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Problem with shape tool [with CS6 in Aug 2012]

Explorer ,
Aug 05, 2012 Aug 05, 2012

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For some reason after drawing shapes with the shape tool, whether it is one line or a custom shape, I just can't edit it after drawing it. I can't edit it at all and it doesn't appear on any layer. I can delete every single layer and the shape will still be there.

 

They are not paths, but just to double check I did look under paths but it is empty.

 

It doesn't matter what else I've done, or whether it is a new blank page I can't do anything with any shape once I've drawn it.

 

I can't get it to select it when I click show transform controls, I can't select it with the marquee tool and delete it (because it isn't on any layer) and I can't place anything over it to cover it.

 

I have to keep saving before drawing any shape and close and reopen the file if the shape doesn't go quite as I wanted first time. Obviously if I want anything over the shape in any way I can't do it.

 

What is causing this and how can I stop it happening?

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correct answers 1 Correct answer

LEGEND , Aug 14, 2012 Aug 14, 2012

Bear in mind that glitches that seem to go away by themselves tend to come back by themselves.

Do not fall into the trap of just moving on and ignoring them.  If you do that your computing experience can become an ongoing hell.

On the other hand, if you wrestle each and every bug to the ground and either (ideally) fix it definitively or at least learn everything there is to know about it and find out how to work around it, your system will be stable and will be able to rely on your computing envir

...

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LEGEND ,
Aug 05, 2012 Aug 05, 2012

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timeofthemoon wrote:

For some reason after drawing shapes with the shape tool, whether it is one line or a custom shape, I just can't edit it after drawing it. I can't edit it at all and it doesn't appear on any layer. I can delete every single layer and the shape will still be there.

I'm not fully understanding the situation. For a start, "every single layer" cannot be deleted; there must always be at least one layer in a Ps document.

They are not paths, but just to double check I did look under paths but it is empty.

Paths panel can be empty despite there being paths in the document. The path in a Vector Mask (a Shape Layer is really a Fill Layer with Vector Mask) is not listed unless the relevant layer is currently targeted. Only paths which are not in Vector Masks will be listed at all times.

When a path is visible, it should be selectable with the Path Selection Tool and Direct Selection Tool.

If you still have a problem then post a screenshot with a visible path in the document window and the Layers and Paths panels open.

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Explorer ,
Aug 10, 2012 Aug 10, 2012

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conroy2009 wrote:

timeofthemoon wrote:

For some reason after drawing shapes with the shape tool, whether it is one line or a custom shape, I just can't edit it after drawing it. I can't edit it at all and it doesn't appear on any layer. I can delete every single layer and the shape will still be there.

I'm not fully understanding the situation. For a start, "every single layer" cannot be deleted; there must always be at least one layer in a Ps document.

Well I can delete all layers until it is a transparent background with no layers listed in the layers panel. And if you're not supposed to be able to do that I guess I have another problem lol. But either way, the shape is still there on that transparent background.

conroy2009 wrote:

They are not paths, but just to double check I did look under paths but it is empty.

Paths panel can be empty despite there being paths in the document. The path in a Vector Mask (a Shape Layer is really a Fill Layer with Vector Mask) is not listed unless the relevant layer is currently targeted. Only paths which are not in Vector Masks will be listed at all times.

When a path is visible, it should be selectable with the Path Selection Tool and Direct Selection Tool.

If you still have a problem then post a screenshot with a visible path in the document window and the Layers and Paths panels open.

Well I'm certain it was not a path. I recreated the shape and triple checked it was on shape not path. However, I did try selecting it with the Path Selection Tool and Direct Selection Tool, but I couldn't do anything.

I'm on a different computer so I can't post a screen shot, but it's basically as I described - a shape on a layer that I can't edit, move or delete.

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LEGEND ,
Aug 10, 2012 Aug 10, 2012

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timeofthemoon wrote:

Well I can delete all layers until it is a transparent background with no layers listed in the layers panel. And if you're not supposed to be able to do that I guess I have another problem lol. ...

As far as I know, the only way no layer will be listed in the Layers panel is if filtering is excluding them all, but then the panel would say "No layers match the filter".

Could this be a uniquely corrupt file or are you able to make other documents have no layer?

