Help with Illustrator 10: need to "contract" the size of object

[Silence04]

ok, i'm somewhat used to doing this sort of thing in CorelDraw9 but i have to use illustrator on this project.

if anyone knows Coreldraw, its like the 'Contour' option/tool but i just trying to do it in illustrator 10.

basically, i have an Octagon (with non-equal sides) and i am trying to scale it down so its an Octagon within an Octagon... only problem is, i'm trying to keep the smaller Octagon .25' away on all sides from the larger Octagon. and since its not a 'perfect' octagon with equal sides, when scaled down there is a larger amount of space between the top and bottom then there is on the sides.

its kinda like in photoshop, when you have a selection and you want to shrink/contract it by a spesified amount... you go up to Select>Modify>Contract, and then enter the amount of pixels you want to contract the selection by..

is there anyway to do this in illustrator 10, or am i going to have to do it by eye???????
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[PrintDriver]

Use Object>path>Offset path
If putting the new object within an existing object use a negative number.
so you want to put in -.25
Watch your corners. Sometimes the miter setting will make them loop.

PD is a grande format digital print dude. His advice/opinions may not apply to the 4color/offset/web world of printing

[Broacher]

Contours is one of those neat features of Draw that I keep finding uses for. I like how you can apply, say, an outside to a complex group and Corel will give you just one solid shape to work with. Very useful for labels and screen graphics-- and it's another one of those things that takes a lot longer to do in AI.

Hey, if you prefer to try and construct your drawing in CDraw and handoff in AI, you should really take a look at Oberon.com's AI Clipboard macros. It's great. I've got these now as toolbar buttons, that's how much I like them.

Basically, this set of macros extends CorelDraw's usefulness by allowing you to cut and paste via the Adobe clipboard standard back and forth between Draw and AI, ID, and Photoshop. It gives you a choice of AI8, PDF or EPS (or all three) settings. The first time I used it to bring some logo directly into InDesign AS EDITABLE VECTOR PATHS, I was amazed. It really opens up CorelDraw flexibility. Keep in mind that it doesn't support all the 'exotic' attributes that Corel is capable of, but if it can be put into a PDF, it will come through. And even as a handoff, it's a lot more reliable than the AI export filter (from Corel's side) or the CDR import filter (from the AI side).

That macro set (and a whole lot more) is available here: www.oberonplace.com

[Silence04]

thanks for the help guys!

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