A

Anonymous

Answered

" To join, you must select two open endpoints." Popup.

Forum|Forum|16 years ago
March 26, 2009
13 replies
45813 views

Okay, this is frustrating. I kept getting the following error when I try to join two end points.

To join, you must select two open endpoints. If they are not on the same path, they cannot be on text paths nor inside graphs, and if both of them are grouped, they must be in the same group.

Here's what I have. Both paths are in the same group. I zoom to max and both ends are on top of each other. So, why am I kept getting this error message when trying to join them? I tried to Average and there is no error but yet the path is not closed.

Any suggestion is welcome.

Correct answer

Never mind. I found my answer by myself. I have to right click on the path itself with the black arrow head and choose release compound path.

CSI Productions

Inspiring

1. Select the two end points you want to join

2. Go to Object/Path/Add Anchor Points

3. Hit Opt/CMD/J (to join)

BOOM!

R.CatesCSI ProductionsIf you want peace, be peaceful.

printingorlando

Participant

I am trying to join two end points.Not on top of each other. Not grouped (never grouped anything). Selected the end points with Direct Select tool (by clicking on them) and they still won't join. Any ideas?

Monika Gause

Community Expert

Select the two endpoints and show a screenshot that has the layers panel in it. The layer needs to be open.

C

cristinab34117379

Participant

When this happens, it's because there's some grouping going on. The solutio is to un-group the hell out of it. Select all objects involved with this issue with the Selection Tool (V) and hit Ungroup 20 times. Try joining patch again, it should work!

Monika Gause

Community Expert

Not necessarily. It also happens when you have selected too many points.

B

bsabiston1

Participant

I just got this error. It had nothing to do with compound paths as mine was a very simple shape. The problem for me was invisible stray anchors floating in space at the same point as my two target points. I only could see them by selecting each of my true anchor points and moving them out of the way (to the same spot) and joining them there. By dragging the selection box over the original area I finally saw the "invisible" anchor. Deleted that and then moved my joined corner back to exactly where it was by typing the coordinates in manually.

Ton Frederiks

Community Expert

Object > Path > Clean Up... > Delete Stray Points

May save you some time in the future.

T

tuesdaiew29080634

Participant

Omg thank you so much!!! I would always have this problem periodically when working in illustrator and I just couldn't figure out what it was or why it kept doing that. It was driving me crazy. I never thought the problem was a stray point.

N

nicoleb36880979

Participant

aljCharlie said: "Never mind. I found my answer by myself. I have to right click on the path itself with the black arrow head and choose release compound path. "

Yes! December of 2015 and this answer helped me solve that most frustrating problem in Illustrator CS6. I actually had to turn both into compound paths, then release compound path. Then they joined no problem.

Thanks aljCharlie!

S

sabiner6858279

Participant

Thanks Nicole36880979, I did what you suggested (make compound path and then release again) and then it finally worked!

S

samichi

Participant

@JETalmage, This thread is still helpful, 1. Not everyone have latest versions. 2. This was helpful for me, since his situation was about trying to connect 2 compound paths together, which woin't work unless you right click and release the compound path, which he stated earlier in the thread.

T

thou000

Participant

This thread is over 5.5 years old and it is STILL helpful. I love that aljCharlie ended up finding the solution for himself. So to repeat, (and this is particularly pertinent when dealing with figures created by outlining type fonts) Before joining points you must select each object with the direct selection tool and release compound paths. Once both objects have been released you can proceed with joining points.

T

Thomas Dearie

Known Participant

Absolutely.

The thread is still important because this has been and remains an interface nuisance since Adobe Illustrator 88 (yes, that's as in 1988).

It's crazily overdue to be cleaned up.

There are still situations when you want to select 2 endpoints and join them.

They're not in different groups; they're not in compound paths; and there are no errant loose points in play.

But the app still steadfastly refuses to join them and gives the age-old cryptic error message about groups and endpoints.

I'm sure there's a logical answer, but it's not self evident to users and results in many, many cases of confusion and frustration.

After 25 yrs of using Illustrator, this is still one of the most common problems I see people report.

markerline

Inspiring

You might be selecting a third invisible endpoint. If you select ONLY the two endpoints of the open curves then you will not have a problem. No need to release compound paths if the path is open and it is in fact an open endpoint.

M

michael31128256917j

Participant

yep! i've run into this problem several times and never figured out why it was happening. I usually just started over, moving a few steps back in my project. It was, in fact, a third invisivle endpoint interfering with an otherwise normal procedure. Can't belive I didn't think of that! Haha thank you!

A

AndreaHall_

Participant

It's simple. The two endpoints are too close together. Move them apart slightly, then select them and they will join okay.

http://www.andreahall.co.uik

JETalmage

Inspiring

This thread is over 2.5 years old. The problem is moot in current version, because it is (finally) not necessary to select endpoints to join paths at their nearest endpoints.

JET

ericy15881087

Participant

Thats cool. But what is the solution to the problem. Would be nice if you could explain.

A

Anonymous

Correct answer

Never mind. I found my answer by myself. I have to right click on the path itself with the black arrow head and choose release compound path.

B

Barbartist

Participant

Yessss this is what i was looking for, i had to release compound path. Thanks!!

A

Anonymous

This is frustrating. I can't even release the compound path anymore. I click on the <Compound Path> layer and go into Object/Compound Path/ but the Compound Path is inactive or grayed out. Any suggestion?

A

Anonymous

Okay, I think I found something here. Since I convert this shape from Text (in my earlier post here), it has created a compound path. I've read on another forum that compound path cannot be joined, so, how do I get rid of compound path?

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