Sometimes people ask me what can they do if they have already deleted their lines and they’d like to get them back. In Animate 2 and Animate Pro 2, there is a handy command that can be used for this.
Go to the Drawing view. Now select the fill that you’d like to put a stroke around. Then from the top menu, go to Drawing > Convert > Strokes to Pencil Lines.
What this command does is it takes any fill, and the outside line of that fill is considered a “stroke”. So it takes that stroke and converts it to a pencil line, thus giving you a selectable outline around that fill.
~Lilly
Hi Lilly>
This doesn’t seem to work for me. It seems to create very big lines that do not outline the shape.
This would be very handy to be able to use. Could you possibly post a step by step so I can make sure I’m not missing anything obvious?
Squeakypics,step by step is… View Menu/Drawing/Convert/Strokes to Pencil Lines.
the option Strokes to Pencil Lines is also active while in the view drawing.
He, he. I asked for that. I should have been a little more clear.
My steps are:
draw and fill a shape with a pencil tool set to 0 (or draw with a line and delete it)
Select the shape and then go to Drawing / convert / Brush strokes to pencil lines.
What I get is:
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/squeakypics/toonboom%20support/strokes_to_lines1.png
That is somewhat expected behaviour as pencil lines approximate brush strokes. That is a pretty extreme example, usually it isn’t that bad.
I generally suggest only working the other way. If you want to draw something with a pencil, use the pencil tool not the brush tool and then convert.
Hi Dave,
It’s “Stroke to Pencil Lines”…
If you like, here is a very short video-demonstration:
http://www.nolanscott.co.nz/Gallery/creating_outlines.html
Regards
Nolan
Thanks for the help guys.
Nolan was right. I should be using ‘shape to pencil lines’ The thing is I don’t ever get that option in my drop down. It is always grayed out. However the ‘shift +F12’ shortcut does work. Bizarre but at least it works now.
A lot of my work is in the no-line style which means it is a nightmare if I need to go back and add new drawings. Onionskins work much better with lines. So now I’ll be able to easily get them when they don’t exist (importing no-line pdf’s etc) 
This option works only as a right-click in the Drawing View on in the top menu when in the Drawing View.
And make sure you use the Strokes option, not the Brush Strokes option
~Lilly
Nice tip! Thank you for sharing.