CS5 moving anchor points

Anybody else enormously frustrating when trying to reposition anchor points in CS5? They never were very easy to select and move, but now in this version, they'll only move in certain directions but not others, or not at all.
There seems to be some mysterious order required, where if I select the bezier points first adn then the central node, sometimes I can get the central node to move, but not always. Or sometimes if I press the shift key while selecting, I can get them to move. But not always.
It looks to me like Adobe has made the points too smart, so that they'll only go where they won't interfere with a nearby node. But I've got a lot of repositioning to do, and I sure wish this thing would trust me enough to let me move the nodes where I want to put them.
Anybody have any suggestions?

Something else I noticed, by the way: if I delete an anchor point, then undo, then Shift+click and try to move the anchor point, about 80% of the
time, I can get it to move.
But this is so frustrating, I'm going back to CS4 to make the shape I want.

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CS5: Moving Anchor Points w/ Transform Panel, Not Whole Object

Hey there. Did the digging before asking but nothing came up. I'm pretty green, so I'm sure it's something silly. I'm trying to move specific anchor points on a path a few pixels up from their current position, while keeping everything else where it is, so it'll transform the figure's shape. I'm trying to do it precise by changing it's dimensions, rather than clicking and dragging. Thankfully, that's at least an option because it -does- work when I direct select the points I want and drag them. Problems with that:
1) I have very little control. If I want the point moved up by whole pixels, I pretty much have to get lucky because it's always in decimal points.
2) With shapes bordering each other (parts of a complex shape), if I want to move their location to scrunch something (Half circle in a larger half circle, wanting to flatten out the base), if I lift those points up, they leave a gap. As if the top border of the outer circle has another anchor point under the lower of the one above that, and I can't click on it to move everything while they're still touching. I can take screenshots if needed. I'm following a tutorial to get used to the program.
Alternately, I suppose if you have a shortcut for constraining the drag to whole pixels instead of fractions, that's great too. In Photoshop and the like, holding Shift would give me precision, but that's not the case in this tool or perhaps program.
Thanks a bunch. This program is frustrating, but I know I'll have fun with it when I get it.

Hard to decipher exactly what you are asking for, but after reading your post a few times sounds like you want to move vector point by whole pixles amounts.
Have you tried setting your keyboard increment to 1 pixel, and using the cursor keys to nudge points.
If you are working on digital work, you may want to turn on snap to pixel grid, which will also kepep all your times to whole pixel amounts.

Photoshop CS5 Curves & Anchor Points

In CS3, when using a Curves Adjustment layer, I could Shift Click on an image to place an anchor point on each of the red, green, and blue channels in RGB mode. This process changed in CS4 and CS5.
From experimenting in CS4 and CS5, I can only place an anchor point on a single channel. I want to place a simultaneous anchor point on each layer.
My question is, How do I place a simultaneous anchor point on each channel in a curves adjustment layer?

Using a curves layer, if I use Control Shift on an image, then anchor points are inserted on all channels. This applies to CS3 to CS5.

Moving anchor point with arrow keys crashes Photoshop CC

Hey guys,
I've recently run into this bug many times while working with shapes. Don't really know what initiates it but it's super annoying as it crashes the PS CC completely without possiblity of recovering the unsaved files.
The bug appears while working with shapes after file is saved and reopened. Because I use to design pixel-perfect UIs, I work with arrow keys a lot to be sure every pixel is in the right place. So after selecting one or more anchor points of shape and hitting any arrow key (to move it by pixel), photoshop immediately crashes with this super-long description of bug: http://justpaste.it/ccshapecrash
Dunno why but this occurs very often when handling 1px-thin rectangles.
Is it only me or has anybody else experienced this as well? Any idea what exactly is causing it or what might be wrong with my config?
Never seen that kind of error in Photoshop before. It completely destroys my everyday workflow

I have exactly the same problem and I don't have any solution. I was tried to update the latest video drivers - nothing! Tried to update Photoshop which updates fixes bugs - nothing! The problem continues.
My OS is Windows 8 64bit, video card Nvidia GT 630. For the case, my Photoshop 32x works better (faster) than the 64x. Why is that ? I hope to have a solution.

