Offset Path in AI CS4 added overlaping unnecessary anchor points.

[a***@adobeforums.com]

Offset Path tool in AI CS4 offen added some unnecessary anchor points, these points were hard to find because they were overlaping. But when these path were used to blend, faulty effect come. I must remove them manually. It never happened in AI CS2.

[j***@adobeforums.com]

Also happens in CS3.

[a***@adobeforums.com]

Yes, but seems a little better than CS3, I prefer this tool in CS2 come back.

[J***@adobeforums.com]

artilu,

Your post refers to CS4 in the past tense:

Offset Path tool in AI CS4 offen added some unnecessary anchor points...




Please clarify whether this is a typo, or you are in fact still seeing this problem (a bug which was introduced and never corrected in CS3) in CS4.

JET

[a***@adobeforums.com]

hi,
I'm in fact still seeing this problem (a bug which was introduced and never corrected in CS3) in CS4.
You could follow these steps to find the bug
build an rectangle (width 40mm, hight 30mm)
delete the top segement to make the curve open
offset path (4mm, round)
check the lower right corner, you will find the overlaping anchor point.

[R***@adobeforums.com]

You could use a script to find and remove these points (JET?). Also you could use the BetterHandles plug-in, which has a "Remove Redundant Points" command. Granted, the points should never be created in the first place, but it beats searching for them manually.

RE

[J***@adobeforums.com]

You could use a script to find and remove these points (JET?).




A script could search for and remove coincident points. But in my experience with the problem in CS3, the abberant results of Outline Stroke, Offset Path, etc., are not consistent enough to reliably correct with a script. In some situations, the redundant points do not have identical handles. How would a script know the right handles to retain? In other situations, entirely extra trash paths are created (as when outlining strokes of dashed paths--the supposed justification for the whole train wreck in the first place). How is a script supposed to know which paths are correct?

A proper script solution would be to replace the offset path feature altogether. But that would be a pretty ambitious undertaking.

No, the dang thing just needs to be fixed. Others (assumed to be beta testers) have reported that it was fixed in CS4. If artilu is correct here, that is not the case.

Adobe's history has not been good re fixing such bugs during the lifecycle of a major version.

JET

[heckheck]

      You could use a script to find and remove these points (JET?).
A script could search for and remove coincident points. But in my experience with the problem in CS3, the abberant results of Outline Stroke, Offset Path, etc., are not consistent enough to reliably correct with a script. In some situations, the redundant points do not have identical handles. How would a script know the right handles to retain? In other situations, entirely extra trash paths are created (as when outlining strokes of dashed paths--the supposed justification for the whole train wreck in the first place). How is a script supposed to know which paths are correct?
JET

I did end up writing a script to take care of removing redundant
points in CS3 (and probably works fine in CS4). You can find the
script here http://pinballwiki.org/index.php?title=RedundantPoints and
a review of it here http://kelsocartography.com/blog/?p=2205.

The script won't remove the garbage paths, but I did also write some
Actions that automate using the Pathfinder tools to add objects to
themselves to help with these types of artifacts.

Regards,

Jim Heck

[j***@adobeforums.com]

Dang. I was really hoping that would get fixed or at least not be as bad. Maybe if I close my eyes real tight and wish really hard I won't have to remove all those extra ancors.

That got broke with the advent of the eraser tool, right?

[D***@adobeforums.com]

Yes, there is still an overlapping point at the lower right of OPEN paths. Just click the unite button in the pathfinder window with the offset path selected (it is naturally selected after the offset command in run) to clean and move on.

[a***@adobeforums.com]

Thanks, The Unite tool works fine! and when the path with the overlapping point is pasted into AI CS2, the overlapping point will be removed automaticly, so strange.