Inspiring

Question

Can't grab bezier control points

Forum|Forum|8 years ago
August 2, 2017
14 replies
11918 views

I'm having increasing difficulty grabbing bezier control points - not the ends of segments, but the little round handles on the ends of the control tangents.

I used to make Illustrator fly but now I waste so much time grabbing, failing, grabbing again, accidentally deselectiing, selecting again, failing to grab yet again, grabbing again and again...

Even if i very carefully and slowly grab the point, Illustrator fails to notice and my mouse pointed slides off without moving it. I find it's particularly oe even more difficult to grab a point when its on or near a guide line.

I have looked in prefs and I think the selection anchor & display snap to and tolerance only apply to segment end points.

Am I missing something? Is it a bug? Is there a setting somewhere else I can fiddle with? Any suggestions?

Cheers,

K.

E

Eugene Turaev

Inspiring

I still haven't solved this problem—2025. I've been using a licensed, regularly updated version of Illustrator on Windows 11 Pro for three years now. Working with the bezier is incredibly frustrating—no matter the settings, you strain your hand, hold your breath, just to select a point, and grabbing the bezier handle is a complete pain. Ctrl+U barely helps. It's surprising how much easier it is to do this in Figma. Did you manage to solve the problem?

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RV999

Participating Frequently

I have posted in so many threads about this and ot never gets resolved, it keeps getting worse somehow

@Supergraphicthis seems like a solution but then I get unwanted snaps to all the points. I just want to be able to GRAB the anchor point without smart guides OR "higlight anchors on mouseover" - this used to be possible in previous CS5 CS6 versions, it got really crap recetly and it stays that way

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Anubhav M

Community Manager

Hello @RV999,

We understand that encountering technical issues can be frustrating. Would you mind sharing some more details, like the exact version of the OS/Illustrator, system display settings used (resolution/scaling), and a screen recording of the problem (https://adobe.ly/3USqN2H), so we can investigate this further?

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Thanks,

Anubhav

C

carl746

Inspiring

As far as I know, this has been a problem ever since Illustrator CC was introduced in 2013. The selection tolerance setting doesn't work at all. It's set to 0 pixels no matter how many pixels you set it too, making it EXTREMELY frustrating to work with Illustrator, and it's also one of the main reasons why I cancelled my Illustrator subscription and went back to CS6.

Here's another thread (there may be others as well) about the problem:

https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/601447-illustrator-desktop-bugs/suggestions/20358952-selection-tolerance-does-not-apply-for-selecting-h

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default4fqt2hkboyx4

New Participant

I am having EXACTLY the same problem as stated above. Thabk you.

Supergraphic

Inspiring

Check - Highlight Anchors on Mouse Over

C

carl746

Inspiring

It's been a few years and this bug is still there. One of the most annoying bugs I've seen during the 13 years I've used Illustrator.

Please vote for this bug report: https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/601447-illustrator-desktop-bugs/suggestions/39393367-selection-tolerance-setting-on-bezier-handles-has

Adobe doesn't seem to care unless a report gets around a hundred votes.

C

crispe123

Known Participant

Previously I was only having this problem on Windows. But with the latest version (24.2.1) it's the same issue on Mac. ie the cursor has to be precisely over a bezier curve handle to select it. So incredibly frustrating.

Monika Gause

Adobe Expert

Please post bugs to http://illustrator.uservoice.com

J

jamesg2858629

Participating Frequently

Just wanted to chime in here and say this is still an issue for me - I have bumped up the size of the bezier handles since, which has helped, if not making things a bit clunkier.

My new pet peeve is that now this behaviour seems to apply to selecting single strokes/paths as well, which can be absolutely infuriating (hence my post at this very moment hahaha) - moving them around without smart guides is a nightmare. Don't get me started on how much it is amplified with overlapping elements. Weird part is, I don't have this issue in other vector editing software. Mind boggling.

I really hope some day this is addressed with some sort of selection tolerance setting that has a markedly noticeable effect.

G

grafx

Participating Frequently

I have the same problem. Incredibly frustrating and time wasting!

