Illustrator CS5 "dotted line" bug (???)

[DrStrik9]

What's happened to Illustrator's "dotted line" function?  It sems to be broken ...   😞

Prior to CS5, I could always get a nice PREDICTABLE dotted line with "round" line-ends by specifying ".01 points" (as close to zero as possible) for the dash (which makes a circle [because of the rounded-end choice] at the dimension of the line-width), and a reasonable GAP length, such as the equivalent of the line WIDTH, or a little bit more.

But currently, this seems impossible. What I get is NOTHING like the original dotted line in all earlier versions of Illustrator. Talk about FRUSTRATING!  -  Is this is BUG?

... Or is there some kind of work-around?

Thanks for any help ...

-DS

P.S. Also, once you put a value in the second "dash" field, YOU CAN'T GET RID OF IT, which REALLY screws up your dotted line even more.   😞

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OS X 10.6.6, 64-bits
2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon

[_scott_]

Not sure I understand. Simply using 0 for dash and a gap size which is equal to the sttroke weight gives great dots with the round cap on.

The .01 makes no sense to me. It's not needed.

And I have no issue removing a gap - selecte, delete, enter key.

[Scott Falkner]

Are you seeing something like this? The blue line shows the actual path. The top line uses the gap specified. The bottom line has Align Dashes to Corners set (button on far right next to the Dashed Line check box. This adjusts the gaps so that end points and corners always start or end at a dash.

If you mean something else, show us. Attach a screen grab with the Strokes panel visible and the line selected, like I have done.

[Wade_Zimmerman1]

As Scott points out it works as always has worked…and you should put a "0" as the dash length.

[RMarchand]

Hi,

I have the same problem with Illustrator CS5. It seem's that if you only enter "0 pt." for the first dash and let's say 18 pt. for the first gap in the "Dash and Gap Fields", Illustrator does not copy tthose values automatically to the other fields and does not make a dotted line as expected.

Entering a second time "0 pt." in the next "Dash Field" will do the the job then. Sometime, you have to fill all the blanks fields wirh values in order to make dotted line to appear as expected.

Hope this will help, it did for me.

Sincerely,

RMarchand

[emil_emil]

RMarchand wrote:

Hi,

I have the same problem with Illustrator CS5. It seem's that if you only enter "0 pt." for the first dash and let's say 18 pt. for the first gap in the "Dash and Gap Fields", Illustrator does not copy tthose values automatically to the other fields ...

Why does it have to copy those values automatically to the other fields? If they are the same you don't need them in the other fields.

and does not make a dotted line as expected....

Can  you please show, how it looks for you with only 0 and 18 in the first two fields and the others empty? It works fine for me, as expected.

[RMarchand]

Hi,

I've tried it today and it does seem to work without having to enter the same values again in the others fields. I cannot tell you why sometimes it works well and sometimes it doesn't.

All I can say is that when I've tried it yesterday it did not work properly. That's why I suggested that solution that worked then for me. To bad,  I did not keep the files and the examples where it occured ...

Maybe a member of the Support Team can tell us why such a bug could occur occasionnaly. Who knows why? ...

If it does occur again, I will post it with an attachment file on this wall.

Sincelrely,

RMarchand

[bentley_k_f_]

Ran into hopefully the same issue but I'm not sure since DrStrik9's description of the problem is that it's just 'NOTHING like the original dotted line in all earlier versions of Illustrator'... so I'll describe what I'm getting first.

First off, I'm using Illustrator's brush tool to create my paths, with a custom defined brush (the brush itself is quite simple, everything is fixed and the diameter of the brush is 1pt). Selecting the paths created by this brush and turning on dashed line does nothing to the path.

Through trial and error I've found out that the dashed line option doesn't work for caligraphic brushes in CS5

[RMarchand]

No, unfortunately all the other attributes other than the width of the line won't work with a calligrahic line. When you apply a Calligraphic Style to a line with other attributes such as dashed lines and arrows for example, all of theese  attributes other than the width itself cannot be applied.

But there maybe a way to acheive what your looking for:

- Create a standard/regular line with  dashed lines and arrow attributes, to your choice.

- Then, change the values of the selected line in  "Variations Profile" at the bottom of the "Stroke Panel". You can also use the "Width Tool" and acheive the same result.

You can then drop this new line segment into the "Brush Panel" and see what you get. Expanding the appearance of that line could also be an effeicient way here to acheive exactly what you desire finally.

See following examples:

I hope this helps!

Sincerely,

RMarchand

[_scott_]

RMarchand wrote:

Illustrator does not copy tthose values automatically to the other fields and does not make a dotted line as expected.

Just to explain a little.... the dash and gap fields are basically a pattern within themselves. If you insert a value into the first two fields it is repeated. Insert values into the first three fields, those are repeated. It's basically a loop from left to right. You only need to use the second, third, fourth, etc., field if you want an uneven dash pattern.