How to edit shape layers once drawn on CC

Forum|Forum|3 years ago
April 3, 2023
1 reply
755 views

Hi everybody. I recently switched from CS6 to CC and I'm struggling to come to an understanding of how the pen tool works with vector shapes in the CC version. In CS6 I could select a shape layer, then choose any of the pen tools and Ctrl-Click on the layer itself and it would show the boundary shape and points, but I can't figure out how to get that to happen on Photoshop CC. It seems I'm stuck with a shape once it's done and I have no way to edit the points or even add/remove anchor points. Has the keybinding changed or is this totally gone now?

Windows

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J E L

Community Expert

Hi @Matthew292246741gth, if I understand your question right, you draw out your shape and then switch to the Direct Selection tool where you will see all the points. You'll then be prompted to turn your live shape into a regular path. Let us know if that works or if it's something else you are trying to do!

M

Matthew292246741gthAuthor

Participant

Hey JEL thanks for the response! I was actually keeping the pen tool active and not the direct selection without any layer conversion. Right after posting the original message I managed to do something that appears to have "un-glitched" what I was working on. Here's what was happening:

- Draw out a closed shape, Numpad Enter to "end" everything and hide the outer path (habit that started back in CS2 and I still do it to check everything once complete).

- With any of the pen tools active (Pen, Freeform, add/delete, convert, etc.), Ctrl-Click within the shape itself with the layer selected. Normally this will show the outline path and then I can see the points and edit them.

On my file, I'd done something to prevent this from happening. I had created an initial shape, then copy/pasted a second one and shifted it over sligtly, and after that the Ctrl-Click to show the path would not work. I managed to fix it by drawing a quick shape separate from the Problem shapes, now clicking the layer in the Layers menu will show the outline path, as well as Ctrl-Clicking any shape layer on the file itself. This isn't the first time it's happened to me but it's the first time I've had a layer get completely stuck like this. If it does happen again I will give your solution a shot and see if that fixes it, so thank you!!

M

Matthew292246741gthAuthor

Participant

Update again, this seems to be linked with "Extras" being on. Whenever I turn off the grid lines this feature goes away, but it comes back with the gridlines on. Ideally I'd like to turn off the gridlines permanently but keep this feature with the pen tool but I don't know if that's possible.

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