redraw rather than append pen tool

[Dragonwalker Art]

I have just upgraded from CS6 to CC and I am finding the pen tool is acting differently.
I really wish to have it behave the same way as before.

Sometimes I draw a path with the pencil tool.
I have the settings so that it stays selected and can be edited by just redrawing over it or part of it. So if it wasn't exactly as I liked I found it really convenient to be able to just draw over it and it was change slightly (either the whole or just the end of the path).
Now if I do this, it tends to append the path with the new one so I end up with double paths attached at one end, rather than a single, reshaped path.
It is really frustrating.
I just want to redraw without the new drawn path just being added to the old one.

Also, while I am asking, is there anyway to turn off the corner options as it makes just selecting an anchor point really inconvenient unless I zoom in really far.

Thank you all.

[michelew83603738]

If you double clickkt the pencil tool, you can decide whether it edits the selected path - are you saying that that is not working? Or is that option not toggled as a preferrence?

[michelew83603738]

Oh and you can go to View>Hide Corner Widget to answer your second question

[Michael Bullo]

Within the Pencil Tool options have you tried adjusting the "Within" setting? You might have previously had this set to a different value.

[Dragonwalker Art]

By drawing over a selected path, the original still stays selected, so it is technically still redrawing it for me but rather than reshape the path itself, in many cases it just adds the new line and connecting them at one end, even if they are extremely close and at a very similar angle (so I end up with two lines, connected at one end like a corner of a triangle with a 5 degree angle or even smaller). So I am obviously drawing within the limits of 'editing' but it is just behaving differently.
Normally if you were to draw close to the path and change the direction slightly, then that selected path would follow the new line drawn with the old line 'becoming' the new one, but now it just seems to append it.
I am not sure how to explain.
Sometimes it works as it used to but it often doesn't.

And thank you for answering the corner option question michelew83603738​

[Dragonwalker Art]

I just want to let people know that changing settings has not helped and I still have this issue. Any other ideas?
It is just really frustrating not to be able to redraw a path, but just have it create a v or loop instead.
Thanks.

[Doug A Roberts]

It should be visually apparent where the pencil will adjust the exsisting path and when it will join by the little symbol next to it.

When in range of an endpoint to join, it will display a forward slash /

When in range of an exising path to adjust, it will be blank (range controlled by the 'edit selected paths' setting)

When out of range of either, it will display an asterisk * and will start a new path.

[Dragonwalker Art]

Thank you for advising me on these guide symbols. I have been using Illustrator since around 2006 and never noticed this before. Is this relatively new? I can't believe I didn't at least notice these things

It still seems less intuitive than before and isn't as easy as it was (as mentioned I never noticed these symbols before but I was always just able to redraw a path without any 'join').

Is there a way of turning the join off as I have never wanted to do this.
If I want precise lines I have always used the pen tool and when I use the pencil tool, if I wanted to extend the line I would just start 'redrawing' the line near the end and continue. This join setting as it is currently is stopping me from redrawing along a whole line if it is slightly off as it is assuming I want to join if I start too close to the end.

[Doug A Roberts]

I don't think there is a way to turn off joining.

I just opened up CS6 to compare and the path join symbol doesn't appear. In fact, the situation seems worse in that if you draw a path from an existing point that would result in a corner point, the existing path is entirely replaced by the new one instead of joining.

[Doug A Roberts]

Thinking about it, that might be the source of your troubles, if you are used to paths always redrawing if you draw back on yourself. But that must surely be a bug, as there are bound to be instances where you'd want to join an existing path with a corner point.

[Dragonwalker Art]

I only ever started having an issue like this will CC.
I always just redrew the line from wherever I wanted to if the first one didn't look quite right in places. This could be from the beginning, or from half-way up. I just never had to think about it too much and I would never get a joined, almost parallel line as a result.
If could just turn the join off then I think that would solve the issue I am having.
I have just been working this way for so long that this is really getting in the way of my production when using the pencil tool.

The fact that the symbol wasn't there before is telling me that maybe the 'join' worked in a slightly different way perhaps and this may be the issue.

[Kurt Gold]

Yes, it can be called a bug, Doug.

At least it was one major issue when drawing with the pencil tool (and brush tool) in older versions of Illustrator. To continue an existing path in an "acute angle manner" was practically impossible without immediately deleting the (selected) existing path. One had to first carefully extend the drawing direction in a "non acute angle manner" and then do the turnaround to reach the desired path.

Thankfully, that behaviour is not there anymore.

[meganchi]

Go to "Reshape Paths with the Pencil Tool" in the link below. This link also describes what each Pencil Tool Option is.

How to draw with the Pen, Curvature, or Pencil tool in Illustrator

[Dragonwalker Art]

Yep:

Reshape paths with the Pencil tool

• Select the path you want to change.

• Position the Pencil tool on or near the path to redraw.

  You can tell you’re close enough to the path when the small x disappears from the tool.

• Drag the tool until the path is the desired shape.
  
  
  
  
  

This is what I do, the issue is if you get too close to the end point it joins with the old line rather than simply redrawing it.
The older version of Illustrator NEVER did this by accident. It is a constant problem for me in CC.
As mentioned above, it is because if you start too close to the end point then it will switch to 'join' instead of just redrawing. I think there should be a setting for this but as mentioned above, there isn't. I never use the join option so for me I wish I could just switch it off.
And if I ever wanted to I could use the join tool instead.

Hopefully they will change this in the future, but in the mean time, at least now I know why it is happening so I will make sure that I redraw from a bit away from the end, and if I need to change the shape of the beginning I will have to redraw a second time toward that end. A bit of a pain and not as simple and intuitive as it used to be, but a workaround until my hard earned subscription fee is deemed enough to pay for a fix...

I wonder if a script could be written too?

[meganchi]

In Pencil Tool Options, if you input 0 pixels next to the "close paths when ends are within", does that still give you a problem?

[Dragonwalker Art]

None of that makes a difference. I actually had that unchecked as I don't want to close paths.
But I tried it on and with 0 and no difference when it comes to the behaviour in regards to 'joining' rather than 'redrawing'.

I think that the problem is actually a part of Illustrator. I think join should have an option to be switched off, but while it doesn't then I will have to work around it by not starting near either end point unfortunately.

If anyone know how to write a script, or if there is already one, where the join could be disabled then this would be the answer as a fix for now.

Thanks all.

[Doug A Roberts]

https://forums.adobe.com/people/Dragonwalker+Art  wrote

None of that makes a difference. I actually had that unchecked as I don't want to close paths.
But I tried it on and with 0 and no difference when it comes to the behaviour in regards to 'joining' rather than 'redrawing'.

Yes, that option seems to only apply when closing a path, not joining an existing one.