how to resize a shape without changing radius

[FieryPantone]

I've drawn a shape I want to reuse for tabs and titlebars: a rectangle with the upper corners rounded and the lower corners square.

I duplicate this shape and want to reduce the width: so I select the shape, open the Transform dialogue, set the anchor point, make sure "Scale corners" is not selected, make sure "Constrain height and width" is not selected, and enter the required width at W.

Result? the "[do not]Scale corners" setting is ignored, and corner radius is reduced.

The only way I've found to resize without changing the corner radius is direct select, Transform, resize by hand, wait for Transform dialogue to display new width, rinse and repeat until I get the width I want.

Is there really no easier way?

Illustrator CC 19.2.19, in case I'm missing something.

[Doug A Roberts]

those corners are not 'live' -- either they were created that way or expanded at some point. if you can see the corner widget, the scale corners checkbox works as normal.

[Eternal Warrior · Accepted solution]

Have you tried using the corner widget rather than manually the creating corners as actual paths?

[Ilan Purple Art]

This is the correct answer, thanks @Eternal_Warrior

[bing84119970]

thank you so much useful

[aleksandra_K16]

Perfect, thank you!

[Daniel25808133s4g9]

This is the correct answer and is the quickest solution

[jane-e]

In the upper left corner of the Control Panel, does it say your object is a Rectangle or a Path?

You can convert a Path to a Live Shape in the Object menu. Then you can use the widgets or the Control panel or the Transform panel as shown above.

[Jacob Bugge]

FieryPantone,

Given the nature of the shape, you may ClickDrag over the (3) Anchor Points of the corners of one side, then use the Transform>Move using the desired change in width.

[Myra Ferguson · Accepted solution]

Try making the shape a symbol (F8) and in the Symbol Options dialog select Enable Guides for 9-Slice Scaling. Then you can protect the corners and adjust the width to whatever you want.

[FieryPantone]

Lots of interesting tips here to investigate – thank-you!

Doug – the shape was created by using the Pathfinder to combine a square-cornered rectangle with a rounded-corner rectangle

Eternal Warrior – the Transform panel for my shape does not show any properties … but thanks very much for alerting me to their existence! I'll know for next time

Jane-e – it's a path, but Object > Shape > Convert to shape netts me "object not converted"

Jacob – what do you mean by Transform>Move?

Myra – bingo! just the job when I want to tweak an existing shape

So now I can do what I need to, thanks to the forum – though I'm left wondering what the Scale corners checkbox in the Transform panel actually does ;-}

[Doug A Roberts]

FieryPantone  wrote

So now I can do what I need to, thanks to the forum – though I'm left wondering what the Scale corners checkbox in the Transform panel actually does ;-}

make a shape with 'live' corners and it'll become obvious.

as a test, make a basic rectangle and drag the corner widget. that's a live corner.

[Jacob Bugge]

FieryPantone,

Jacob – what do you mean by Transform>Move?

Object>Transform>Move.

And instead of trying to get the new width as in this,

Transform, resize by hand, wait for Transform dialogue to display new width

just go for the change in width and let that be your move.

This way you can just work on the simple/existing shape directly (literally according to the selection tool).

[Wayne Newell]

I know it's a couple years later but i just came across this issue and here is a quick solution.

[stevehall]

Here's another workaround: Add a thin rule around your element. I set my stroke outside of the shape. Then you can 'Expand Appearance". This turns your shape into a regular, non-dynamic, element. Now the shape will enlarge or reduce without changing the radius of the corner. The ungroup and delete the rule.

BTW, making the shape a symbol didn't work in my case [simple box with rounded corners]. 

[Brandingflux]

Goto export》export as... then select SVG. save it to a location then open the svg file in illustrator then copy and paste back to your current artboard. You can scale resize and nothing will happen to your corners.

[Lynn22268089rsc5]

I have a vector logo that has a small black box with rounded corners. When I reduced it in Illustator, the corners did not scale in proportion. The box looked like an oval. After some troubleshooting, I discovered a way to fix it. In Illustator, select your object with the object tool and then go under OBJECT, then EXPAND APPEARANCE. This has maintained the corner shape throughout all the scaling I've had to do with the logo.

[Ilan Purple Art · Accepted solution]

Sélect the  shape you want to resize, then go to the transform panel and check the "scale corners" checkbox. That's it, super easy 😜

[cindynxiong]

Genius