punching text through objects

[DeviantGeek 0]

i have adobe CS4 and im at a loss on how to do this. in photoshop i would have been done and had my shit cut 3 days ago. i created a logo for my vinyl business and im having too much trouble in illustrator. i have 3 layers. bottom layer is black. middle layer is slighty smaller (offset path -10pt) and its red. top layer is text. i have the text slighty bigger than the original text to give it that outline look. my problem is punching through the bottom 2 layers. ive tried everything and its grandmom to do this that i know of and read on google and here. nothing is working. i can create the look i want very easily with a white stroke around the text but then i import it to sign cut and all the lines are a hot mess. there intersecting lines out the wazoo. im frustrated about this and i cant stand it haha. if anyone has any help or could point me in the right direction that would be a great huge help. ive attached an image for your viewing pleasure. the original is of course the original. howiwantit is well how i want it. i just acconplished it using a stroke of .075 white. theres just too many lines intersecting everything else. i want the black to be solid. everything ive done wit the trim and merge and all that cuts out the black where the red is. i dont want that. im trying to make it 2 layer vinyl. i hope i explained myself clearly. if not ill try. also theres going to bed red inside the black lettering too i just dint feel like goin that far yet

[pyrophire 0]

control click the text, this will create a selection that you can transfer between layers. click on the red layer and just press delete, this will remove the text area on the red but leave the rest of the object in tact, same for the black if you want to do that.

apple click for OSx

[DeviantGeek 0]

ive tried that i dont know how many times before. first thing i though of was photoshop which im really good at and i know thats what you do in photoshop. but when i ctrl click the text it just switches to the direct selection tool. i click the red layer hit delete and it deletes the text but does nothing to the red layer

[midwaste 4]

You need to convert each of your layers into it's own compound object (Ungroup, leave selected, hold Alt and click Unite in the Pathfinder toolbar, Expand.)

Then, you can Ctrl-C and Ctrl-B to paste a copy of each object behind itself.  Select this and the layer below it that you want to cut out, hold Alt and click the Minus Front button on the Pathfinder toolbar, Expand.

Basically, you just need to acquaint yourself with the Pathfinder toolbar, in CS4 specifically, the Unite and Minus Front.  Since CS4 you have to hold Alt when clicking them, otherwise it makes some weird objects that SB doesn't like sometimes.  I've never had great luck with the Trim button, mainly because I have to go back and delete all the paths that it creates in duplicate to the objects.

The Pathfinder toolbar is the most useful tool in Illy for vinyl, period.

[DeviantGeek 0]

I have been playing with the pathfinder tools. I made the logo using the trim tool but it wasn't cut friendly for a 2 layer decal. I'm at work now. I'll try this when I get home and post my results. Thank you

[DeviantGeek 0]

PERFECT  :thumbsup:

Thats exactly what i wanted. looks perfect in signcut as well. thanks again for your assistance. now i know how to do that for future reference

[midwaste 4]

Awesome. 

Some day, I'll create an Illustrator for Vinyl tutorial, seeing as 95% of the questions asked in this forum are answered with the Pathfinder toolbar.

[DeviantGeek 0]

That's a good idea haha. I knew it had to be one of the tools in the pathfinder toolbar just didn't know which one and how to properly accomplish what I wanted. I'm slowly learning illustrator.