Pattern in illustrator

1

Hi everyone,

Ive tried to figure this one out quite a while ago, but still havent found the perfect solution. The attached pattern is what I`m trying to recreate in Illustrtor. I drew a line and defined a pattern. but when filling a recangle with the pattern, it looks like the attached. Does anyone know how I would get this effect with straight and continous lines?

Thanks in advance,
m.

2

i believe that your problem comes because when you draw a line, the ends aren’t exactly square (no fault of yours) which means that the pattern defined isn’t quite what you want…
i’m not sure about the alignment issue though.

One option which might work (i don’t use illy so i’m not familiar with the pattern definer) is to do a fake pixel pattern… i.e draw some squares and fill them, as if you were doing a pattern with pixels in photoshop… i’ve attached an example (but you wouldn’t have the outlines or the gaps between “pixels”.

also, if you wanted a smooth line (not chunky/blocky bits) you could try drawing up a square for the pattern, and then doing a pathfinder operation or a clipping mask to make it work (hard to explain, maybe i can draw a pic).

hope it helps
Stu

3

here’s the other (smoother) option i was talking about…

again, this is based on how i assume the illy pattern maker might work, so i really have no idea if it’s appropriate. The one i use works like this (and thus the pattern i made would work)… you select some stuff you’ve done, and it just tiles it as well as it can, so if your stuff is within a perfect square, it should align properly.

so here’s the second option (obviously you’d want to make it without the border).

Stu

4

I guess while I was dawing this it was answered. But here it is…

5

@Ilikepie: nice try, works fine in PS, but I would need vectors. thanks man

@jimihere:yeah nice one… this one works great, although I was wondering how to, since I can`t change the distance between the lines. Any idea?

thanks,
m.

6

Mucho, I believe what pie did IS vector, and that will work fine too here is how you do it.

  1. Make a proportional square.
  2. Make a rectangle the size that you want your lines, make it at a 45 degree angle.
  3. Align hor and vert to your box.
  4. Duplicate that line 2 times.
  5. Switch to outline view, and turn on smart guides (for ease)
  6. In outline view you can see the center points of the diagonal lines grab them by that point, drag one to the upper left corner of the box and one to the lower right.
  7. You can come out of outline mode and take smart guides off, cause they are annoying. Make all vert lines 1 object (compound path)
  8. Bring box to front
  9. Grab all objects and use pathfinder>intersect shape
  10. Drag final object into swatches palette.
  11. Object, and fill w/ new swatch… viola!

You can change the object size when it’s filled by double clicking the scale tool and unchecking everything except pattern. That way it will only scale the pattern. As for spacing you need to make the first box and diagonal lines the way you want to see them. Play w/ box size and line size to get w/e effect you’re looking for. This technique should take you less than a minute to do :slight_smile: Took much longer for me to write these steps than to do it.

If for some unknown reason you can’t get it to work I uploaded an actual ai file for you:
http://www.beyondthepixel.com/downloads/diag_technique.zip

I should write some Tutorials for AI and submit them to K :hugegrin:

7

To transform patterns in AI:

  1. Preferences/General - check Transform Pattern Tiles. Kinda Clunky
    or
  2. Drag the pattern swatch from the swatch palette, then shrink it down as objects in the document. When it’s a good size, drag it back to swatches and now you’ll have 2 sizes, etc.
8

@simplistik: dude, thanks man, that is great…I think Ill figure it out with your AI file. I could follow the step where you mentiond the rectangles and boxes and speak of lines....couldt figure that one out yet, I`m sure I get there eventually…

@jimihere: thanks also - good input there. Always a pleasure…

mucho