pen tool layer problems in app on macbook pro

[bonitah71150400]

I have a lot of experience with illustrator but new to using the app version - long story. So, I am trying to create a new illustration and I set up several layers, each to be the recipient of various aspects of the drawing. The end result is a compilation of layers to form a complex drawing. I have been doing this for years without issue until now.

Problem:  I make multiple layers so I can easily change one path without affecting another... that is critical in making complex drawings. But the pen is taking action on anchors NOT in the layer in which I am working!! I have to overlap paths and if an anchor needs to sit on a line of a shape on another layer the pen adds that anchor to the other layer instead of the one I am working in! It has also removed anchors from layer 2 when I am working in layer 3 etc. I checked and double-checked... I am definitely working in the layer I want... I have the layer selected... but as soon as I click to add an anchor (to a spot which is on the same coordinates as an existing line that line is not in the active layer) poof! It either adds or removes an anchor to the wrong path. This has crippled my ability to work. If there is a setting that needs to be turned on or off please someone tell me.... and if so WHY is the safer way not the default? 

I am losing my mind along with my money. I needed designs shipped a week ago and I can't because of this problem.

I am using a new macbook pro 10.14.5

[Monika Gause]

Can you perhaps show something?

[bonitah71150400]

unless I had a video screen capture I am not sure what I could show. What I know is that a layer ought to remain separate from other layers - meaning that using the pen tool, or any other, in one selected layer ought not affect the other layers. Clicking the pen tool on a layer above an existing line shouldn't cause changes to a line in a different layer. That is sort of the entire point of layers. So, atm I cannot trace over any vector drawing and I cannot draw anything that isn't a continuous line.

[sunpreetx]

Is this on Apple Silicon?

You can create a video capture using cmd+shift+5

[bonitah71150400]

I have decided not to do so because honestly the belittling response from an adobe employee is the last straw. Thank you for at least offering the video capture option - I didn't know about that. It isn't apple silicon. I have a lot of experience with the pen tool and ai in general, just new to the app version. I own a disk copy of creative suite that was quite expensive and saw no reason to rent what I own. But I had to travel for family and am stuck with the app version - which is just... awful. Most of the differences add extra unnecessary steps. I do not know how to better explain the issue but it simply behaves differently in a nonsensical way. It never changed layers before. I can lock them but shouldn't need to do so... layers ought to act as a selected area and actions ought to be affecting that selected area only. Locking layers will protect them so one can't accidentally be working in the wrong layer... but no tool should change your choice of layer to work in. period. Again, thanks for just asking a question instead of implying that my problem doesn't exist. I have decided not to pursue an answer here because most folks have no interest in actually helping.

[Monika Gause]

A layer will only be "protected" when you lock it. The pen tool has always worked like that.

[bonitah71150400]

I have been creating drawings in AI for 10 yrs and I have never had the issues I am describing. The way the pen tool works in the app is not how it has worked in the previous versions or I would have had the same issue there. 

This isn't Apple silicon. 

[Ashutosh_Mishra]

Hi there,

Sorry to hear about your experience. In addition to what Monika has suggested, please try checking out this help article(https://helpx.adobe.com/in/illustrator/using/drawing-pen-curvature-or-pencil.html) to know how to work with Pen tool in Adobe Illustrator. Hope it helps.

Regards,

Ashutosh

[bonitah71150400]

I've been using AI for over 15 yrs and I have never had this issue. But sure, ok, maybe I have never heard of how the pen tool works. Ok. I am new to the app version because I saw no reason to rent what I own but I am temporarily stuck with the app version. There is something fundamentally different about how the pen tool functions in the app version because it never switched my choice of layers before. Needing to lock the layer every time adds unnecessary extra steps.  All anyone is doing is telling me how my problem doesn't exist or basically tell me I don't know how to use the tools I've been using almost 2 decades. If you cannot say something with specific details on how to address the issue, why are you even answering? So I am done. This is pointless. 

[gamu_mac]

I agree with bonitah71150400. I cannnot use the pen tool on a layer. A pencil with a crossmark shows up instead. I know how to use a layer and I know how to use the pen tool and have also done that for years. That's all that needs to be said. I will say that I have a Macbook Pro and I am using the 2024 version of Illustrator.

[gamu_mac]

See below -- this shows the pencil with a crossmark instead of a pen tool with a layer selected.  This may not the exact question that was posted before mine 4 years ago, but it does show that despite knowledge of layers and the tools, it is not working as expected. I would appreciate a reply so that I can move forward with this project! Thank you in advance,

[Monika Gause]

Please show a full screenshot that includes the tool panel.

Please show us what's inside the layer

Please tell us step by step what you are doing.

And please use your system tools to make screenshots instead of your phone.

[Ton Frederiks]

If you make the selected "roads" layer visible, you can use the pencil on it.

[Ton Frederiks]

It is hard to replicate your problem, so a video recording may show your problem.

On a Mac, the QuickTime Player can make a screen recording.