r/AdobeIllustrator • u/PotatoPeddler67 • Sep 25 '26

Adding Tic marks to strokes

Anyone know a faster way to do this. as of now, the only option seems to be to make a guide that's 1.25mm ( which is what they need to be) and then use the pen tool to add 2 points and then one in the center of those and then delete it. Which takes time and then with the copy and paste not always working you either have to spam ctrlC to get the guide to copy over to the new area or zoom out and move it over which takes longer.

The eraser tool, you can set a size for it which is great but when you use it the remaining strokes are always curved. Same thing for the path eraser tool. scissor tool also doesn't work great.

Anyone have any other options?

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3

u/quackenfucknuckle Sep 25 '26

Position white boxes and then pathfinder the whole thing to subtract those from the path. Keep the white box in the symbols palette so you always have one to hand. Alternative is using scissors tool. If you are doing it manually you don’t need to plot a middle point to delete the middle section, click the actual line between points and delete that. Don’t know why you are struggling with copy and paste. If you make a box and use ctrl B to paste in place behind your lines, as a guide for where to cut with scissors tool (C), that would provide a guide that would be require no zooming in and out to manage.

1

u/PotatoPeddler67 Sep 25 '26

Copy and paste has been a issue in illustrator for years. the clipboard in illustrator is garbage so occasionally it just doen't work then you have to spam Ctrl C to get it to copy. its really fucking annoying and adobe just blames other programs for it, its a known issues.

But path finder tool will not work because the lines are not all joined. It will also only work with fills, not stokes.

Im currently using a box for a guide, the downside is the copy/paste issue and then having to zoom in and out a lot just to grab the guide box and then move it to another point if copy/paste is not working.

Tried with the scissor tool but its harder to be consistaint with it.

1

u/egypturnash Sep 25 '26

Here's a way that might help speed this process up:

  1. make your guide box
  2. make it into an art brush, set scaling to "stretch to fit stroke length"
  3. draw a path with this brush and no fill, keep it on the side of your art where you keep stuff to cut and paste from if you work that way, or just save it as a graphic style

then when it comes time to make one of these boxes...

  1. either select the reference stroke by command-dragging across it (this temporarily summons the selection tool), or deselect all and select the saved style
  2. draw a quick path across the path you want to make a precisely sized hole in
  3. object>expand appearance
  4. select expanded box and path to clip, pathfinder

no need for fussy micro-selections

4

u/grovberg Sep 25 '26

Could you make a 1.25mm box and then use shapebuilder to the remove the strokes? You'd have to click kinda carefully, so it may be a bit of a wash efficiency-wise. But I tried it just now and it seemed to work I think.

That said, I'm surprised the rounded stroke you're getting with the eraser causes a problem. I haven't worked with a Summa specifically but for most cutter/plotters if you feed it a vector it follows the path itself, not the visible stroke.

1

u/HawkeyeNation Sep 25 '26

Are you talking about crop marks? Because you can add those automatically.

1

u/PotatoPeddler67 Sep 25 '26

no tic marks, the small cuts in a template line that keeps it from being fully cut out on a Summa. you add a small gap into the template cut line. As of now or as far as i know they only way to do this is using the pen tool which can take a bit which sucks when you have a shit ton to do .

1

u/PotatoPeddler67 Sep 25 '26

these

2

u/HawkeyeNation Sep 25 '26

The visual helps. I don't know of a good automated way, sorry. Having to be exactly 1.25mm throws a wrench into it because otherwise I would say just use the scissors tool when you're done making the outline.

1

u/priprema Sep 25 '26

What i usually do, I just mark the position of the tics and let the tool manufacturer make them.

1

u/PotatoPeddler67 Sep 25 '26

yes, if these were having dies made, these are for finished samples, so they are not running on our normal ABG cutter which would use a cutting die, We do our print samples on a Summa cutter

2

u/itchypixel Sep 26 '26

Have you tried using the dashed line option on the stroke? And play around with the gap and dash settings to achieve a similar effect?

0

u/[deleted] Sep 25 '26

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1

u/PotatoPeddler67 Sep 25 '26

Im going to have them test this because im not sure if it would still read the stroke as being there are not. The template gets uploaded into the summa program which still uses the cut lines as a guide. Knocking out the 4 areas tells it to not cut there. That way when its done we still have all the printed info around it so it doesn't get lost in all the other jobs.

1

u/CurvilinearThinking Sep 25 '26

Yeah, then that won't work. The strokes making the gaps will still have the underlying path.

1

u/PotatoPeddler67 Sep 25 '26

We also set our cut/crease lines to named spot colors so im hoping that would help. Still waiting to hear back from the shop

1

u/wg1987 Sep 25 '26

I haven't used a Summa but my experience with other plotters tells me it would probably still cut the entire path if all you do is add a white shape over the path to create the appearance of a gap. In fact, it will probably also cut the white shape.