How can I repeat a command?

[thomasNordic]

I am using Ai3.

I am doing a lot of "path simplify" and every time I have to go to "object" then "path" then "path simplify".

I have been searching if there is like in autocad a key to press to do "repeat las action" but I only found 2 things that I dont really understand:

- Ctrl + D (must be for st else)

- somethnig called "actions", if I understand correctly it is to create a group of commands, this could be interesting but it should be next to the "pathfinder" screen but there I have nothing...

strange,

somebody to help?

Thanks, Danke

[warm_reality157F · Accepted solution]

Hi Thomas

Simplify is a command that is accepted by actions. You can record it normally.

Acess Window > Actions to get the panel to work area. Then start ceating a new action...record the simplify as you want. You can even add a shortcut to the action so it becomes easy to acess and run.

You can refer to this link to learn more about recording and playing actions: http://help.adobe.com/en_US/illustrator/cs/using/WS714a382cdf7d304e7e07d0100196cbc5f-62b3a.html

Hope to be helped

Gustavo

[Jacob Bugge]

Thomas,

Ctrl+D is for repetition of an Object>Transform.

Actions should be (or have been) bundled with the Layers palette/panel.

Edit: Hi Gustavo.

[thomasNordic]

mmh, it worked for the "simplify tool" (actually I just used the one pre defined in Illustrator, changing its setting) but it doesnt work for the "join path" tool.

I use it really A LOT and every time I have to select, click right and choose "join" and I always click on "corner" so I would like to sum up this in 1 action.

1 created one action, recorded it as said in the tuto and click on stop. Then I tried to use it with "play" but it doesnt work..

Is there some restricted things we cannot use for the "action" trick?

Thanks,

Thomas

N.B: I think it still belongs to this same post thats why I put it here as a complement information / question.

[Jacob Bugge]

Thomas,

To join the Direct Selected end Anchor Points, you may Ctrl+J.

To join several paths, you may like the free Join Reasonably script available here, although it may overdo it in eager helpfulness (some of the other scripts are (also) quite useful):

http://park12.wakwak.com/~shp/lc/et/en_aics_script.html

James has a few more moderate scripts for joining a number of paths in one go, with straight or adapted joiniung segments if relevant. He may spot this thread and post.

There is nothing wrong in continuing a thread like this.

[emil emil]

Make a feature request.

Illustrator and in general many Adobe products are lacking considerably with repeated tasks. The number of hotkeys available is limited to using Function keys and a lot of them are already assigned by default to frequently used tasks. Also, often users need to repeat a task frequently in one or a few sessions but not every day on a regular bases which doesn't justify creating an action and occupying a hotkey that is easy to forget if not used daily. Nowadays production programs are brimming with features and there are a lot of excellent solutions already invented and used by may programs but unfortunately Illustrator is not one of them. Here are some examples of excellent solutions:

• a hotkey for the last menu command selected
• a hotkey for the previous tool selected (for example while using the Sheer Tool on existing objects, you want to draw a box and quickly go back to the Sheer Tool)
• list of recently used menu commands panel
• tearoff menus similar to the existing tearoff toolbars (imagine it was possible when you go to Object > Paths be able to tear off the Paths submenu so it remains like a panel and you can click on any of the commands of this submenu without digging through the menus again and again)

[thomasNordic]

The ctrl + J was a good one.

The solution for a free addon would be paradise but it looks to be for CS from 5 to 10, or?

Thanks

Thomas

[Jacob Bugge]

You are welcome, Thomas.

Maybe CS10.

[thomasNordic]

I have CS3 ;-(

[emil emil]

I'm not sure if CS3 can do that (I'm using CS5) but Ctrl + J will also join two or more paths selected with the Selection tool (black arrow).

[warm_reality157F]

Illustrator CS5 made various improvements to Join command...This is why you can simples select 2 paths with Selection Tool and run the command.

In early versions like CS4, CS3, CS2..... Join works only when you have 2 anchors selected. So you need to use the Direct Selection to select the 2 points you want to Join..then run the command.

In Illustrator CS5...you can too select 2 anchors....but it´s not so necessary as well (you select 2 anchors only if the Join does not make the correct union of anchors).

Gustavo.

[thomasNordic]

no, doesnt work with CS3, at least I didnt succeed..

[warm_reality157F]

@thomas

That´s because the changes made in CS5. In CS3 you must select only the anchors you want to join before running the command.

Gustavo.

[thomasNordic]

Hi Gustavo,

- Actually I was answering Emil Emil, I saw your answer afterwards only.

Hi everybody,

- There are no freeware addon for CS3 to join many paths in one go?

greetings

Thomas

[Larry G. Schneider]

There is no freeware but there is a shareware that is relatively cheap. Try googling Concatenate, rjgraffix