Too complex for Illustrator?
Posted by Russell on Jan 17, 2007
Hey there, I've got a fairly simple script running making a whole bunch of circles, and when I export it, Illustrator won't open the files properly - the circles all come up filled, not stroked - BUT - if I open the SAME PDFs in Apple Preview, they're perfect.
Any ideas.
Here's the little script I'm running:
size(820,310)
colormode(CMYK)
fill(0,0,0,0)
rect(0,0,WIDTH,HEIGHT)
nofill()
for i in range(5000):
stroke(random(),0,0,0,1)
s = random(10)
strokewidth(random(100))
oval(random(-100,(WIDTH)), random(HEIGHT), s, s)
for i in range(20):
stroke(0,0,0,0,random(.7,1))
s = random(40)
strokewidth(random(100))
oval(random(600,500), random(100,200), s, s)
fill(1,0,0,0,1)
font('Delicious-Roman')
text('a+b', random(520,580), random(150,180))
Any help would be mega-appreciated.
Posted by Tom De Smedt on Jan 19, 2007
Hi Russell,
It took me a while to figure this one out :-)
The thing is: the ovals in your script have a maximum diameter of 10 while their stroke width can be up to a 100 thick. When the stroke width exceeds the diameter, NodeBox starts expanding the diameter instead of the stroke width.
Take a look at this example:
http://nodebox.net/code/data/media/stroke_bigger_than_diameter.mov
Illustrator on the other hand draws circles with a max diameter of 10. It's normal for Preview to render the same output as NodeBox, they both use the same Mac OS X technology. Not so for Illustrator.
I'm not sure if this is a bug or not - who is doing it right, NodeBox or Illustrator. I'm going to have a chat with Frederik.
Posted by Russell on Jan 20, 2007
So would a temporary solution be to randomize the diameter more and the strokewidth less?
Posted by Tom De Smedt on Jan 20, 2007
Yes, the ovals in your scripts look diameter 20-200-ish and strokewidth 0.25-20.0-ish.
Tom
How do you indent the value in the video?
Posted by Russell on Jan 18, 2007
OK - so it can't be to complex, I've tried doing it with like 2 circles, still no good.
Any ideas please share them.