Remove the rectangle from the circle,
Expand the new shape,
Use the direct select tool to select either the top or bottom part and cut/paste it if you want the top/bottom to move around independantly of each other,
Use the direct select tool to click the two straight lines (the ones you don't want),
Cut/delete the straight lines,
Voila: Two independant arcs as you desired?

Sounds long winded, but takes maybe 8 seconds?