CS5: Coloring Anchor Points

Hi there. I'm clearly missing some simple beginner thing. I'm working on a tutorial, and the directions I'm at are these:
Step 16:
Select the bottom shape and use the Mesh Tool (U) to add an anchor point in the left corner, exactly in the middle of the bottom shape as shown.
Paint all the bottom anchor points of this shape with R:0, G:0, B:0. And paint the top anchors points with R:135, G:96, B:66.
Here's the Tutorial if you want the visual reference: http://vector.tutsplus.com/tutorials/illustration/how-to-make-a-magic-book-using-adobe-ill ustrator/
I'm creating a book, and this is at the base, so it was basically two rectangles with a half circle in the middle as a spine. I used the mesh tool to create a line that bisects the shape. I have to assume meshes behave differently, because I couldn't Divide the paths to make separate segments, and changing the fill of the shape ignores the mesh line. So I'm assuming right now a Mesh path isn't counted as a normal path. But it's telling me to paint all the anchor points, and in two different colors... How on earth do I do that?
I click the gradient tool, it doesn't seem to do anything but paste a gradient slider over things, that doesn't affect the fill color.
Grabbing the shape and changing it's color in the Color panel changes the entire shape's fill...
Selecting the group and trying to make it a gradient from the Gradient panel does nothing, it doesn't even register as a thing that can be filled.
So what exactly are those directions asking me to do?
Thanks so much!

Looks like the instructions is missing key information for people that aren't very accustomed to using Illustrator.
To add a fill to a gradient mesh point you need to first select the Direct Selection Tool, which is the A key, and then click on each point of the gradient mesh you want to change. To make this process quicker, click and drag across the points you want to include while holding the shift key. This way you don't have to select each point precisely and can be a little looser with what you're selecting. But keep in mind that any points you surround with the direct selection tool will be selected so depending on the shapes in your file dragging across them may not be the best option.
Then with the points selected you can go into your Color pallet and change the color of just those points. You'll know the points are selected because they'll be filled in with a solid color while non-selected points will be "hollow" which is just a fancy way of saying they'll be filled with white.

Moving Anchor Points in PSE 6.0 after lasso was used

As a former user of Microsoft Image Composer, I am trying to make a smooth transition for my photo croppers to Photoshop Elements 6.0. Here is the problem that I cannot solve:
In Image composer, I could use a Polygon tool to create a shape around a product (pants, for example). After making the shape, I could choose to "Move Points", which allowed me to adjust the points and refine the shap (lengthen one leg, adjust the width, etc). After the points were where I wanted, I would "Cut Out" the image. The end result is that some of the products (pants) are cut off to create the shape I want.
In PSE I have used the lasso tool to create the shape, but am unable to move the points. It is not reasonable to start over- some shapes are so complex, that it would take a lot of time to re-do.
How can I move anchor points? Should I use a tool other than lasso? Thanks for helping me make the switch to PSE!

For the marching ants, it sounds like you are using the quick selection tool. You want the regular selection brush, which only works exactly under the brush and doesn't do any thinking on its own.
The options bar settings for the Magnetic Lasso control it:
Width: how far away to look for edges
Edge Contrast: How much difference to look for between the edge and the background: A higher number = sharper contrast, lower number= softer contrast
Frequency: How often to put down those anchor points

Direct selection - moving anchor points with keyboard arrow keys

Hi,
I am using Illustrator CC. I just used the image trace tool to create a vector version of my company logo. It worked pretty well, but I am now just trying to clean it up a bit. I have a few anchor points that I just want to nudge up or down in the smallest increment possible.
I think it would be easier for me to do this using the keyboard arrow keys rather than using the mouse, but the arrow keys cause my selected anchor point to jump by way too large of a distance. I checked to make sure Smart Guides, Snap to Grid, and Snap to Point are all turned off. I can't think of anything else to do.
Can anyone tell me what controls how far the keyboard arrow keys will move an anchor point, and how I can set this to the smallest possible distance?
Thanks in advance,
Paul

Under Preferences (Command-K on Mac), on the first screen there is Keyboard Increment. This is the amount the arrow keys will move selected content, such as anchor points.
I usually keep this at "0.005 in", but when doing things that need extreme accuracy, I change it to "0.0002 in", which on my screen (2560 x 1600) is one pixel at AI's 6400% magnification.

