Halftone Pattern Exported to AI

[dirt lover]

I made a halftone pattern in photoshop with the technique on the main page of the this site, then exported the path to Illustrator. I selected all, made it a group and then gave it a black fill.

The problem is that the middle of it is solid (no space between the dots). How can I fill it keeping the space?

[PrintDriver]

Did it come in grouped? Are you filling the background rectangle as well as the dots?

[BJMRGTIVR6]

could you post a pic?
various reasons the paths will all fill, like PD said is one.

[dirt lover]

I did select all and made it a group.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3634/3341156779_c9fabd832f_o.jpg

selected
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3366/3341990470_bf8d133da3_o.jpg

[BJMRGTIVR6]

my work blocks Flikr, hopefully someone else will chime in to help

[Craig B]

It's a little hard to tell form the screen shots, but it does look as if there is a organic background shape behind the center dots that you should be able to grab hold of and delete.

[CkretAjint]

Take your white arrow, select the outter most box and delete it. Select all and color-ize.

[dirt lover]

There is no outermost box... The halftone pattern is all that's there.

[urstwile]

Is it possible you've also got a stroke going on in addition to the fill?

[dirt lover]

Nope, just a fill.

[urstwile]

Can you post a screenshot of the pre-exported halftone pattern?

[dirt lover]

I think I found the issue, but I have no idea what to do now.

There's this shape between the middle dots and the small outer shapes. Removing the fill exposed the middle dots. It looks like there isn't a smooth transition between the small shapes and dots.....
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3655/3342866257_58b5ac96a5_o.jpg

[dirt lover]

Oh.... The whole wrong part of the middle is being filled..
What do I need to do to fix this?

Here's the photoshop version if it helps.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3618/3342910577_933e8a5fbe_o.jpg

[urstwile]

Have you looked at this in outline view in Illustrator? You're absolutely sure there's no rectangular fill area in the center?

[dirt lover]

The only rectangle is the selection frame that shows up when I select that messed up transition area.

[CkretAjint]

Select the white area, Select > Same > "fill color" and delete all the white.

And there is SOMETHING else, larger, on your art board, in post 13 you can see you selection area going up and off the page to the left. As for the jaggedness, that's because you live traced it.

Try looking into this tutorial (http://illustrationinfo.com/?p=90). It will allow you to create a circular halftone pattern without Live tracing it. The same concept applies to your oval you are looking to create.

[PrintDriver]

It looks like he has released a compound path. Try selecting all and going to Object>Path> Compound path> make and see if that helps.

I also have to say though, looking at the selection showing the Illustrator outline, if you intend to send this through a rip, it's going to be time intensive. If you ever do something large, your printer will kill you. That's a hellacious number of anchor points you have there. I'd see about using the upload feature of Rasterbator instead of this tracing method of Photoshop/Illustrator.
http://homokaasu.org/rasterbator
This will give you good round dots with only 4 anchors per dot. You can weld together to fill in contiguous areas.
Just be warned, that 20meters they are talking about is with 1/4" overlaps and one hell of a lot of tiles. If your printer doesn't kill you, the installer will. :D

[dirt lover]

I didn't live trace it... This is the ai file exported from the photoshop path...
I've tried click to select the bigger square object? and it isn't selecting. There is no object with a white fill. With the transparency grid on, there isn't a white object. Only a messed up halftone patter....

Maybe i'll try that tutorial or the rasterbator method.. Thanks!