How to Delete Overlapping Lines in Adobe Illustrator


Deleting Overlapping Line

In my last post, I discussed overlapping lines and the issues they can cause when designing for a laser cutter. I also showed you how how to find them in Adobe Illustrator. If you missed it, you can check that article out by clicking HERE.

Now that you can find these potential troublemakers you are probably thinking “Yeah that’s great but how do I fix them?” Well, keep reading to learn how to delete overlapping lines with ease.

Manually Deleting Overlapping Lines

Adobe Illustrator never seems to fall short of offering multiple methods to accomplish the same task. This also holds true for deleting overlapping lines; therefore, we will focus on the options I use most often.

The Eraser Tool, Scissors Tool, and Knife are capable of deleting overlapping lines but I recommend you become most familiar with the Scissor Tool.

Scissors Tool

The Scissor Tool will cut a section of a path by clicking on two anchor points along the same path. The section between the anchor points will now be separate from the original path.

Use the Selection Tool or the Direct Selection Tool to select your path. Then choose the Scissors Tool and click on any two points along that path. Practicing with a few simple shapes will really help you understand how the Scissors Tool functions. See the picture below.

The broken square on the right side of the picture shows what happens after selecting the top left and lower right anchor points with the Scissor Tool. Now the individual segments can be deleted.

Important Things to Remember When Using the Scissor Tool

  • The Scissor Tool must be used on anchor points. In other words, you cannot select just any location along the path and expect it to be cut.
  • The anchor points you cut with the Scissors Tool must be along the same path. If you are attempting to cut a path that is overlapping or lying on top of another path and it isn’t working, try locking the path that doesn’t contain the anchor points you wish to cut prior to using the Scissors Tool.
  • If you want to cut along the path in a location that doesn’t contain an anchor point, simply add an anchor point to that location using the Add Anchor Point Tool (found under the Pen Tool menu). Now you can cut at that anchor point location with the Scissors Tool.

Path Splitter Action With Selection Delete

A quicker way to manually delete overlapping lines is by using the Path Splitter Action, found HERE. This Action will cut the path at every anchor point. The only caveat is that you will likely have to add anchor points in the same way as discussed for the Scissors Tool prior to using the Action.

After using the Path Splittter Action, select the unwanted parts of the path with the Selection Tool and delete.

For more information on the Path Splitter Action, click HERE.

Using an Adobe Illustrator Action for Deleting Overlapping Lines

Although the Scissors Tool is very useful for deleting overlapping lines, the process can be exhausting as the design becomes more complex. If you have read some of my other posts, by now you should know that I like Adobe Illustrator Actions as they can help significantly with these tedious tasks.

As I was reading through the Adobe Forums, I discovered a way to delete all of the overlapping lines at the same time with a series of operations. Then I built an Action that applied the operations with a single button.

The specific commands, in order, for building this Action are as follows:

Select the object or objects with the Selection Tool
Object>Live Paint>Make
Object>Live Paint>Expand
Ungroup

For anyone who doesn’t know how to build an Action, see the section Splitting Paths Quickly Using an Adobe Illustrator Action in the article How to Quickly Split Paths for Laser Designing.

Alternatively, you can find more information about Actions in the Adobe Illustrator User Guide by clicking HERE.

In the truck I created below, you can see the areas where lines were overlapping (the red arrows pointing to the darker lines) in the top picture.

The overlapping lines were quickly removed (seen in the bottom picture) by applying the Delete Overlap Action which you can get for free on the Downloads page.

Old Fashioned Truck

Important Things to Remember When Using the Delete Overlap Action

  • Use the Reveal Overlap Action prior to using the Delete Overlap Action to identify your overlapping lines.
  • After using the Reveal Overlap Action, make sure you change the opacity back to 100% to avoid any errors.
  • Always check for overlapping lines after applying this Action.

Checking For Errors

When using any function or tool in Adobe Illustrator, you should always double-check that it has provided the desired results. In my experience, certain aspects or attributes of any design can alter the way a function or tool is supposed to work. This includes Actions!

A few things I have found that have altered the intended effect of a function (such as are those found in the Pathfinder panel) or tool are grouping of paths, varying stroke weights, varying stroke/fill colors, and opacification less than 100%.

With that being said, if you do find any errors or unwanted effects after using a function or tool, just use Edit>Undo Move. Then try repeating the process after ensuring the paths are completely ungrouped with the same stroke weight, color, and opacification of 100%.


Well, I hope you learned some new skills to add to your laser designing workflow. If you have any questions, thoughts, or recommendations, feel free to reach out at answer@jackforge.com. Happy Laser Crafting!

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