Specify the corner radius of a rounded rectangle

[community_help]

This question was posted in response to the following article: http://help.adobe.com/en_US/illustrator/cs/using/WS714a382cdf7d304e7e07d0100196cbc5f-6261a.html

[eubean525]

It's counter-productive to not be able to change a corner radius on an object once you've drawn it. By the very nature of the fact that you state that you can't do so means you are absolving yourself from fixing this antiquated quirk. Lets say you have a series of rounded rectangles in one document and need to duplicate them in another document but at a different scale. The user is forced to reproduce the rectangles instead of pasting them and enlargening the rectangles. The corners radii wil change as you stretch the rectangle. It's lousy and primitive.

[Larry G. Schneider]

Just use the Effects>Convert to Shape>Rounded Rectangle for one that can be modified at will and if Scale Strokes &  Effects is checked in the Scale dialog or Preferences will scale properly as well.

[Love_to_Learn]

Thank you so much!  it worked beautifully!  Have a great day!

[Gustavo Del Vechio]

@Al Naclerio

As Larry mentioned...you can create a simple rectangle (with no rounded corners) then use Effects > Convert to Shape > Rounded Rectangle. This effect keeps editable via Apperance panel. And if Scale Strokes and Effects is enabled then it resizes proportionally as you scale the shape.

Also...you can use other techniques like converting a rounded rectangle into a symbol with 9-slice scaling feature enabled. This way you can specify the areas of the shape that can be resized and the one protected.

There´s also an amazing Illustrator plug-in called Vector Scribe (http://www.astutegraphics.com/products/vectorscribe/) you can use to round corners interactivelly.

Hope to be helped

All my best

Gustavo.

[The_Real_Mike73]

I totally agree with Al. Adjusting the corner radius directly is SOP in all other programs, even MS Word.

[Paul_pk]

Agree with you. This is a lame.

[JETalmage]

It's just a small part of a much larger lameness: Unlike every other mainstream drawing program, Illustrator has never provided live geometric primitive objects (ellipses, rectangles, polygons, stars with live geometric parameters). When you use Illustrator's LBO tools (Lines, Boxes, Ovals), you just end up with dumb ordinary paths with no live adjustments.

The Convert To Shape Effect is a completely unintuitive, anemic, incomplete, tagged-on workaround for lack of one of the most commonly taken-for-granted drawing feature sets on the planet. Not that Convert To Shape is usless; it isn't. But it's ridiculous that it is limited to just rectangles, rounded rectangles, and ellipses. Why would such a feature not be able to use any shaped path (in fact, anything stored as a Symbol)?

Regardless, Convert To Shape is not a reasonable substitute for proper geometric primitives tools. For just one example, compare FreeHand's single Ellipse tool to Illustrator's utterly lame Ellipse and Arc tools combined. This single intuitive and elegently designed tool serves for circles, circular arcs, ellipses, and elliptical arcs, either freehand or with numerical precision; and those parameters can be changed any time the user wants. This also makes the tool servicable as something Illustrator has never heard of: an elliptical "protractor" that can be utilized to determine correctly foreshortened line lengths at any viewing angle.

That's an example of the kind of just-under-the-surface power that a single thoughtfully-designed and thoroughly-integrated drawing interface can yield. Compare that to the underpowered tool-glut clutter that so saturates Illustrator.

JET

[PierreLouisBeranek]

Hi Jet,

Yes, I agree that this is incredibly LAME, as you said.  I'll add a feature request for Adobe to address this nonsense asap.  I suggest everyone else do so as well: http://www.adobe.com/go/wish

To have to Google how to do such a simple task as changing the corner radius of a rectangle in Illustrator is insane and a true testament to the fact that it's 100% unintuitive the way it is now.  BTW, I found out how to do it through this thread, so thank you to those who explain the process. 

[Jacob Bugge]

Al,

This is not to gainsay anything that has been said in this thread, but there is a way out, without having to reproduce.

The user is forced to reproduce the rectangles instead of pasting them and enlargening the rectangles. The corners radii wil change as you stretch the rectangle.

For paths with unchanged proportions, you have the option of pasting and scaling with Scale Strokes & Effects unticked (in addition to Edit>Preferences>General, you may untick and (re)tick more easily in the Transform palette/panel flyout):

If you wish to keep the same radius, you may just scale in one go.

If you wish to change the radius by a certain factor, you may scale to that factor with Scale Strokes & Effects ticked, then untick and scale further to the final size (if you want to quadruple the size with twce the radius, you may scale twice by a factor 2, with Scale Strokes & Effects ticked and unticked respectively, or the reverse).

If you want to stretch the rectangle with unchanged radius, DirectSelecting the 4 Anchor Points of the two rounded corners in question and moving them is an option.

The suggestions may seem silly, as may my very posting in this thread.

[ODCompany]

This was a very worthwhile (not silly) post. Nice job Jacob.

[Jacob Bugge]

Thank you for the kind words, ODC.

[dougster127]

glad to see I'm not the only one who couldn't instinctively find the corner radius tool.

[Abe_Z]

Go to prefernces>general>corner radius. I dont understand why they wouldn't make it

one click button like Photoshop. Does anyone know if this was fixed in CS6?

[kevinhamil]

Just did a quick search and found this answer after looking here... it's not a one-click button, but it's simple to make radius changes as you're creating a new rounded rectangle. Check it out.

http://adobe.ly/Kx7YJE