In Illustrator, can a symbol 'knockout' a path?

Question

I have an illustrator document with hundreds of these shields setup as a symbol. They are placed on top of paths and they look like this:

I'm trying to get to a place where the white fill of the symbol 'knocks out' the path behind it to get something like this:

Right now the only way I know how to accomplish this is to manually chop the line behind the symbol on both sides. I've tried to group the objects, different blending modes on the white fill, and the 'Knockout Group' option on the fill, but haven't been able to get the desired effect. Any ideas out there on how to accomplish this en masse?

Thanks!

Answer 1

To go more in-depth, the option can be found under the Appearances panel. To start off you need to make sure that your path is converted to a shape. Then select that shape and turn the fill to 0% opacity. Select the shield and the line and group them. After they are grouped you can go back into the appearances panel and select the knockout group checkbox.

Answer 2

Yes. The trcik is that the line and symbol has to be in same layer or group and that group needs to have knockout group option enabled.