If I'm wrong about Ps docs needing to have at least one layer then i'm sure someone will provide correction. Hopefully, they'll also know how to solve your problem.

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Explorer ,
Aug 10, 2012 Aug 10, 2012

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conroy2009 wrote:

timeofthemoon wrote:

Well I can delete all layers until it is a transparent background with no layers listed in the layers panel. And if you're not supposed to be able to do that I guess I have another problem lol. ...

As far as I know, the only way no layer will be listed in the Layers panel is if filtering is excluding them all, but then the panel would say "No layers match the filter".

Could this be a uniquely corrupt file or are you able to make other documents have no layer?

If I'm wrong about Ps docs needing to have at least one layer then i'm sure someone will provide correction. Hopefully, they'll also know how to solve your problem.

I'm sure I've done that before with CS3 as well as CS6...never used any filtering.

It's every file, saved and unsaved. I can start a new document and still have the same problem with the shapes and no layers.

No layers doesn't really bother me, I can add new layers again. I only deleted them all because each time I deleted a layer the shape still stayed and I wanted to know which layer it was on. Turns out the answer was none lol. I had to close the document and start over, but then I just had the same problem again.

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LEGEND ,
Aug 10, 2012 Aug 10, 2012

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Could you please do a screen grab showing the situation where you have no layers, making sure to include the display of the Layers panel in it?

Thanks.

-Noel

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Explorer ,
Aug 11, 2012 Aug 11, 2012

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Noel Carboni wrote:

Could you please do a screen grab showing the situation where you have no layers, making sure to include the display of the Layers panel in it?

Thanks.

-Noel

Not at the moment, sorry. I'm on the wrong computer again.

I just want to know why the shapes can't be edited, moved or deleted, whether I have no layers or 50 layers. The shapes thing is the main problem.

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LEGEND ,
Aug 05, 2012 Aug 05, 2012

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Just quickly going over this, I am to beleive the option in the top tool bar has changed from shape to either path or raster. The path needs to be selected with the path tool to delete it and well raster images need to be selected with one of the selection tools or ctrl-a for select all, then deleted, or fill the layer with a color.

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Community Expert ,
Aug 11, 2012 Aug 11, 2012

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By any chance are you using CS6.  In CS6 aobe made changes in the layer palett in the way shape layers are display and you can filter layer beinf displayed so some layer can be hidden on you. I'm goin to show some screen grabs using CS5 to show some thing there for layers can not hiddem and vector mask show.

Note one shape layer right click in layers palette shows last layer can not be deleted and vector mask shows in path palette. Delete is grayed out

llcs5.jpg

cs61.jpg

adding an empty on top becoms the acticive layer and shape 1 vector mask not shown in path palette.

lotcs5.jpg

cs62.jpg

Layer Shape 1 in now deleatable

isdel.jpg

cs63.jpg

using pen tool and targeting the vector mask the shape is editable

canedit.jpg

Have not found out how to edit vector mask I cant see to target in cs6

You target by first using the path selection tool. I change the fill color to yellow so you can see the path better

cs6edit.jpg

JJMack

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Explorer ,
Aug 11, 2012 Aug 11, 2012

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I am using CS6. All I did was click new layer a few times. I drew a shape on one layer, leaving the others blank and untouched, and then just couldn't do anything with that shape. I didn't filter anything, I didn't hide anything, I didn't use any effects. I just clicked new layer and the shape tool. To delete I just dragged the layers one by one to the delete and deleted them all.

Weirdly enough though, I went to take a screen print and now it's working fine. Typical. I had an important project to do that I couldn't do because it wouldn't let me do that and now that's over it works fine. Had the problem for a day or two at least before I posted this so it wasn't a one off thing that stopped when I restarted the program or anything. Very strange.

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LEGEND ,
Aug 11, 2012 Aug 11, 2012

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I think you have a system problem.  Something - possibly your display driver - is out of whack and corrupting the daylights out of Photoshop.  Photoshop CS6 just doesn't do what you have described by itself.

Woud you be willing to go into Help - System Info..., copy what's there, paste it in a response here, edit out your serial number info, and post it?  That will show us what you have installed and maybe lead to some specific suggestions that could help avoid it happening again.