Moving anchor point using spacebar while drawing with pen?

If you're an Illustrator user, you may be familiar with the ability to move the active anchor point of the line, by holding "Spacebar" and dragging during the drawing process. This is a useful timesaver for creating complex paths. While Photoshop CS6 has introduced some useful new path-editing features, this is one that is still missing. I cant' figure out why Adobe does not make the pen tool identical between the two programs. This is an old feature in Illustrator. Don't the Adobe programmers talk to each other.
I'm just hoping/wishing someone could tell me the feature can be accessed in some other way, withing Photoshop.

Thanks, conroy. Yes, I'm familiar with that feature, but it requires clicking on the anchor point and dragging. The feature missing in PSD is the ability to move an associated anchor point while "holding" an associated direction point. This feature is activated, in AI, by holding down the Spacebar. It's a real timesaver and I miss it in PSD.

Moving Anchor points

I move the anchor points of a shape/path by using arrow keys on my keyboard. Points move 1 pixels , sometimes less than 1 and sometimes more than 1 pixels. It doesnt matter i zoomed in or out, it does the same. Somehow it is triggered by something but i cant figure it out. Does anyone know to set the movement amout to 1 pixel for all the times.
I Use Flash CS4.
PS: I dont press shift/ctrl/alt or anyother modifier keys. Only Arrows
Thanks in advance.

For the marching ants, it sounds like you are using the quick selection tool. You want the regular selection brush, which only works exactly under the brush and doesn't do any thinking on its own.
The options bar settings for the Magnetic Lasso control it:
Width: how far away to look for edges
Edge Contrast: How much difference to look for between the edge and the background: A higher number = sharper contrast, lower number= softer contrast
Frequency: How often to put down those anchor points

Moving Anchor point in Basic 3D effect

I need to use Premier's basic 3D effect (Swing in door), but with the anchor point on the left or the right (not default, in the middle), like the one in the transision (3D motion Swing in).
Does anyone know what 3d package, or other source has it?
Thank you in advance.
James.

Craig,
Thank you for that. It is not quite the same though. To build a door looking effect, I would have to apply several other effects.
I would prefer to find and existing effect with controls, etc.
Do you know of those.
Thanks.
James.

Shapes disappear when editing anchor points (CS5)

Hello,
Some of my shapes simply disappear on mouse button release after moving anchor points or adjusting the bezier angle. The edit history does not mention any deletion; the event is registered as "move point" so I can "edit->undo move point" to have my shapes reappear.
This looks like a bug to me, but I'm quite new to Flash - I may have missed something.

Here is what they are referring to if this does not happen on everyone's then it is a common enough issue to figure out a solution but as far as I know it has always been this way, if anyone is seeing it differently we should know how they work around it so we can all benefit.
I agree if you want to draw a shape over other objects say as a clipping mask then you should not have to have a stroke which can be one distracting and two you prevent you from seeing an important small detail that might be important.
It might also be useful to be able to make this guide vary in width to mimic a stroke to see how it will effect the underlying art. I know why not just use the stroke and give it a color and transparency which is not the point the idea that you are creating art and you want to investigate you possibilities before driving yourself crazy selecting stroke colors and widths is the issue. It is more for the visual process and not finalized art and we are use to using the layer color to let use know what layer it is on so a color will only interfere.
It would be good to change this behavior and get everyone's input here of how they would like to see this drawing capability improved IMO.
I think it is a good issue to bring to the surface once again.
Path without stroke

Illustrator CS5 Rotate Tool Anchor Point Bug

Summary:
I can reproduce this bug consistently, every single time. I am unable to set a new anchor point for the rotate tool in Illustrator CS5.
Steps to reproduce the bug:
1. Create a new shape, doesn't matter what
2. Press R or just select the rotate tool
3. Alt-Click to pick up the anchor point and drag to a new posiiton
4. Let the mouse go- at this point the anchor stays locked to the cursor even if I click and am only able to unlock it from the cursor if I click on a new tool, but without getting to choose a new anchor point.
Also I tried this with a Intuos 2 tablet and pen with the same results. I have an NVidia Quadro FX 3500 card installed with the latest driver as well.
I'm not sure if this issue is related, but also in After Effects CS5 if I press 0 to start doing a preview and then click away say on Firefox, then click back to After Effects, I am unable to click around inside After Effects to get the render to stop. It makes me wait until the whole comp is pushed into a ram preview before it unlocks itself.
Any ideas?

