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

Forum|Forum|7 years ago
March 8, 2019
4 replies
28001 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.

G_Man

Inspiring

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

Jacob Bugge

Community Expert

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

S

sPretzel

Inspiring

s,

The case shown in your images is so different to the OP case that it needs to be treated completely differently, based on the nature of Bezier curves, quite likely with the Handles used much more freely, simply as a means to obtain the desired shape.

What is seen in 3 is the unavoidable effect of at least one Handle becoming too long.

If you can show what you got in the end, including Handles, it is undoubtedly possible to find a way to obtain the desired shape without cutting the object.

Hi Jacob,

4 is what I got by cutting the anchor points at the top of 2 with scissors, then scaling the top objet (scaling height only).

On the bottom line is an unrelated problem. I realised in the process that cutting the anchor points one after the other creates uneven handles. On the second line, I cut the two anchor points simultaneously and symmetry of the handles was restored.

rcraighead

Legend

D

Delightful_rebel5C9A

Participant

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

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

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

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

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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