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MissSparkles75
Known Participant
March 8, 2019
Answered

How do I select and move two control handles on two different anchor points so they move concurrently?

  • March 8, 2019
  • 4 replies
  • 27856 views

I am drawing a teardrop shape and want to select and move the two ringed control handles upwards at the same time so that the teardrop is exactly the same shape on both sides, is there any way to do this? Thanks.

    Correct answer Jacob Bugge

    Miss Sparkles,

    I apologize for the ambiguity of

    over the Anchor Points with the Handles

    As c pointed out, the over was meant as above/higher than vertically, rather than covering/including.

    ClickDragging across over/above the Anchor Points will select the upper segments and reveal the Handles of the side Anchor Points and the top Anchor Points, but you will only affect the pair of (vertical) upper Handles of the side Anchor Points when you use the Up arrow (just as you will only affect the (horizontal) Handles of the Top Anchor Point if you use Left of Right arrow.

    In the image, you have the corresponding lower segments selected with corresponding Handle selection.

    4 replies

    G_Man
    G_Man
    Inspiring
    October 29, 2021

    Wow - I can't believe I finally have the answer and it was so darn simple. Thank you!

    Jacob Bugge
    Community Expert
    Jacob BuggeCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    October 30, 2021

    G, the Concurrent Handle Move thread lives, thanks to you.

     

      Jacob Bugge
      Community Expert
      Jacob BuggeCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      August 17, 2023

      Jacob. After tinkering some more with it, if I don't shiftclick right in the middle of the segment and then drag, then the symmetry in the handles adjustment is lost. Am I missing something?


      s,

       

      Wherever you ShiftClickDrag, the Handles will move symmetrically, and parallelly.

       

      I have made a set of images showing this.

       

      I started with a circle where I deleted the top Anchor Point to get a half circle, then removed the bottom Anchor Point to get a (much flatter) single segment and, most importantly, completely identical Handles.

       

      I also made a non symmetrical version to the rightby ShiftClickDragging the leftmost Handle further down, and then I ShiftClickDragged with the Line Segment Tool to show the Handle lengths in red.

       

      After that, I ShiftClickDragged the path segment a quarter of the width from the leftmost Anchor Point, on both versions (differently), then I ShiftClickDragged with the Line Segment Tool to show the Handle lengths in blue, and then I copied the original Handle lengths in red on top of the new blue ones.

       

      Lastly, I make dashed lines between corresponding Handles in both cases.

       

      As you can see, in both cases, ShiftClickDragging the path segment has moved the Handles identically, with the same increase in length.

       

      But this means that if any of the Handles is at any other angle than vertically down, this angle will change.

       

      To be continued.

       

      Click/RightClick to see in full, Click again to get close

       

        rcraighead
        rcraighead
        Legend
        March 8, 2019

          D
          Delightful_rebel5C9A
          Participant
          April 30, 2020

          Do you know why i can only do this through scaling, and not with the direct selection as you've showed in the gif?

          (i'm using Illustrator 2018)

          nvm i just had to do a straight movement with the mouse as without guidelines i wasn't sure if it was going to lock by itself

          S
          SJRiegel
          Legend
          March 8, 2019

          Another way to guarantee a perfectly symmetrical shape is to draw one half of it, and then use the Transform Effect to reflect the other half. Any subsequent changes in the original half will be automatically applied to the reflection.

           

            Jacob Bugge
            Community Expert
            Jacob BuggeCommunity Expert
            Community Expert
            March 8, 2019

            Miss Sparkles,

            Just deselect, then Direct Select both path segments (you may ClickDrag across over the Anchor Points with the Handles), then use the Up arrow.

              M
              MissSparkles75Author
              Known Participant
              March 8, 2019

              Hi Jacob,

              If I select the two anchor points with my Direct Selection Tool by click dragging, the control handles don't appear (shown below)? The same thing happens if I try to select one anchor point, hold down shift and select the second anchor point.

              c.pfaffenbichler
              Community Expert
              c.pfaffenbichlerCommunity Expert
              Community Expert
              March 8, 2019

              Jacob Bugge spoke of the segments themselves, not the bezier handles.

              Instead of the arrow keys you could also start draging the segments upwards and hit the shift key to constrain the transformation vertically.

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