How can I render a path in Illustrator "non-compound" and "non-masking"?

Mike Zwingli

New Member
Hi there.

I have been working in Illustrator to create a vector diagram for the engraving of a die. Though I have not had any experience with it in the past, I have, with the aid of You Tube tutorials, been able to been able to learn how to work with layers and have developed a plan for rendering the design that I want. I recently encountered a problem, though, in trying to type on a path. I created a circle, which I halved and separated using the scissors tool, placing an upper half in one layer and a lower half circle in another. Actually, that is misleading...I created two circles, one in each layer, and simply deleted the upper half circle in one layer, and the lower half circle in the other. In attempting to type on the path of the lower half circle within its layer, to thereby place circular text in the lower register of my design, I typed a few characters before being greeted with a message box indicating that: "You must click on a non-compound, non-masking path to create text along a path." I have no idea how I might have ended up with a compound or masking path, or even what these identifiers mean. I did find "Clipping Mask" and "Compound Path" buttons under the "Object" drop-down, but they are not active (they are currently opaque and not able to be clicked upon). What might be my best course of action to remedy this situation?

Thanks in advance,
Mike
 
Be aware that Illustrator handles text on a path in a way that you may not expect.
It tends to run off the path, put it upside down and do all sorts of things to it.

There are some very small tabs/handles you can use to pull the text around which helps but it can be a bit trial and error,
 
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