Illustrator reducing double stroke svg to a single stroke svg [duplicate]

Question

I have a double stroke svg that I want to reduce to a single stroke svg. The area on the svg is defined as some white shapes that are overlayed on a black background, with anchors outlining the shapes and background.

I hope this makes sense

I almost want something like the monoline tool developed for text, so that I can simplify an icon to a single line svg for a lazer cutter.

Thanks.

Here's the closest thing I can get to a single line:

Answer 1

You could use an Offset Path effect to give you the look of a single line but it would still be compound when expanded. If nothing else, that gives you something accurate to trace over.

Answer 2

You mention a "monoline" method developed for text - I've never heard of it, but was in need for one and came up with a method that most likely should do what you need:

Single Steps involved:

• Select Object, in case of text: Type -> Create Outline Stroke [Strg+Shift+O]
• Resize to a good size and Rasterize with high dpi (e.g. 300dpi): Object -> Rasterize
• Image Trace the resulting object, using the Image Trace Panel and selecting Outline as method.
• Expand the resulting Image Trace Object

You then have a single stroke from complex double strokes/compound paths etc. It is not a "clean" method and results may vary (greatly!) with size of the rasterized object. Changing size has a much larger impact (rather than changing parameters of the Image Trace).