CS6 Illustrator: join two differenty sized lines, maintaining individual stroke Weight

Question

I'm running into an issue trying to join two different size lines together.

I am trying to join them together but when I join them it changes the Stroke Weight of one of the lines instead of just joining them while maintaining their original Stroke Weights.

How do I join two different size lines without it changing the stroke weight?

Answer 1

Although I don't think you can simply join to different stroked lines together and keep the different weights separate. Here are some options however.

1. You could over lap them and group them.
2. You could go to Menu > Object > Path > Outlines Stroke. Then join them this way.
3. The third is more closely related to you question. You could use the Width Tool (Shift+W). Its used by clicking on your line and dragging outward. You should create two points with it (A) and (B) as shown. One point will be the desired width of one section of line and the other should be the desired width of the other. You will need to go to the opposite ends of the lines and create another width point or you lines will not be even. In my case (the picture) I joined the two halve circles. I created two width points each on the top and bottom. I dragged point (A) right under point (B). This will give you the desired effect of having two different stroke weights on the same path. You do not have to join two lines. I just used it as an example. If I were doing this, I would jsut used a oval single shape and then apply the width tool method. Hope this helps

Answer 2

Here's a method that worked for me when making an architectural door icon which is two lines with a different stroke width. You lose the line objects and get shapes instead so if retaining actual line objects is important to you this won't work.

Select both lines and then menu Object > Path > Outline Stroke. Then use the Direct Selection Tool to drag a point to make a clean join.