Help appreciated
Thanks a million Roger! Perhaps a few pointers for the absolute beginner, wanting only to scale, separate and arrange parts on new printing sheets - i.e. not actually drawing anything.
Here's what I learned by trial and error so far:
1) Scaling is absolutely no problem. Select all, and scale to your heart's content.
2) Getting to the right printing format for odd paper sizes: Find the option "Document format", check "use printer set-up" (or similar; I'm using a Swedish version of Illustrator). In printer set-up, choose your modified paper size.
3) Create new layers (for printing in your new format) and copy parts into those. Going from 1/33 to 1/16 I usually get away with two new layers per original sheet. Sometimes a third, only partially filled, layer is necessary to accomodate parts.
Here's what I don't quite get yet:
1) When to use the different selection tools. There are two kinds of arrows, plus a lasso which is mostly like the second kind of arrow, I gather.
2) Selecting a specific part is kind of difficult, since neighbouring parts often get selected too, although I haven't touched them.
3) All kinds of weird points get selected. I realize they're part of the vector design, but it is sometimes hard to distinguish which belongs to the part I want selected, and others which belongs to neighbouring parts, and thus should be deselected.
4) Deselection of such points often have to be made point by point.
All in all, it is kind of cumbersome for an absolute beginner. But I managed to rearrange 6 out of 8 sheets so far, and still counting. I'd very much like to better understand what I'm doing!
So here's an idea: Why don't you open up a new thread on "Tips for absolute beginners on rearranging parts in Illustrator", and perhaps restrict it to the tasks I outlined above (rearranging more than actually drawing).
If you wish you could just copy relevant parts of my queries above. Should be instructive for a lot of beginners, like me.
Once again, many thanks!
Leif
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