: Illustrator: Pathfinder divide not working as expected I'm trying my hand at making a map using illustrator. I'm fairly new at it so I'm still learning the ropes. I'm trying to divide up a

@Carla748

Ah, I think I see the problem. You'll need to ensure the path you're using to cut completely covers the portion of the other path. This doesn't mean the path needs to be closed, but it will need additional points — it is the fill area that's used for the pathfinder operation.

Please forgive the dodgy images below (they were created in Photoshop, because I don't have Illustrator installed on this Mac).

It seems like this is what you have:



But what you want is this:



I'd then use the pathfinder divide. It'll divide all the parts, and you can use the direct selection tool to select the unwanted regions and delete them.

Vote Up Vote Down

@Caterina889

It would appear what you really want is Object > Path > Divide Objects Below



If you have a shape, draw a path where you want to split the shape, select the path and choose Object > path > Divide Objects Below, you will then be left with two separate shapes split where your path was drawn.

The Pathfinder Divide function will not retain both portions of a shape. And the response in that question you linked to indicated the shape was duplicated before performing Patherfinder operations. The divide did not retain both sides of the shape.

Vote Up Vote Down