A

Anonymous

Answered

Reverse path direction

Forum|Forum|14 years ago
February 17, 2011
7 replies
109063 views

It's annoying when you use a special brush which has different ends, and you want to switch the direction with just a click of a button

Scripting

Correct answer EricDuboisMDD

Thanks Frank. The most important part of the video was glossed over at the very end with a "I'll talk about it later".

The part that's really useful is in this video (also in French), with the script available here (in German). It does what Marius asked for: switch the direction with just a click of a button.

Oscar, the "reverse path direction" button is in the Attributes panel, but it's only available for compound paths.

Step-by-step instructions in English

Install script:

Download script from http://illustrator.hilfdirselbst.ch/dokuwiki/en/skripte/javascript/wr-reversepathdirection
Move script to Applications > Adobe Illustrator [version] > Presets > en_US > Scripts
Restart Illustrator. The option will now be available in File > Scripts

(optional) Create action:

Create a new action
Select "Insert Menu Item" in the action panel's top right menu
Type part of the name. Click OK
Assign a command to the action if you want

georgecoghill

Participating Frequently

To reverse the direction of an open path in earlier versions of Illustrator:

select the path
using the Pen tool, click on the anchor point you want to be the end point

Jeff Witchel, ACI

Community Expert

Object > Path > Reverse Path Direction works for Type on a Path, Arrow Heads, Brushes, and more. It's almost as if you drew the path in the opposite direction.

D

davidh27858718

Participant

Okay, assuming I'm understanding this, you want to reverse or mirror the direction of a vector brush image that is a stroke on an object. I found two ways that should work, at least in Illustrator CC:

To reverse the direction of a single instance of the brush:
- Select your object (ie. with the Selection Tool (V)). You will need the Control panel to be visible.
- In the Control panel, open the dropdown menu for the Brush Definition.
- At the very bottom of the dropdown menu is a series of icons. Select Options for Selected Object (4th icon from the left). This should open the Stroke Options panel.
- Make sure the Preview box is checked in case your version of Illustrator works differently.
- Check one of the Flip boxes, depending on the direction you need it to mirror.
To reverse the direction of all instances of the brush (may reset things like width profile of stroke):
- Open the Brushes panel.
- Select your brush from the list. (You can just click on your object to select whatever it's brush is)
- Open the Brush panel Options menu (upper right corner of panel) and choose Brush Options... to open the Art Brush Options panel.
- Make sure the Preview box is checked.
- Either choose a Direction or from Options choose a Flip. If it doesn't look right, cancel and go back to Brush Options.

I just did a piece where I needed to do this to dozens of objects at once, and as long as they had the same brush definitions, it seems to work.

George Langley

Known Participant

davidh27858718's solution worked for me, thanks! My pointy paths are pointing outside again on the flipped objects.

Franck Payen

Inspiring

Or make the use of the "reverse path direction" button in the object options available for ANY path, and, moreover MANY paths.

O

Oscar Ovalle

Participating Frequently

Where is tha buttont? Can you send a pic please?

Franck Payen

Inspiring

See this video Illustrator - Inverser le sens du tracé on Vimeo 1'15'' It's french but could guide you.

M

Mariusz Go

Known Participant

The strange thing is that it's so understandable and essential for those who work inIllustrator, but not for Adobe.

Are stubborn and do not know what?

N

needforname

Known Participant

Yep, seems like common sense doesn't it? Not sure why there isn't the ability to adjust the direction of a brush on the fly by simply holding down a keyboard key. When working on a more intricate design with dozens of paths, having no way to quickly change the direction of applied brushes is a huge waste of time. I think a great approach would be to enable some sort of setting that allows a user to cmd click on all paths which require a brush to be flipped. This would allow a more visual / on the fly approach for users to see which paths they want flipped. Quicker than the current option too.

There are dozens of things just like this that I scratch my head over and wonder if the folks at Adobe even use their own software. Because if they did, they'd notice these annoyances and remedy them. Like the lack of ability to simply right click on a layer in the layers panel to access frequently used functions. The ability to hide a text selection box without disabling gpu processing. The ability to use a Mac's Touch Bar with Illustrator (still not sure why this is available with Photoshop yet not Illustrator). I could go on and on.

E

EricDuboisMDD

Inspiring

I was just about to add that request when I saw your post. In my case, it's primarily for arrowheads. FreeHand had that feature for eons now so it's about time to integrate it in Illustrator.

I know clicking on one end of the path with the pen tool will make it the "end point". But depending on how complex the illustration is, it may not be convenient.

M

Mariusz Go

Known Participant

You can click on the other end of the PEN TOOL This tool will change the orientation of the path.

But it is not bright enough to use. I do not know why you liked Illustrator after clicking has added a separate option in the Stroke palette?

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