Anchor Tool Key now redundant?
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I was working in VS today using the "L" key to convert nodes to cusps and hitting it a second time when I needed the double retraction. Aside from the issues with wonky nodes (like with the cement truck example I sent you @vectoradmin ), it was super fast and smooth. It's amazing to be able to make a selection box around several nodes, click once or twice on the "L" key and watch it all adjust so quickly. That addition of the extra click on the "L" key is a major improvement in efficiency and work time. It makes using VS to clean up vectors a real joy and less of a toilsome burden.
It had such an impact on me, that I found myself questioning if we really needed the anchor point tool anymore! I never thought I'd see the day I suggested it's redundancy. I was the one who petitioned for a long time for that tool because I wanted a way to retract both handles of a given node easily and that was the way Illustrator did it. Shift-C in Illustrator has the dual purpose of revealing hidden node handles by pulling them out from the center of the node or quickly rescinding them with a click of the cursor on the node. At my request, anchor tool function was eventually added that and kept the same keyboard shortcut.What makes the new two-hit of the "L" key better is that I don't have to click directly on the center of a node each time, I can drag a selection box and that can be done with many nodes at once - whereas the current anchor tool only does one at a time.
Knowing keyboard shortcuts are finite in supply, does it make sense to give up this tool and just use the two-tap of the "L" key as an effective replacement? If so, is there another tool we could give the role of revealing handles to? I'd much rather reveal hidden handles with a 2nd click of a key on the keyboard like we now do with the "L" key.
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@Boldline Not exactly. With the "L" key (in Node editor), it is possible to set cusp (and sharp cusp) nodes, but the anchor tool can also be used to reshape and remove nodes.
It is of course a convenience tool, as these can also be done by the node toole. -
I'm not opposed to keeping the anchor node tool Were the tool properties changed recently? It seems to have different abilities than before.
If you clicked it a couple times did it always delete the node and in the process remove all styling from the path as well?
When I click and drag a node with the tool, did it always only pull out one side of the node's handles?
[Sometimes when I was clicking several times to get a node to erase with the tool, it switched back inadvertently yo the node selection tool on me. It also feels a little clunkier and forceful than even in build 24 (I have not updated my intel yet and that machine has the prior version still active.)
I took a video but Record It is not rendering the final video correctly - icon is just spinning so I'll need to re-do that part and add it to the post later -
@Boldline In the Anchor tool, clicking on nodes will first turn them into lines and then remove.
There should not be any "style" change (by style I mean color, width, etc). -
@vectoradmin You are correct, I used the wrong term "style" in this case -what I meant was it essentially makes it a straight line
I was able to successfully re-record a video for this. It feels like some nodes are not converted first to cusp (in my case switching to a triangle shape) and if I try to adjust one handle after another, the other goes a little wonky. Perhaps I am using the tool improperly? -
@Boldline Looks like the node at the second click (upper right side) turns into cusp when the first node is clicked.
Then clicking it as cusp will remove it.
