: How to make a vector outline of select items? I want to make a laser cut map of the world. I downloaded a vector file from the link below. I want to cut out the continents and islands

@Turnbaugh909

It's a pretty straight-forward, simple, thing to combine the countries into continents for that file. Granted, it's simple, but will take some time.

Simply select the countries and then click the Pathfinder Unite Button. That's all there is to it.

To make selection easier, you can select via the Layers Panel by clicking the circle to the right of the layer name.

There are other selection methods as well -- the Magic Wand Tool may be more to your liking, and there is always the Direct Selection Tool.

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@Gloria351

If you couldn't find another source of your map so you have just one choice, is to make regions of each country you want to cut it using livepaint.


select all the map using the black arrow tool.
select the [live paint tool] and pick in the white space of each country.
use [Expand appearance] to extract the livepaint
ungroup the result and move it to a new layer. (manage your layers by continents)
select all countries in the same layer - in our case, all countries in the same continents - and use [unite compound path] the merge all countries together.
send the result to back layer of your original file (outline continents).


now you are ready to send the file to the laser cut.

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