Rounded lines with varying width produce sharp points, BUG?

[Tinman1028]

Hello internet friends and professionals-

I am a design professional and illustrator who creates detailed line illustrations for a lot of my clients and packaging projects. I use the pen or pencil tool to create the line work, I often round me end and use the width tool to narrow my points. This creates an engraved/hatch look and style. 

Well, I began noticing that new and old files are no longer holding the rounded width value that they used to. Meaning, when I create a new illustration and specify the line wifth I want and round the edge, Illustrator seems to glitch and just say "nope" and gives my entire line a very pointy appearence. 
What's more is older files that used to have the corect line width with a rounded end now load as a sharp unppealing line. 

If you are having a hard time visualzing what I mean here is a preview:
This is what my lines usually look like when they terminate (these have not been refined but you get the idea):

This is what happens now. I cannot figure out why this happens or when becuase not all lines are affected:

You can see that the lines on the right are odd and mishappen. Illustrator did this whout any input from me and it also not affects my old work. I open up old files that have 40+ hours of intrquet line work to now see some lines looking aweful! Really sad and rustrated about this. Any input woud be very helpful. 
Thanks-

v

[Larry G. Schneider]

Does changing the Miter limits in the Stroke panel change anything?

[Tinman1028]

No

[Larry G. Schneider]

Which tool did you use to create the paths? Pen or brush?

[Tinman1028]

Pen and Pencil. Not brush.

[Ton Frederiks]

Does it change when you switch preview from GPU TO CPU (Cmd/Ctrl E)?

[Tinman1028]

Thanks Tom-

I am actually not able to switch to CPU preview. Odd. It is greyed out for me. 

[Tinman1028]

Oh, nevermind, Got it. No difference.

[Monika Gause]

It would help if we could see the Outline view, the width profile, the stroke options and the Appearance panel. And/or the Illustrator files (old and new)

[Tinman1028]

See below, this is a good example. See how the selected line now ends in a half rounded point? When I saved this on Friday this line was jus tlike the others around it?! It's possessed. 

Here is also some elemetns from the file. I circled 2 elements that are rendering odd on my end. If they are normal on your end then it's something with my software or settings. 

[Anshul_Saini]

Hi @Tinman1028,

I'm sorry to hear that you are experiencing issues with your lines appearing pointy instead of rounded in Illustrator. I can understand how frustrating it must be for you to see this happening in your old files as well.

As Ton suggested, would you mind switching the GPU to CPU preview and seeing if there is any difference in the appearance of the lines? If not, then would you mind sharing the file with us and confirming the size of the strokes you are using?

This will help us understand the problem better and provide you with more specific advice.

Looking forward to your response.

Thanks,

Anshul Saini

[Tinman1028]

Thanks Anshul. GPU to CPU and vice versa produces no results. 

I will mention that I did notice this happening after an update. There was a line in the sand but I do not remember the update that did it. 

Here is the AI file where I isolated two strokes edited with the width tool that have been affected. If the circled areas are normal and rounded then te issue is only on my end. What you should see is the line terminates very oddly, it\'s not rounded, it's not pointy. It's just mutated. 
The point values vary since it tappers. 

Thank you

[Tinman1028]

I'm working on more illustrations today and here are more examples. I am making one line at around 1pt. Then using the width tool to organically taper it. The result is exactly how it shows live as I adjust it (it gets smnaller and maintains rounded point). Then I make another line, same process but once I let go of the width tool adjustment the line morphs to this odd looking point. Same with the next line, then another line is fine, then another line morhs. It just seems like a bug...

[Met1]

1pt? Who's going to notice?

[Tinman1028]

Probably no one and that's why I waited so long to post this because part of me doesn't care. BUT

1. I want to know why this is happening

2. The most important part. Sometimes when this "glitch" affects the point it actually also affects the quality and smoothness of the line. 
3. I notice. I cannot unsee these horrid lines. They haunt me. Everynight. 

[Monika Gause]

Can we perhaps see the AI file?

[Tinman1028]

Posted some above. Thanks

[Ton Frederiks]

I cannot see the .ai files. Please share an example.

[Tinman1028]

Here

[Met1]

Perhaps if it was larger the ugliness of the glitch would be less evident... maybe there's not enough width for Illy to play with (I've heard that somewhere before...)

[Tinman1028]

Met- I think you may be right. This is what I suspect BUT why did is only start happening reently. Some attributes of what Illustrator considers enough and noot enough must have changed with a recent update? 

[Tinman1028]

Hmm, I see that all of my Illustrator files have been removed. I tried uplaoding them but am not being allowed to. HEre is an editable PDF. 

[Met1]

I just scaled 1000% and all your issues went away...

[Tinman1028]

Yes, if you scale the warped lines/points up the issue goes away. But this does not explain why the issue started. Old files where the issue did not exist now have this issue so as your and my earlier posts say.. the threshold for this must have been changed. If so I would say this is a bug. 

[Tinman1028]

Let's be honest... the level of detail I work with is overkill and most people wouldn never notice this. So these points do not have to be perfect.  However, indulge me. If I was doing this fine level of detail for a deck of cards or one of my distillery clients where I am working at scale (and scale for spirit labels is pretty small) and I wanted to take a few screenshots at scale for portfolio work, now I would not be able to. I would have to create a second mokcup, scale it and only then be able to cparture the detail and accuracy I am after. Seems  buggy especially since this has never happened before.