Dupicating Rectangle while maintaining different fill patterns

[Al Fitch]

Hello,

I'm working my way through a Spotlight manual. I've had problems duplicating a rectangle representing a proscenium arch in step K of the Spotlight Tutorial (p. 3of18 back of book).

The instructions indicate that I can duplicate a rectangle and change the fill on the top object while keeping the original without a fill.

Whenever I change the fill in what i think is the top object, the original takes the same properties.

What am I doing wrong? Does it have to do with which layer the duplicate is on?

Al Fitch

[CipesDesign]

Make sure that the you select only the object you wish to change. You can see what is selected in the Object Info Palette (OIP). It might report "Rectangle" or "2 Rectangles" depending on what you have selected at the time.

Whenever you duplicate an object, the newest (most recent) object will always be on top (in 2d stacking) unless you change it.

Remember also that objects with "none" selected for fill will be completely see-through (transparent).

[Al Fitch]

My other issue with this task is that when I choose the fill style as a pattern in the attributes palette, (with the rectangle representing the proscenium arch selected), the fill defaults back to no fill. So I can't seem to fill the top rectangle with a hatch from the pattern option in attributes.

I have had success in changing the fill if the rectangle is the only object in view. I'd click or maybe double click the rectangle and I would get a new view with only the rectangle on a layer called "proscenium", a layer I have not made up. Once the change had been made, I can click on the layer called theatre floor plan to see the rectangle in place with the hatch pattern I chose. At this point I am back to my original problem whereby both the original and the duplicate have the same fill.

Al Fitch