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Hello everyone I had been trying to cut out many paths from a single layer in Illustrator. I was trying to convert an anchor point so I could move it but apparently I have ran into a problem.. My image that was previously cut out from a white circle disappeared.

I am transferring from photoshop but never had this problem before. I have many paths that are overlapped since I was trying to cut them all out from one layer.

Can I get any help on this? I can't seem to merge all the paths or compound shapes.. but everything that is within a path I want to delete from this white circle.

The layer that the paths are on is empty by the way

enter image description here

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  • Move the circle below the other art. (optional but will help this make more sense)
  • Change the fill color of the circle to anything different than the other artwork (You can change it back later)
  • Select the circle and other art
  • Click the Merge button on the Pathfinder Panel
  • Choose Object > Ungroup from the menu (optional but often helpful)
  • Use the Direct Selection Tool (white arrow) and click part of the circle.
  • Choose Select > Same > Fill & Stroke from the menu
  • Choose Object > Lock from the menu
  • Still using the Direct Selection Tool, click-drag a selection to encompass everything.
  • Hit the Delete key twice
  • Choose Object > Unlock All from the menu
  • Change the fill color back to white

This should work. To assist any further I'd need access to the actual file.

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  • Scott I'm still having trouble with this. I have tried to merge the shapes in the pathfinder panel but it doesnt do anything. Only one of my paths is filled in with color, in fact I dont want any filled in.. I want to use all of the paths to delete from the circle. For some reason when I was trying to convert an anchor it just made my compound shape disappear. Even undo wouldn't bring it back.
    – Kyle Ng
    Commented Sep 14, 2014 at 2:20
  • A posted, I cant' really help further without access to the file. What I've posted here should work. If it fails, there's something about the file you aren't explaining or aren't aware of. Note, for pathfinder to work things need to have a fill - which can be removed later.
    – Scott
    Commented Sep 14, 2014 at 2:27
  • Can I upload the file to this post? I'm a newbie to illustrator so when I was making the compound shapes I would create new layer after new layer and make a compound shape one at a time each one using a different path to cut out the lines.
    – Kyle Ng
    Commented Sep 14, 2014 at 2:34
  • You can't upload files here. You'd have to host the file somewhere else, like dropbox or some other file sharing service.
    – Scott
    Commented Sep 14, 2014 at 2:42
  • Here is the file. mediafire.com/?r5wau1m9ybe036f For some reason the pathfinder will work in cutting out from the circle but only 1 path which I cannot choose. The same path will fill while all of the other paths stay selected but nothing happens. Perhaps you can check it out and tell me what I'm doing wrong.
    – Kyle Ng
    Commented Sep 14, 2014 at 2:44

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