Center line trace of a scanned hand drawn line.

Question

I have a client who wants a hand drawn jig saw puzzle cut out of acrylic on our laser. When I trace the line I get two paths. One on each side of the line. How do I get one path down the center of the hand drawn line.

Answer 1

From the Live Trace > Hand Drawn Sketch you can activate the Centerline. This will give you multiple paths, but after tracing use the Expand button and then go to Object > Ungroup. Delete all the unnecessary lines and then connect all the other using the Join command. Keeping in mind that this solution will work only for old-almost new versions of Adobe Illustrator.