[Vincent Rosati]

Maybe, fill out your profile with your specs; model, os, ram, video card, etc. As much as you can add.
Is Illustrator a new install? New computer? Any recent mods? Have you restarted the system since the issue began?

Vince

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[Vincent Rosati]

I’m not sure we have enough info to say exactly what’s happening here, but speaking to your suspicion, isolating components from complex illustrations can be difficult and time consuming.

I’m sure there are dozens of approaches to this, but I’d start with three:

1. Object > Ungroup
2. Object > Compound Path > Release
3. Group Select Tool

These might be the only functions that you’ll need, but it would be difficult to say what possible combination you might need to use.

Ungroup and Release is a peeling away approach. You keep peeling away until your desired element breaks, than Ctrl+Z one time.
Using the Group Select Tool is more of a pin pointed approach. You may have to Shift / Select multiple objects as you Copy / Paste.

It’s a good idea to learn the keyboard shortcuts for these exercises, they are right next to the items in the menu. It makes the process much faster.

Vince

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[Vincent Rosati]

I might not understand what you need.
It sounds like you want to display a video, or are otherwise looking for some technology that might cycle through printed images.
What sort of medium are these menu boards? Are they computer monitors? Are they backlight boxes?
When you say ‘scrolling’ I generally think ‘animation’. Usually you’d use Adobe Premiere or Adobe After Effects for that sort of job.

Vince

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[Vincent Rosati]

Try selecting the desired path with the Group Selection Tool, then copy/paste.
Let us know if that works.

Vince

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[Vincent Rosati]

Generally, higher contrast edges can be more difficult to smooth. If you make the screen white and the device’s face black you’ll see this.
Some filters might help, like combinations of outer or inner glow.

• I think the simplest trick is to paste into Photoshop as a Smart Object at 144ppi – If the icon is going to be 128px, the PS file should be 256px at 144ppi.
• I like to create an additional layer above the default background layer called BLANK, this makes it easier to use Layer > Merge Visible.
• Turn off or delete the default background, unless you need to test against various background colors.
• Select any of your visible layers and Layer > Merge Visible.
• Than Image > Image Size, set the Resolution to 72ppi, and set the Resampling to Bicubic/Smooth, Bicubic/Sharper will often create a halo around edges that becomes problematic when working at the small scale of an icon.
  It’s essential to resample to exactly 50% for the best result.

The last step is the trick. It’s great for finalizing images for web. You can do a direct comparison – Prepare two 128×128 Photoshop files, in one you either paste as a smart object or as a raster, in the other you paste a rasterized version resampled and scaled. Save each for web as PNG256 or GIF256 and you’ll see that the resampled icon has more colors (presuming that you’re not maxed out at 256), and on a side by side comparison is of noticeably better quality.
This isn’t always the best process for icons, but it’s usually the best process for icons, at least until you get down to the 16x version where you may also need the pencil tool.

Just a bunch of random thoughts about icons 🙂

Vince

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[Vincent Rosati]

Hmmm, I was unsure about your need for open paths.
Any chance you could create a demo project and attach it to this thread?

re: Pathfinder / Unite, in the Pathfinder palette it’s actually under Shape Modes, possibly as Add to Shape Area.

Vince

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[Vincent Rosati]

Would you simply be able to File / Place the tile raster image into your Illustrator file, than drag the tile into your Swatches palate to use it as a fill?

Vince

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[Vincent Rosati]

Initially, I’d suggest selecting all of the objects, object / expand the trace, possibly select / same fill color to separate the good from the bad, and finally pathfinder / unify the desired components into a single object.
Let us know if any of this points you in the right direction.

Vince

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[Vincent Rosati]

Probably a bunch of ways you could do this. My initial thought would be to use the Appearance panel to add new fills to the object.
Select an object in the attached file and open the Appearance palette, the effects used on each fill are available. Also look at the Transparency palette for the fills.

4874_illustratorbevelv10.ai.zip

When you complete a style in this way, you can drag it into the Graphic Styles palette to reuse it.

Vince

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[Vincent Rosati]

I’d bet a number of your fonts have that shape for a tilde, but drawing with the pen tool probably is the best way.
That shape should have 4 points, one on each end and one on each of the sides at the middle. After you use the pen tool you would probably also use the direct select tool and the possible the convert anchor point tool to refine the curves.

Maybe watch this tutorial video:
https://library.creativecow.net/articles/rosati_vincent/ai_helix_2/video-tutorial
It shows some techniques for refining paths.

Vince

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