Illustrator – Cutting a shape inside a grouped object

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I have a grouped object in illustrator and I want to cut out a circle-shaped hole out of the grouped object. So I draw the circle over the grouped object and:

  • If I try to select the grouped object and the circle and go to Object > Clipping Mask > Make, I get only the small circle as a result (I want the reverse, the big object minus the area of the small circle).

  • If I go to Window > Pathfinder, none of the options has the desired effect – Pathfinder deletes the components of the grouped object that intersect the small circle, instead of treating the grouped object as a single object

I’ve made a simple example – the black thing is the grouped object, the red thing is the shape I want to cut out of the grouped object.

example

Answer

I think you have to do it in phases in order to get it right. What I did was duplicate the cut out shape for each component. Not ideal, but it works.

Here’s what I did from within the group:

1) Select the crossing rectangles.

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2) Compounded the rectangle shapes to one shape. Object > Compound Path > Make

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3) Duplicate the shape for the cutout and position it over the new compounded shape

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4) Select both the cutout and the compound shape and Use the Subtract from shape area button in the Pathfinder window Window > Pathfinder.

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5) Hide those for now, and select the other cutout and the base shape

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6) Use the Subtract from shape area button in the Pathfinder window.

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7) Unhide your crossing rectangles and voila!

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Attribution
Source : Link , Question Author : TimSim , Answer Author : ckpepper02

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