HELP NEEDED: 2 open ended points not joining!

Hi all,

Put on your solution caps please! So I've drawn half a shape (leaving the second half incomplete) in order to copy it, mirror it round, and marry both open sides together to give me a complete unified symmetrical shape. Nothing too fancy to do right? Well try telling my computer that!

I find I do this maneuver many times, but from time to time I'll encounter this mind boggler of a problem! Now that I'm finally a member here I feel I finally have an opportune place to bring this issue to light, and murder the inconvenience it always imposes!!!

THE RUNDOWN:
• So I bring both open sides of the 2 shapes together.
• Then I select the anchor points I'm wanting to join, and go to "Object>Path>Join" (⌘+J).
• Usually at this point it'll join and I'll proceed to join the last pair of anchor points.
• But instead, given my current situation, a message keeps popping up:
To join, you must select two open endpoints. If they are not on the same path, they cannot be on text paths nor inside graphs, and if both of them are grouped, they must be in the same group.

... and neither of the shapes are grouped, or on a text path.

Really stuck here! Please help.

if they are to go together can't you merge that shape? open pathfinder and click on merge...... just for the 2 halves you can always expand it afterwards

Thanks sharie,

Although it doesn't solve the problem itself, it's definitely the best way around the problem! It works exactly the same as if it were all joined at both points anyway. Proper good stuff, now my work can continue...

Edited by carldacosta, 26 October 2012 - 12:14 AM.

The other way I join strokes is click on an anchor with pen tool then click on the other anchor I want to join, but by far the easiest quickest way is to merge the two shapes then if you need to have a stroke around the shape you can do that by choosing either fill or stroke in your tool bar

I too find myself using the pen tool to hook up anchor points on separate open ended objects, if I don't right click (⌘+Click) and select "Join" that is.

Thanks again for your help! I'm glad I asked.

It happens to me at all times and it's very pesky. =/

So, I found this solution:
With the direct selection tool (white arrow, A key), I select all the paths but keeping not to select the ending points, then Copy+Paste in place (Ctrl+C, Ctrl+F).
Now you can use the Join command (Ctrl+J), or any other way to join.

 

I guess there's a bug in the system that doesn't allow you to join paths sometimes, and although this is not an official solution, it works very well for me always.

Hope everyone with the same problem may solve it through this or any other way because it's very annoying.

=)

https://astutegraphi...kRoCyoEQAvD_BwE

 

these Illustrator plugins might be helpful

 

"Mirror Me: could possibly shorten you symmetric shape tasks.