Illustrator :: Pencil Tool To Draw Shapes - Some Paths Not Smooth
Mar 20, 2013
I'm using the Pencil Tool to draw shapes (not good enough for the Pen Tool yet) and some of my paths are not as smooth as I'd like, so I go over them with the Smooth Tool, though it seems like it either smooths the path a little bit or completely changes its shape.
In Illustrator CS6, I would like to draw these trails for a map I'm making. Is there a way I can draw using the "Pencil" tool where when I draw, it draws a second line next to it? Is there a setting for that?
Here is an old map where you can see the double broken lines. I know how to set it so the line has gaps in it, but I need a line to be the same next to it.
Does it exist? If not, why not? I discovered it in SAI and it's amazing how easily one could draw smooth curves with the brush/pencil without a need to mess with vectors but SAI is seriously lacking in many basic things that Paint.net has (i couldn't even change the size of a cut/pasted object). It would be perfect if Paint.net had it.
I'd like to be able to make Clipping Paths out of (unexpanded) Compound Shapes. We can't do that already.I'd also like the Expand button to work like it did in CS4 again.
SIDE EFFECT: continued line causes first segment to disappear....
attempting to use Classroom in a Book - page 170, pencil tool "an X will appear next to pencil tool"....not so..
at one point, i DID see the "X" but can't reproduce it now that i backed up and started over. I get an asterisk,then, when drawing a line, and adding to it, the first line disappears as soon as the second line is drawn.
I've been attempting to install the Adobe Suite CS3 on my Mac OS X Tiger 10.4.11. It installs fine. Any time I try and run Illustrator, it gives me an error message that says "Missing BPS Pencil Tool" and then it crashes. I have searched multiple forums, done a clean install of the OS, and even tried re-installing the software several times..
Hopefully you can see below, I've drawn the shape on the left and closed the path - it's a closed shape. I then drew another shape on the right, with the two corners exactly placed on the other shape's corners, and I'm getting some sort of overlap/miter join of somesort. Best way I can describe it.
Now I know how to join to open path end points, with the JOIN command. That's not what I'm after here. Simply when I draw another closed shape with the corners matching the other shape, I get those rather awkward and ugly corners? Or can you use the JOIN command? Totally lose here.
Any way to stop this from happening? Surely I'm simply missing something blatantly obvious here?
I guess the question would be: how to draw another shape that joins with the original closed path, without using the pathfinder tools. I want two separate shapes so that I can colour them independently, and not have those horrible corners.
I'm in Illustrator 5.5 and my cursor is stuck on the pencil tool. I can't change the tool with either my mouse or hot keys. I can't even select all my artwork to paste into a new file.
Since upgrading to a new iMac, I see a flickering square at the cursor, when editing a path using pencil tool and Wacom tablet. Specifically, it appears when holding "Cmd" and selecting a path or "Option" dragging along a path to simplify the path. I captured a screen video and to my surprise, the square did not appear. In it's place is either a red or black circle. I am guessing these circles are part of the AI interface that I do not see on screen. I have not found any preference or documentation about them. Review this video. You'll see the circle, but not the flickering square I see on my screen.
i wish to keep using the pencil tool with a personal line stroke style (width and profile), so i can draw using the same line style, i am not able because each time I do a path i loose my style setting to the standard. Is there a way to keep the selected attributes once i do more than one path?
Draw closed paths with the Pencil toolSelect the Pencil tool.Position the tool where you want the path to begin, and start dragging to draw a path.After you’ve begun dragging, hold down Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS). The Pencil tool displays a small circle (and, in InDesign, a solid eraser) to indicate that you’re creating a closed path.When the path is the size and shape you want, release the mouse button (but not the Alt or Option key). After the path closes, release the Alt or Option key.You don’t have to position the cursor over the starting point of the path in order to create a closed path; if you release the mouse button in some other location, the Pencil tool will close the shape by creating the shortest possible line back to the original point.it doesn't for me. after i start drawing and i hold the option key, it goes to drawing a straight line. i don't hold the key till after i start drawing lit says.
same thing with the connect two paths. holding the command key doesn't change the behavior of the pencil tool.i'm guessing there is no way of remapping the 'smooth tool' to option again? or was it moved to another hotkey?
I've been making my drawing with the pencil tool obviously. After I make a stroke, I continue it with the last anchor point. But sometimes when I do that, the previous stroke disappears completley. Why is that?
I have a piece of artwork with loads of curves and I'd like to smooth out a few areas that appear a little "wobbly". Is there an easy way to do this in Illustrator CS6 (other than adjusting with handles)?
