This Palette action is designed to take an outline from a separation and make it a uniform thickness. It does this by using a combination of the Thin Filter, the Edit Menu > Select > Grow function and Edit Menu > Fill. The Palette is intended to work on a flat spot separated layer, see example below.

Download the Effects Palette straight into AVA from the Downloads page here on Assist. You you just need to click on the image to download it. The Line Thickness Palette Button looks like this:

Prior to running the Palette

Before your start, it is advisable to lock the current history item in your History Window prior to running any Palette Button. This is because Palettes run a series of tasks, and each is logged in your History. Therefore, if you wish to undo the effects applied by the Palette, you will have several steps to undo.  In some cases (when using your more complex Palettes) these steps may exceed the maximum number of steps the History Window is set up to record (Window Menu > History > Set Maximum). To lock a History Item:

1. Go to Window Menu > History.
2. Click on the icon which looks like an outline of a padlock. The icon will changes once it is clicked on:

Locking the most recent history item means will will not get overwritten, even if you exceed the maximum number of history items you have set up. The lock will remain in place until you unlock it (by clicking the lock icon again), or until you close the file.

Running the Line Thickness Palette

To run the Palette, activate the layer you want to edit, and click on the button. The multiple steps required to perform this task will now be automated. 

Looking at the image on the left, before  running the Palette, you can see the  lines are different thickness.	After running the Palette, you can see the lines are an even thickness,  see right image above.

This can be important for engraving if it is stipulated that the outline must be a particular width. 

To change the thickness of the final line, hold down ⌥ (option key) and click on the title of the Palette to edit it. Scroll down to Grow Selection and set the desired distance, remember as this is 'growing' in both directions, you need to set the figure to half of what you require. In the example we want a 0.2 cm (2mm) line, so we set the grow distance to 0.1 cm.

Changing the Line Thickness in AVA 5.9+

To change the thickness of the final line, open the group list.

Scroll down to Grow Selection and set the desired distance, remember as this is 'growing' in both directions, you need to set the figure to half of what you require. In the example we want a 0.2 cm (2mm) line, so we set the grow distance to 0.1 cm.