G

grafx

Participating Frequently

The problem was resolved for me after updating Illustrator. I'm now running v 24.0.1 on macOS Mojave v 10.14.6 without further issues.

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Alesclandre

Inspiring

Hello again,

So I investigated a bit more in the uservoice forums, and it's clearly a REAL problem and the solution is still not there....

Here are some exemples : one, and another one, and still another one, and again another one.... Tons of people !

So I created a new thread by explaining my vision and experience.

If you are using illustrator and have problems grabbing these points, and that you agree with me that this is a HUGE problem, please vote ! Thanks

C

crispe123

Known Participant

I've got the same problems, though I've already posted about it in other threads I think. I have the problem on Windows 10 using both Wacom and Mouse. I don't have the same problem on Mac. The Windows 10 version is basically unuseable so I've had to resort to doing all my Illustrator work on my old Mac machine. Seems like the problem has been around for years though on this forum.

G

grafx

Participating Frequently

The problem was resolved for me after updating Illustrator. I'm now running v 24.0.1 on macOS Mojave v 10.14.6 without further issues.

spaceprobeAuthor

Inspiring

Yes, I too am sure it has changed in some way. Been using illustrator since the early 90's and it is becoming increasingly difficult.

Didn't really find a fix. unfortunately. I fiddled with the control point sizes and shapes in prefs to get what I think is the best option. See my pic...

(In case it's not obvious, I have the middle option chosen for Anchors and the extreme right option for Handles)

-- Adobe user since 1987 : Illustrator version 1.0 | Adobe Type Manager | PageMaker

J

jamesg2858629

Participating Frequently

Hmmmm yeah I too had made similar changes (only differences to yours being I had the far left anchor setting selected and higher tolerance) - doesn't seem to have solved the problem, though.

For the moment, I guess I will go back to using CS6 for the initial work and then CC2018 when I need certain features - what a pain in the ass!

I looked at the suggestion/bug list and don't see this on there - will try to make a video showing the problem and get it up.

A

Alesclandre

Inspiring

Alesclandre wrote
As a UX designer, that's really interesting to see how people get around problems by using what they have in their hands

I should think that would indeed interest a UX designer. Glad I could help, even in that way.

even if it takes ages to do...

Heh, as a unit of measure, I suspect "ages" is not a constant. Personally, I'd say even an extra 3 or 4 seconds isn't unreasonable to activate or deactivate a given feature to ease the task at hand (and it doesn't take that long to execute any of the compromises I listed). That, even from a UX design perspective which tends to honor a somewhat sterile sense-of-clock.

Why the hell it is not on bezier points ?

A great question, of course. I don't know. It would be welcome, obviously.

I do know that I spend up to 70% of some workdays manipulating path controls in Illustrator, and I've never experienced a level of frustration with it that prompted me to take it up with Adobe. I expect that's why I, and perhaps some other of our fellow users, are not all that quick to rush up and agree with someone making the case; "it's horribly broken," and rather, start looking for other systemic reasons for the complaint, perhaps in corrupt preferences, pointer-device niggles, etc. That stuff does happen.

It would be welcome, obviously.

Great to read that

I'm sure this can benefit to everyone .

J

jamesg2858629

Participating Frequently

Did you ever manage to solve this? I too am incredibly frustrated by how hard it can be sometimes to select things (anchor handles and individual strokes in particular).

Fidgeting with the setting didn't help - I am positive it wasn't this bad back in CS6 - what happened in CC? When did this happen?

spaceprobeAuthor

Inspiring

Thanks for the suggestions. I inwardly groaned when you said trash the prefs cos I hate having to get it all the way I like it again, but your saving the mint files is a good one and I'm now kicking myself for not thinking of that myself. I'll give it a go.

Yes - I've experimented with thos settings to no avail.

Thanks Monika Gause, I've never noticed the cursor change at all! I'll look carefully - it may help.

Thanks all.

K.

-- Adobe user since 1987 : Illustrator version 1.0 | Adobe Type Manager | PageMaker

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