Pen Tool

[Sarah_Curthoys@adobeforums.com]

I can not get my anchor points to connect with the other ones. I start doing a line and then I go and click on my next anchor point and the line I just made disappears and my new anchor point is there but it isn't connected with the other one I made. When I go up to view and hit outline I can see the points but it still shows them not connected. What am I doing wrong? I need someone to help asap because it's for my homework. Thank you

[Timothy_Foolery®@adobeforums.com]

I start doing a line and then I go and click on my next anchor point and
the line I just made disappears




Sounds like you're selecting other tools in between placing points. Are you moving the first point with the direct selection tool then trying to carry on? If you want to do that, don't select it from the tool bar, hold down the [ctrl] key instead.

You can click on your previous point with the pen tool to carry on the line from there, if you've dropped it somehow.

[chreen_hill@adobeforums.com]

First make sure you have a stroke selected. Just tried it out on my computer. Get pen tool click move to another location and click again, a line should be drawn (make sure youre using the 1st pen tool) Keep clicking till you finish but don't click over an anchor point you have already created. To close path place pen on first anchor point until the little circle appears. Click and path will be closed. Hope this helps.

[B. Philippus]

And make sure you're using the pen tool and not the pencil tool, which only draws when mouse is down.

[Jason_Arnone@adobeforums.com]

I have a similar issue which is different from what everyone is telling Sarah to fix:

When creating font artwork, I like to copy certain parts of one character shape and combine them with other parts of another shape. One thing I run into ALL THE TIME is trying to join 2 different shapes. I try using the pen tool, using the JOIN command, sometimes with both shapes selected I can RELEASE COMPOUND PATH and sometimes just re-cutting and pasting does the trick. But these work-a-rounds do not always work.

When I try to join, I get the following error:
"To join, you must select two open endpoints. If they are not on the same path, they cannot be on text paths nor inside graphs, and if both of them are grouped, they must be in the same group."

I have made sure that none of the warned conditions exist with the endpoints I'm trying to combine and I still can't get it to join.

I think this could be a bug - the condition of paths should not be so touchy. This isn't CAD, it's art.

Please advise. JA

[Eddie_Ostrowski@adobeforums.com]

Sarah, if you 1: draw a line with the Pen Tool (P) 2: deselect line 3: Click on either end of line to draw another segment 4: the segments will be automatically joined. However, if you attempt to do the same thing by using the Line Segment Tool (\), it will not work.

Jason, make sure you're selecting the two anchor points that you want to join with the Direct Selection Tool (A) and not the Selection Tool (V).

Eddie

[Eddie_Ostrowski@adobeforums.com]

Sarah, please try the following. 1: Draw a line with the Pen Tool. 2: Deselect the line. 3: Draw another line using the Pen Tool, again. This time, starting it on either end of the first line you drew. 4: Both lines will be automatically joined. However, if you attempt the same exercise using the Line Segment Tool, it will not work.

Jason, make sure you select both anchor points using the Direct Selection Tool and not the Selection Tool before using the Join command.

Hope these suggestions help... Eddie

(I apologize for the double post... thought I erased it.)

[Jason_Arnone@adobeforums.com]

Thanks for your replay Eddie -

I have been using the direct selection tool to no avail. I was also thinking, after making my last post, that I sometimes also have no luck using the pathfinder tools.

[Alexander_Kogan.@adobeforums.com]

Jason, have you tried deleting the prefs?