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A
Ana Medusa
Participant
March 21, 2013
Question

Can't join two overlapped anchor points

  • March 21, 2013
  • 1 reply
  • 19520 views

[Illustrator CS5]

I need to copy and paste path segments in order to create uniform serifs for letters. (For example, specific path curves).

So imagine I have a horizontal segment and a curve segment. I mouseover each one seperately and I can see they have anchor points where I want them to merge afterwards. I drag one towards the other to make them intersect. Then I try to select both anchor points and press CTRL + SHIFT + ALT + J, but it displays this error: "To join, you must select two open endpoints. (...)" Which makes me think I'm not really selecting both anchor points when they're overlapped.

I have the idea that they can't overlap, because my path segment won't detect the anchor point in the other path. They're just visually intersected but not connected.

If I try to join them when they aren't overlapped, they will join but distort the original shape of the path segments. I select them both with the Direct Selection tool, pressing Shift to add the second anchor point to the selection, which won't work when they're overlapped because Shift + Clicking will deselect the anchor that seems on top.

I also tried various shape modes in pathfinder and nothing works.

How can I properly overlap and join / merge them?

(I'm using a white fill so I can see the shape forming as I add more anchor points so I'm sure they aren't joined)

Thank you so much

This topic has been closed for replies.

1 reply

Doug A Roberts
Community Expert
Doug A RobertsCommunity Expert
Community Expert
March 21, 2013

what are you doing to select them? drag a box over them or just clicking? because the latter will just select the top one.

what's ctrl + alt + shift J for? why not just ctrl + J?

A
Ana MedusaAuthor
Participant
March 21, 2013

I tried clicking and drawing a circle around them with the lasso tool. What tool do you advise me to use?

I read in an adobe blog that Ctrl + Alt + Shift + J is for overlapped anchor points. But I tried using just Ctrl + J too.

Steve Fairbairn
Steve Fairbairn
Inspiring
March 21, 2013

Alright, so I created a new file, drew some random paths and twisted one segment. Then I copied the segment and pasted it in the artboard. With the Pen Tool I clicked on one endpoint to make sure there's an anchor, then deselected again and did the same for the other endpoint. Then with the Direct Selection Tool I clicked on both anchor points, and pressed CTRL+J. The lines distorted like in my original file, so I just dragged one of them while pressing CTRL and joined them manually.

I closed the path in the end, so I finally made it through, but when I try the same thing in my original file, it doesn't work... I don't understand why. When I drag one of my segments to the other one it isn't detecting the anchor point it needs to link.

The funny part here is that I can't join two overlapped anchor points using any of the commands.


Could it be that you need to use Pathfinder?

Here are a couple of serifs and a stroke that I need to put the serifs onto.

Position the serifs on the stroke, select serifs and stroke and Pathfinder ((panel) Unite.

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