5 Replies Latest reply: Feb 19, 2014 9:30 AM by JETalmage RSS

    Is the blend tool really useless?

    peakhunterapp Community Member

      I am trying to do something really simple and it's seemingly impossible with the blend tool. This was a no-brainer in FreeHand.

      In the attached image, 3 stages are shown (fltr).

      1) All the components used

      2) The 2 arrow-shapes are being blended with 20 steps and aligned to path.

      3) The spline is replaced by the curve.

       

      Why are the start and end "crowded" or in other words why are the distances not equally balanced?

       

      Screen Shot 2014-02-19 at 17.05.28.png

        • 1. Re: Is the blend tool really useless?
          dougofakkad Community Member

          because of the length of the control handles from the middle point in the path.

          • 2. Re: Is the blend tool really useless?
            Jacob Bugge CommunityMVP

            peakhunterapp,

             

            In addition to what Doug said, you can get it right if you add enough Anchor Points, Object>Path>Add Anchor Points a sufficient number of times; you can see when you have enough.

            • 3. Re: Is the blend tool really useless?
              peakhunterapp Community Member

              Thanks for both answers! It's not very intuitive, but I'll get the hang of it.

              • 4. Re: Is the blend tool really useless?
                Jacob Bugge CommunityMVP

                For my part you are welcome, peakhunterapp.

                • 5. Re: Is the blend tool really useless?
                  JETalmage Community Member

                  Why are the start and end "crowded"...

                  Because of arbitrarily-implemented differences between FreeHand and Illustrator:

                   

                  In FreeHand, Blend steps are equally-spaced along the length of the path of a Blend-On-Path object, regardless of the shape of the bound path. You can't do that in Illustrator, except by the otherwise problematic Add Points workaround.

                   

                  In Illustrator, the spacing of Blend steps is affected by the shape of the spine path. You can't do that in FreeHand.

                   

                  The FreeHand treatment is probably by far the more commonly-needed behavior. (I know it is for me.) But there are times when the other behavior is useful. Any decent program should provide both behaviors as an object-level option. So to my knowledge in this regard there is no decent program. Both programs fall short, but FreeHand's is by far better.

                   

                  This is analagous to the situtation with another feature: Envelopes.

                   

                  Envelope distortion was one of many features which appeared in FreeHand before Illustrator. Sometimes it is advantageous for the Envelope to be initially created (i.e.; before the Envelope is manipulated) with its curve handles retracted. One of the most commonly needed situations for this is when simply trying to fit an object to a rectangular surface viewed in a perspective. Other times, it is advantageous for the Envelope to be initially created with its curve handles extended (i.e.; the handles are extended before the Envelope contents are distorted).

                   

                  Regarding Envelopes, I value both treatments equally. FreeHand provides for both behaviors. Illustrator only provides the latter.

                   

                  JET