NEED HELP! Illustrator CS3 Will Not Combine Paths - Adobe illustrator

Join only works when you have selected two – no more, no less – endpoints of open paths. That can include points not on any path (look like little 'X's). You select points using the Direct Select tool.

Try selecting both paths, right click and select make compound path.
Hopefully thats what you are looking for.

Join is yet another example of the idiocy of Illustrator....

To join 2 endpoints you have to first position one endpoint exactly atop another, then go to Object, then down to Path, then select "Join", and then select whether it should be a smooth or corner connection - which in itself sucks because if you select "smooth" it will jack your paths out of position.

In CorelDraw, you simple drag one endpoint on top of another and it is automatically joined - that's it! No multi-submenu trail to follow.

This thread just reminds me once again of the multiple steps it takes to get anywhere in Illustrator. They must have some sort of alliance with Carpel Tunnel surgeons.

Lithium:

With the Pen Tool and nothing selected click the end anchor of one path, and then the end anchor of the other path. Turn on Smart Guides (Ctrl + u) to make selecting the anchors easy.

Or, select just the end anchors with the Direct Select Tool (white arrow), as per Scott above (Smart Guides or a simple marquee select makes this easy), and press Ctrl + Shift + Alt + j. This averages (Object > Path> Average> Both) the positions of the end anchors and joins them in one operation.

No wrist problems here, steve

To join 2 endpoints you have to first position one endpoint exactly atop
another, then go to Object, then down to Path, then select "Join", and
then select whether it should be a smooth or corner connection - which
in itself sucks because if you select "smooth" it will jack your paths
out of position.




Tom:

Select both end points, Ctrl-Alt-Shift-J averages and joins them.

I wouldn't want to have my application decide to automatically join 2 points if I decided to line them up directly on top of each other.

Bert - any way you look at it...Illustrator's solution doesn't compare.

Why else would you put one endpoint on top of another if you didn't want to join them?!

Besides - I did leave out one step in review: It will only join them if you first combine both open paths....so that even further illustrates how Corel has all the bases covered as they offer a failsafe step in case you didn't mean to connect two endpoints...

In illustrator - using the "average" technique as you describes is the worst!! It sticks a straight line in between two open endpoints. Totally useless, simplistic, and unrealistic solution to any serious designer's workflow.

So now....we're Corel- 2 steps to Illustrators' 4.

And, with Corel's dedicated node tool, you can then right click on the anchor point/node and it gives you several logical options of what you might want to do with a anchor point/node such as break the path at that point - - - which you CAN'T do in Illustrator period!

I'd love to sit with you or an Adobe software designer and compare point by point Corel's solutions to Adobe's. The savings in time is just clear as a bell....and the handy functions are years beyond what illustrator offers.

The two functions in illustrator that I think are truly superior are the actual vector drawing style of Adobe's pen tool and the way you can drag across/select objects. That much I'll give them. Everything else in terms of path editing, font editing, distortion, manipulation of nodes, flipping objects, rotating, etc etc is a clear win for Corel.

Tom:

There are several people here trying to help someone to use Illustrator. I suggest that you go use your Corel program and be happy, or take your inaccurate rants to Feature Requests.

I would be interested in learning how Corel does these things but I can't follow your explanations. There are many reasons for having a situation where open endpoints of two different paths would overlap. The averaging method does not connect two endpoints with a straight line (the Pen Tool one does).

steve

SilkRooster, thanks- compound path is what i wanted, but i didn't know about it. I also didn't realize that JOIN only works on end points. I was trying to make a large T and turn the 2 paths into one.

This confused me because I'm coming from Fireworks, which allows me to select 2 vector lines that interesect anywhere and choose COMBINE PATHS, then JOIN, and both paths are then turned into one.

Thanks for your help everyone- I've learned much

Lithium:

For my very small part, you are welcome. I am also interested in what you are trying to accomplish that a Compound Path would do better than a simple Group command.

steve