I too experience this problem and was hoping to find a solution. I've tried reverting to early Wacom Driver versions with no success. I find that if you "break the connection" between the pen and the tablet then the rotate point will drop and the rotate dialog will appear. I've found that this only works reliably when lifting the pen straight up off of the tablet til it loses signal. Not ideal for precision work. You'll notice that the rotate point drops when you move over to the menus, so I'm guessing it has something to do with the "drawing area."
My system specs for comparison.
Intuos 3
Windows 7 x64
Wacom driver v. 615-3a
Illustrator CS5 15.0.1
Nvidia GeForce 9800 GTX+ Driver Version 258.96
Core i7 920 Processor
12Gb DDR3 Ram

Application windows remembering original anchor points when moving or resizing

Recently it seems that most of my windows, especially iTunes, Safari, and Finder, seem to retain the anchor points from when they were opened and revert to their original position if a window is resized. I've noticed the following odd behaviors that seem to be related to this problem:
After moving an iTunes or Safari window, right-clicking will open the context menu in a location that corresponds to where the window was originally placed.
After moving a window, a drag-n-drop target remains relative to where the window was. For example, in iTunes, if I open the application and move the window, it becomes impossible to drag a song into a playlist (unless I drag the song to the location where that playlist was when the window originally opened). The same sort of thing happens with Finder windows. In the image below, a screen grab of a Safari window, I right-clicked on the signal strength display pictured on the phone to the left; notice the context menu way off to the right of the Safari window.
Resizing a Safari window makes the window first snap back to the original location, then allows the resize to occur.
Opening/closing a tab in Safari, when the action causes the tab bar to appear or disappear, causes the Safari window to snap back to the original anchored position.
I've noticed this behavior over the past week or so. It was about a week ago that I installed the 10.9.5 update to the OS, but I'm not sure if the problem pre-dated the update or not.
This is driving me insane. Does anyone have any suggestions or, hopefully, a fix?
Thanks.

You can try running the combo update.
10.9.5 Combo Update

Indesign CS5 Rotate Tool Anchor Point Bug

When rotating any object using either the rotate tool or 'Rotate 90 Clockwise/Anti Clockwise' the Anchor point defaults to the top left hand corner of the object frame. I would expect the Default Anchor point to be the center of any object that is placed on the work area.
Each time I want to rotate an object I have to move the ancor point to the centre of the object.
Is this a known issue?
Using CS5 with most recent updates on Intel Mac but also noticed same error on Win based systems in our office.
Thanks
Nathaniel

Ahh, I forgot to check that! Yes it has worked, although it's a little strange to be defaulted to top left point on all of our machines!
Thank you
Nathaniel

Simplify adds overlapping anchor points CS5

I've been using Object > Path > Simplify to clean up artwork but have found that it can create two overlapping anchor points. This adds an extra kink to the path as each anchor point has two control handles. This seems to happen regardless of the Curve Precision or Angle Threshold settings.
Anyone else getting this?
(Illustrator CS5 15.0.2, Mac OS 10.6.2)
Screenshots below:
1. Simple circle drawn with the ellipse tool.
2. Object > Path > Simplify... applied (Curve Precision 96%, Angle Threshold 0)
3. The two overlapping anchor points pulled apart for illustration

Unite is very helpful (thanks Steve) and sometimes cleans up the path completely. There are still times when Simplify adds a whole bunch of points to what seems to be a clean curve. Unite then helps to clean up the mess, but there are often extra points which create kinks or loops in the path. They are easy to miss as you have to zoom right in to spot them.
Also, thanks Wade for the suggestion about cutting the path and rejoining. It’s interesting that CS4 splits the path at the problem point shown above when using Simplify so you are left with an open path. It's as if CS5 rejoins the path but doesn't get the control handles right.
Thanks for the script link, Jesseham. I must look into using scripts more to simplify routine tasks.
I've combined Simplify with Unite into an Action to speed things up. But I’m still using Simplify with caution as often it does just the opposite.

CS5 moving anchor points

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