-Noel

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Explorer ,
Aug 11, 2012 Aug 11, 2012

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Noel Carboni wrote:

I think you have a system problem.  Something - possibly your display driver - is out of whack and corrupting the daylights out of Photoshop.  Photoshop CS6 just doesn't do what you have described by itself.

Woud you be willing to go into Help - System Info..., copy what's there, paste it in a response here, edit out your serial number info, and post it?  That will show us what you have installed and maybe lead to some specific suggestions that could help avoid it happening again.

-Noel

Well just after downloading that program I suddenly lost administrator rights...or at least, it said I did but I can still do everything. Only thing that changed was downloading that. I'm only using a trial of CS6 and it has fixed itself so it's unlikely to happen again before the trial ends..

If I have any system problem it's down to downloading that because it was perfectly fine before and it's a fairly new computer.

Apart from using a lot of memory which explains why it's gone rather slow at times, there's nothing to me that stands out as obviously wrong with the System info. I would copy it over but I'm on a different computer again so it's rather awkward. As I say, it probably won't happen again before the trial ends.

Just another odd thing. Odd things happens with every program I use on any computer, Windows or Mac lol. But thanks for replying.

Message was edited by: timeofthemoon

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LEGEND ,
Aug 11, 2012 Aug 11, 2012

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Downloading what program?  Photoshop?  What "said" you lost administrator rights?  Was there a specific message?  What did it say, and what were you doing when you saw it?

Details matter with computers.

Yes, wait until you get on the other computer and grab the system info.  It's possible that knowing your specific display driver version could lead to specific suggestions to help you get things working.

-Noel

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Explorer ,
Aug 13, 2012 Aug 13, 2012

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Noel Carboni wrote:

Downloading what program?  Photoshop?  What "said" you lost administrator rights?  Was there a specific message?  What did it say, and what were you doing when you saw it?

Details matter with computers.

Yes, wait until you get on the other computer and grab the system info.  It's possible that knowing your specific display driver version could lead to specific suggestions to help you get things working.

-Noel

After downloading Photoshop, yes. The computer came up with a message telling me I'd lost administrator rights. It was a system message. I have no idea what it said, it was over a week ago and I clicked ok because there was nothing else I could do. I think I just had Photoshop running. Possibly one Internet page (nothing strange; google or facebook). First time I'd opened Photoshop and then it said that.

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Community Expert ,
Aug 12, 2012 Aug 12, 2012

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One more thought The shape tool can create Shape Layers, Paths and pain in Pixels on the current layer. If you doing the later anf the forground color is white and your current targer is a white background layer. These will be no new layer of path created.  It will just be white over whit you will have nothing.

onemore.jpg

JJMack

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Explorer ,
Aug 13, 2012 Aug 13, 2012

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JJMack wrote:

One more thought The shape tool can create Shape Layers, Paths and pain in Pixels on the current layer. If you doing the later anf the forground color is white and your current targer is a white background layer. These will be no new layer of path created.  It will just be white over whit you will have nothing.

onemore.jpg

it wasn't pixels that was selected, it was always shape. It wasn't white on white either. The shape was always a different colour to the background, I could see it at all times.

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Community Expert ,
Aug 13, 2012 Aug 13, 2012

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timeofthemoon wrote:

it wasn't pixels that was selected, it was always shape. It wasn't white on white either. The shape was always a different colour to the background, I could see it at all times.

If  you can see the layers palette and the paths palette and use the shape tool see the added shape on the image but see no shape layer added to the layer palette and see no path in the Path palette is sure look like Photoshop laying down pixels.  Have You tried resetting your Photoshop Preferences.  When ever Photoshop does not seem to be working correctly resetting your Photoshop preferences often corrects the problem.

Before Using Shape tool

BeforeShapeTool.jpg

Using Shape in pixel mode

UsingInPixel.jpg

Commiting pixels

Commitpixel.jpg

Switching to Shape mode and using tool

UsingShapeMode.jpg

Committing shape not changed layers and path palette

CommitShape.jpg

JJMack

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Explorer ,
Aug 14, 2012 Aug 14, 2012

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JJMack wrote:

timeofthemoon wrote:

it wasn't pixels that was selected, it was always shape. It wasn't white on white either. The shape was always a different colour to the background, I could see it at all times.

