Why doesn't the spacebar move anchor points anymore when using the Pen tool?

Forum|Forum|8 years ago
January 17, 2018
2 replies
2115 views

I've been using the pen tool in illustrator for many years now. Using the spacebar to fine tune my anchor point placement became a big part of my workflow. Ever since upgrading to CC, this feature no longer works. Is there a way to enable it in preferences? If not, can this feature be brought back?

While trying to find an answer, I found this post from 2012: Re: Moving anchor point using spacebar while drawing with pen

It's basically requesting added functionality so the feature works when you close a path. This would be nice, but I would be happy to just be able to use it again as I have for years. Hopefully there's a checkbox somewhere, haha.

Any input would be much appreciated! Thank you!

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Correct answer Kurt Gold

There is still a key combination, but it is a bit more complicated than in earlier versions of Illustrator.

- Select a path and take the Pen tool

- Alt click on an anchor point and drag out the handles

- Release the Alt key, but don't release the mouse button

- Hold down the spacebar and move the anchor point around

Mike_Gondek10189183

Community Expert

What version are you using? I seem to remember another post where there was an exact version of illustrator that did not do this.

For me this works in CC2018 mac, does this not work for you, or is there another twist to this?.

Click to lay down one point
click and hold on the 2nd point, then hodl down spacebar modifier, and you can move the poitn around
let go of the point when ready
go over the endpoint. click and hold down, add spacebar and you can drag the 3rd point arounbd

hollanddottsAuthor

Participant

Thank you for your response. Yes, it is working as you described. I felt like an idiot for a minute, but realized it was a more specific use case that got me frustrated. It's not creating new paths, but editing existing ones. I used to be able to edit an existing path or shape with this process:

Selecting the Pen tool
Selecting the shape/path
Press the Alt/Option Key to change to the Anchor Point Tool
Click a point and drag out the handles
Use the spacebar to move the point around (and toggle back and forth between moving the handles and moving the point) while continuing to hold down the Alt/Option key

My apologies for not being more clear with my original description. It was the inability to perform step 5 in the process above that was frustrating me. I still have illustrator CS5 on an old computer, and just confirmed that it works the way I described above.

So... When using the pen tool, is there any way to use the spacebar to move a point while holding alt/option key to access the Anchor Point Tool?

I see that the spacebar works when you have the actual Anchor Point Tool selected, just not when you use the alt/option key to get there. Not sure why that tiny feature would be removed, but I would love to get it back!

Thanks again for responding, sorry for the confusion!