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kadinlucas
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Is it possible to quickly straighten lines or remove multiple points of a line

Jul 22, 2012 5:10 PM

Tags: #lines #smoothing #removepoints

Hi, sorry not too sure how to word the question.

I am studying for an MSc in Geology and am doing seismic mapping. To tidy up my maps I exported them to ArcGIS so I could join various ones together and also contour the maps. Then I exported the GIS maps into illustrator so I could attempt to smooth some of the contours as they are extremely jaggedy due to the nature of the data.

Is there a way to quickly smooth lines or mass delete points that make up the lines?

I am asking because I have 30+ maps and each map has maybe 50lines with each line being made up of currently about 1000 points each...

 

If I can't find a solution I will probably end up drawing over the contours with the pen tool and just smoothing it that way, as it should be a lot faster then deleting so many points.

 

Any help greatly appreciated.

 

I am currently using Illustrator CS5 and have access to CS4.

 

Thanks

663 Views   7 Replies   Latest reply: Silkrooster, Jul 22, 2012 10:15 PM
 
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  • Silkrooster
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    1. Silkrooster,
    Jul 22, 2012 8:49 PM   in reply to kadinlucas
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    Object>Path>Simplify

     
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  • Wade_Zimmerman
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    2. Wade_Zimmerman,
    Jul 22, 2012 9:09 PM   in reply to Silkrooster
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    And if you get good using the smooth tool, it is on the pencil flyout, you might be able to use it to refine the contours as well.

     

    it they are actually angled segments then you can select the paths and use the make

     

    Smooth tool can be set to your specification but you have ti experiment wih it to see how it works.

     

    Screen Shot 2012-07-23 at 12.05.20 AM.png

     

    Screen Shot 2012-07-23 at 12.05.27 AM.png

     

    Screen Shot 2012-07-23 at 12.06.26 AM.png

     

    Give it a little more work and you get this

     

    Screen Shot 2012-07-23 at 12.06.57 AM.png

     
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  • Wade_Zimmerman
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    3. Wade_Zimmerman,
    Jul 22, 2012 9:11 PM   in reply to Wade_Zimmerman
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    BTW I would say that silkroosters wy is the right way to start and what I describe is good for smaller jobs requiring fine tuning.

     
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  • kadinlucas
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    4. kadinlucas,
    Jul 22, 2012 9:16 PM   in reply to Wade_Zimmerman
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    The >path>simplify didn't seem to do anything, as my lines look like your top picture but with another 10-20 points inbetween each. I will try the smoothing now.

     
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  • kadinlucas
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    5. kadinlucas,
    Jul 22, 2012 9:20 PM   in reply to Wade_Zimmerman
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    Thank you very much Wade. I used the smooth tool in the pencil drop down and just drew over the line and it turned 30 points into about 2 or 3. That is exactly the kind of thing I wanted.

    Very much appreciated, brilliant!

     
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  • Wade_Zimmerman
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    6. Wade_Zimmerman,
    Jul 22, 2012 9:25 PM   in reply to kadinlucas
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    You're welcome!

     
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  • Silkrooster
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    7. Silkrooster,
    Jul 22, 2012 10:15 PM   in reply to kadinlucas
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    You can also do this manually, Use the diect select tool (a key on keyboard) Select the point you don't want and hit the remove points icon in the top toolbar. First icon after the word anchors.

     
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