If  you can see the layers palette and the paths palette and use the shape tool see the added shape on the image but see no shape layer added to the layer palette and see no path in the Path palette is sure look like Photoshop laying down pixels.  Have You tried resetting your Photoshop Preferences.  When ever Photoshop does not seem to be working correctly resetting your Photoshop preferences often corrects the problem.

Before Using Shape tool

I triple checked it was on shape. There is no doubt about it, it was on shape. I never changed any Photoshop Preferences. My trial has run out now so I can't do that anyway. It started working on the very last day, but I hadn't changed anything or done anything different. Seems it was just a strange and annoying glitch.

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LEGEND ,
Aug 14, 2012 Aug 14, 2012

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Bear in mind that glitches that seem to go away by themselves tend to come back by themselves.

Do not fall into the trap of just moving on and ignoring them.  If you do that your computing experience can become an ongoing hell.

On the other hand, if you wrestle each and every bug to the ground and either (ideally) fix it definitively or at least learn everything there is to know about it and find out how to work around it, your system will be stable and will be able to rely on your computing environment when it matters.

I'm not saying you haven't been trying to do this - it's admirable that you and others worked so hard on it here.  My message is for others who might read this.

I don't know whether your Photoshop trial experience left you likely to buy Photoshop CS6 or not - and I'm pretty sure they're not going to let you try it again when 13.0.1 comes out (in fact, they may not even update the trial download from 13.0.0).

-Noel

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Explorer ,
Aug 18, 2012 Aug 18, 2012

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Noel Carboni wrote:

Bear in mind that glitches that seem to go away by themselves tend to come back by themselves.

Do not fall into the trap of just moving on and ignoring them.  If you do that your computing experience can become an ongoing hell.

On the other hand, if you wrestle each and every bug to the ground and either (ideally) fix it definitively or at least learn everything there is to know about it and find out how to work around it, your system will be stable and will be able to rely on your computing environment when it matters.

I'm not saying you haven't been trying to do this - it's admirable that you and others worked so hard on it here.  My message is for others who might read this.

I don't know whether your Photoshop trial experience left you likely to buy Photoshop CS6 or not - and I'm pretty sure they're not going to let you try it again when 13.0.1 comes out (in fact, they may not even update the trial download from 13.0.0).

-Noel

Every computer I use, Windows or Mac, gets some problem or program glitch or does something weird and unexplainable. I try and find out the reason behind them all. I've learnt a lot but 90% never get fixed, they just vanish and never come back. These things don't put me off - if they did I'd never go near a computer! So the random glitch hasn't put me off CS6, I just don't think CS6 is as good overall as CS3 (I've no use for any extra features it may have or whatever) and so I plan to go back to that.

Tthanks to everyone that replied.

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Community Beginner ,
May 21, 2015 May 21, 2015

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I haven't read all the posts on this string however I will say I had the same problem and figured out the issue.

In the Layers section on the left there is a icon to show or hide 'Shape Layers' now that I can see the 'layers' for shapes I can now delete them.

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New Here ,
Dec 07, 2021 Dec 07, 2021

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Thanks a lot. After struggling for like an hour, searching the internet and reading through this entire string, I'm really glad I found this solution. Hope all others with this problem will make their way to the bottom of this.

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New Here ,
Aug 10, 2022 Aug 10, 2022

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Hi, I am using Photoshop 2022. I know that you were using CS6, but I am writing because I experienced the same problem and maybe I will help someone else. Screenshot (26).pngScreenshot (27).pngScreenshot (28).png

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New Here ,
Aug 10, 2022 Aug 10, 2022

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The captions doesn't show up, I meant to say that in the fisrt photo I created the shape but the properties are locked. In the second photo I pressed the Move tool and a new shape layer isn't created. In the last photo I solved the problem by clicking the shape option ftom the toolbar. It can be seen unselected in the first photo and in the last all the options are gray after I selected it.

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New Here ,
Sep 27, 2022 Sep 27, 2022

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I just figured out one solution. It may solve your problem or may not but try selecting >Layer >Rasterize. See if that works for you. 

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