Joining anchors to paths automatically

[Timothy5FC7]

I'm using the pencil tool to draw paths that will be send to a laser for cutting, therefore it is important that the are no gaps (you can see the gaps in the attached image). As it stands I have to manually drag each anchor point to place it on a path, which takes hours!

Does anybody know of a way to get the end of line anchor points to automatically join with the nearest path?

[Monika Gause]

Some of these cannot be joined, since there are 3 segments meeting.

You might try out the smart guides, which help in joining. The shapebuilder tool (withgap detection) might be able to help as well, but it depends on the complete image.