Extract Paths From Mesh Shapes

Extract Path From Mesh Thumbnail

I love the results you can get when working with meshes, but sometimes I don’t love trying to edit them.ย  When a path is converted to a Mesh Object, it is no longer a Path. This can get frustrating if you want the original path for other purposes. To extract the original Path, select the Mesh Object, go Object > Path > Offset Path and enter 0. Now you have a copy!


Extract Path From Mesh

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31 thoughts on “Extract Paths From Mesh Shapes

  1. I tried this with Illustrator CS6 and it didn’t work.

    So instead of this I added a new fill in the Appearance panel and used Object > Expand… to extract the path from mesh.

  2. This is sooo helpful! I’ve been trying to find a solution to this issue for a while now. Life saving! Truely! Thanks!!

  3. This was the first thing that came to my mind too, but you get a lot of stray points. Somehow Illustrator thinks that adding more anchor points makes the shape that much better.

    How do you get rid of those?

  4. Keep up the fantastic work , I read few blog posts on this site and I conceive that your weblog is very interesting and contains lots of superb information …

  5. 0Oh men this is great save me alot of time and it has been a long time since i asked myself if this could happen, thanks!
    love your page

  6. wow this is…. genious !!! ๐Ÿ™‚ i have read books where it sais once converted to a mesh u never get a path back…. shows again how good vectips is

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