Having just entered the world of illustrator (cs6) I'm finding trying to get smooth curves to do what you want is a highly confusing operation.Being a fairly competant user of Photoshop the same task can be acheived relatively easily by way drawing paths with the pen tool and simply adding anchor points to drag out the desired shape.This buisness of dragging out handles in order to create curves in illustrator is crazy, I just can't seem to get the curves to behave how I want them to, I've watched probably 20 tutorials on this now and all demonstrate the same technique for creating curves, is there a more straight forward, simple way to achieve precise smooth curves similar to PS?
I'm trying to join two paths with the pen tool. The shape is a coffe mug, took me half an hour to try to combine paths with the pen tool.
I'm trying to join where the little white gap is. I had the same issue opposite but I managed to draw a little curve in there and join the paths. But I can't seem to do it the other side and I don't understand how it works.
When I use the blend tool for a smooth blend, the blends comes out jagged and horrible, as if it is doing a step blend rather than a smooth blend. I have used the tool before by either using the shortcut (Alt+Ctrl+B) or using it via the Object>Blend pathway and it worked out fine, but now Illustrator doesn't want to create a smooth blend.
What I'm trying to say is; is there an option that is causing this to happen that I may have accidently turned on, or has my copy of Illustrator gone into stupidity mode and I need to reinstall it?
I've attached pictures of what I mean with the settings I'm using and outputs. I hope your collective minds can smack this one in the face. I'm sure I'm doing something ridiculously simple to cause this.
I'm using CS5 Illustrator and my relevant PC hardware is listed below. - Intel i5-2500 3.30Ghz - nVidia GeForce GTX 560
Am I the only one who has edited a stroke with the stroke width tool, then outlined the stroke only to find a countless number of points and noticeably unsmooth edges? Is there a setting or certain way to ensure that the stroke width tool won't corrupt the smoothness of my shapes? The stroke width tool is the most handy new feature I can imagine, but this problem makes it almost entirely useless, unless designing something where precision and smoothness are not important.
Does the scissor tool NOT work on compound paths? I am guessing it does not being it does not work when I use it on them, but the Adobe help section didn't specify.
Also, sometimes when I am using the pen tool, I will place an anchor point but it shifts away from where I want to place it. For example, I will put it at x = 72 & y = 1000 and it will place it at x = 95 & y = 1050.
I thought maybe it was from something I accidentally selected like snap to grid or point, but changing the settings does not correct the issue. I have to close out of the program and restart to fix it.
I try to drag something - either a whole shape, a point or when I'm using a tool like the pencil or the knife and need to have a continuous path, Illustrator is glitching on me. It keep breaking my path and jumping a little even though I never let go of the mouse. Or when I'm trying to copy and paste something by dragging, it will suddenly unselect it, paste it where it was and then copy another shape. Crazy thing is, my mouse works fine on everything else non-Illustrator. It's happening in two different versions on two different computers, one of which has CS6 and is a brand new iMac.
I'm using the following:
5 year old iMac running OS X Illustrator CS 3
The other computer is at work:
brand new iMac, can't remember the OS Illustrator CS 6
when working on illustrator my selection tools won't adjust shapes anymore. I can move shapes around but I cannot resize them or stretch them. If I have a rectangle shape on my screen selected, the hash marks that are normally in the middle are no longer there, also at the edges of the rectangle the selection tool doesn't change over to the rotate tool. My selection tool also has a small black square at the bottom right of it that I haven't noticed before. I have no clue how I got into this mode, preferably without resetting all of my preferences,
what can i do to the image so that when it rests agains the background (which in this case is a repeated gradient "sliver" in the CSS {background-image: ..}) it doesn't "look" like it's just stuck there.?
my technique thus far is to simply make the area transparent around my intended visible content, and save-for-web, then choose png (for colors, or gif if it's simple) and wa-lah, i have my transparent image w/ clipping paths. (forgive my mangled jargon). i have tried doing things such as using blending layer effects > inner-shadow, or bevel/ emboss... which sometimes seems to help the problem a bit, but i'm sure there is a better way.
I need to draw a thin white line across an image, infact several lines in different places. The lines need to be permanent. I want to key in the number of pixels for the the thickness of the line and if possible key in the position of the line. I know I can use a new grid line to position a grid line, but how do I then turn that grid line into a permanent line where I can decide the width and colour? I'm trying to refrain from the long way round of zooming up to 1600% and physically using the rectangular marquee tool then filling the rectangal with colour.
In Illustrator I want to maintain the stroke settings while creating several paths with the pen tool. However, every time I start a new path, the stroke settings revert to what must be a default. E.g. I set 16pt + Variable width profile + Basic and stroke a path. When I start a new path, the settings revert to 1pt + Uniform + Basic, and I have to reset back to my original. Other art programs I've used maintain the tool settings most recently used until they are manually changed. How can I get the settings to stay through multiple uses of the pen tool?