Shape with shadows only on SOME lines

[David.P]

Hi forum,

I am trying to create a shape like below where the shadow is only under the line/arrow but not around the circle (at least not where the line/arrow starts).



The "good" shapes are glued from a circle and a line, the "bad" ones are smart shapes (as I believe).

Can I create a smart shape "in one piece" (without having to resort to gluing) that has the "good shadow" behaviour?

Thanks heaps already

Cheers David.P

[Nikolay]

It looks like the shapes are all the same, aren't they?

They are in fact groups, from a circle and an arrow..
Can't you just disable the shadow for the circle part and enable it for the arrow part?

Am I missing the point?

[David.P]

It looks like the shapes are all the same, aren't they?

No,

The "good" shapes are glued from a circle and a line, the "bad" ones are smart shapes ["in one piece"]

I use these shapes heavily, therefore I need them to behave in one piece as smart shapes (like for duplicating, resizing, changing line width, changing direction, snapping........)

In fact, the glued ones do all that -- except easy duplication by Ctrl-dragging, which however I use all the time

[David.P]

Aaaahh, the glued ones ("good shadow") CAN be duplicated "in one piece" by ctrl-dragging!

So, seems that they do almost everything I need....

Except that it does not seem to be possible to fully use the format brush between them because the shadow is lost, then.

So if there is an easy way to make my "glued group" shape into a proper "one piece" shape, I'd be happy to know about it.

BTW, the document is attached in the first post.

[Nikolay]

Hmm why do you need two shapes? I.e. only the first one is "two-shapes-shape", the rest are single-shape.

Anyways, to prevent shadow being added you can use "Protect" command for the circle, and protect it's formatting.
sub-select the circle, and then Developer => Protection => Format => Yes.

Also mind that you seem to have "glue" disabled in the drawing.
Check out the attached file!

[David.P]

Again, I need the shape in ONE piece, not grouped or glued together from two pieces.

In your file, the shapes are still glued from two pieces.

Can I prevent shadow getting added to one of a shape's elements (e.g. a circle) in the shape sheet?

[Nikolay]

Ah okay, clear. As far as I know, you can't do that - the shadow is applied to the whole shape, you can't apply shadow to a part of geometry.
So you can have different shadows for parts of a shape only if you shape is a group.

[David.P]

As far as I know, you can't do that - the shadow is applied to the whole shape, you can't apply shadow to a part of geometry.

  I see, thank you.

Other idea: is it possible to make a shape like this:


...where the arrow is fixed to the center of the circle and can be whirled around it, but only starts from the perimeter of the circle?

(This way, the shadow problem would also be solved)

[Paul Herber]

Yes, glue the line to the circle centre but ensure the circle is in front of the line.

[David.P]

Negative Paul, since then, it looks like this:

[Paul Herber]

ah, yes ...

[wapperdude]

Couple of possibilities:
1.)  If the formatting of the circle is not going to change, then, you could lock its formatting.
2.)  You could use a connector, dynamically glue the begin point to the circle, and then group.  This would allow it to "travel" around the circle as desired.  Change the Z-order of the connector and raise it to the front.  That way, the line will always be above the circles shadow.

It also allows group formatting.
See attached.

HTH
Wapperdude

[David.P]

Thanks wapperdude!

1.)  If the formatting of the circle is not going to change, then, you could lock its formatting.

This can not be done for a circle that is part of a shape (only within a group) can it?

2.)  You could use a connector, dynamically glue the begin point to the circle [...].  This would allow it to "travel" around the circle as desired. Change the Z-order of the connector and raise it to the front.  That way, the line will always be above the circles shadow.

Great! This actually is the exact answer to my above question:

Other idea: is it possible to make a shape [...] where the arrow is fixed to the center of the circle and can be whirled around it, but only starts from the perimeter of the circle?

2.)  You could use a connector, dynamically glue the begin point to the circle, and then group. [...]  It also allows group formatting.

What advantage do I get by grouping -- only group formatting, or something else as well?

[wapperdude]

Oooops.  Error with the attached file.  Corrected here.


Thought of a 3rd solution that might be even more appealing.  Open the circle shapesheet for any of your original shapes.  Scroll down to the Fill section.  In the shadow pattern cell, enter the formula Guard(0).  This will prevent the circle from having a shadow, but allow all other formatting to be normal.  I think this may be the best solution for you.

Wapperdude

[David.P]

Wow Wapperdude, that would indeed be it.

Am going to try this asap.

Thank you!