I jumped from CS5 to the current CC version of illustrator. As a technical illustrator, I often need to erase portions of paths. The easiest method for accomplishing this task is to select all the paths I intend to erase portions of using the "path eraser tool" and simply go from path to path erasing what I need using the "path eraser tool". This function works properly in CS5 but at some point afterwards has been lost.

However, as soon as you erase a portion of the first path, all selected paths are unselected except for the current path being erased. In CC, I have to individually select a path then erase, select another path then erase, a process that is very time consuming and tiresome. Someone raised the question if "keep paths selected" was checked in pencil settings. This settings only appears to "keep" paths selected for the newly drawn path...not paths being erased using the "path eraser tool".

I've attempted to use the standard "eraser" tool for this purpose, though, the erased results on paths using the "eraser" tool are very unpredictable (rendering the eraser useless for erasing paths) as it changes the control points and handle values as well as generally erases too much.

Why did this path eraser tool function vanish in CC??? I need it desperately as I am sure most users would value it's return as well.

It's been three years since an original post to the community forum, can someone at Adobe please kindly respond here??

Thanks in advance.

Allow Key Object to define which object is moved and which object is used to define movement. If I select two objects and then highlight one as a key object, it would be nice to use the same hotkeys for "send to back" and "send to front" and have it only work in relation to the two selected objects, putting the keyed object either directly in front of or behind in the layer order of the other object.

As it is now, the hotkeys either work too much by sending objects all they way to the back or front, or too little by requiring a one layer change per use. On builds with many objects/layers this just feels inefficient and clumsy. Adding in the Key Object feature would allow users to have a second level of functionality and quickly place a layer exactly where they want it quickly, using a feature that is already in place to give them more precise control over object placement.

Thanks for a great product and the years of creative expression it has provided!

Is there any way you can implement the snap to collision feature like Astute plugin Colliderscribe?

Through this feature, you can snap tangents or edges of circles for geometric constructions.

I just upgraded my Ai from 2019 to 2021 after having my new M1 Macbook and I can’t use my Astute plugin Colliderscribe anymore unless you pay an annual subscription for their whole suite of tools which is unreasonable for me because I only use this particular tool and not the entire suite.

Corel Draw and Affinity have this feature so I’m thinking to make a switch instead of paying annual subscriptions for both Astute and Adobe.

Thank you!!!

Short rationales:
Point Angle - I need a way to control the exact angle of point handles to unify them across a design. Currently the only way to control the angle is to constrain it to vertical, horizontal, or 45 degree angles.

Point Handle Length\Direction - If you grab a point handle and make it a different length or direction than the handle on the other side of a point, there is currently no way to re-unify them besides re-drawing the curve.
There is also no also no way to scale handle length along the direction or angle you’ve already set.

More information:
Point Angle - There is currently no way to control the exact rotation of a point, so if for example, I need one point at 29 degrees and another at 82 degrees, there’s no way to specify this. Also, if I have a series of points across a design and I want all of the tangent angles to match, there’s no way to do it. This is especially troublesome when drawing type. Very often you want points at 0 degrees, 90 degrees and then an italic angle across all of the letters. The closest you can currently come to specifying that is creating a series of guidelines, but that can become very cumbersome and they don’t often aline with the exact point coordinates.

Point Handle Length\Direction - Every single design that I use the pen tool on, I come across a situation where I either uncouple point handle directions, or lengths. If I want to get the perfect angle and direction set on one side and then want to match it on the other, I can’t. I have to use the Anchor Point Tool to redraw the curve, which causes the line to reset. This is also an issue when drawing things like type. If you use, for example, the Direct Selection Tool, and drag a handle out to create a shape, there’s no way to then drag the other handle out on the same line, or to unify it’s corresponding handle’s length.

Currently, when I like a certain color that's formed through the combination of 2 or more transparent objects (or objects with blend modes applied), I can't copy that exact color. The eye-dropper tool simply copies the color from the topmost object. I often find myself taking a snap of the display and then paste that image within illustrator and copying the color I want from that image.

Request: I'd like a tool, similar to the eye-dropper, but instead, it picks the RESULTANT color(s) that is displayed through transparent objects or even objects with BLEND-MODES applied to them.

I've attached an extremely simplified image.

At the moment, if you have a locked layer above the layer you are working in, the eyedropper tool selects colors and properties of the top layer - the locked layer - instead of the (unlocked) layer you are working on.

This causes frustration as every time you want to eyedrops something, you have to make a bunch of layers invisible first.

If an option could be added to the eyedropper tool, such as "ignore locked layers", this problem would be gone completely and working with Illustrator would be a lot smoother and faster.

This could be an option under the eyedropper preferences.

When you want to merge a new path with an existing live paint group and you select new shapes and the live paint group, the option to merge those shapes with the live paint group does not appear in the quick action section of the properties panel. I understand people may not want to do this but the new and more responsive context options that appear in quick actions are quite useful. I've steadily relied less and less on the control panel and now resort to the properties panel save this one function. Moving it down to quick actions when making these kinds of selections seems easy, many actions such as expand and group also appear there. For live paint groups this command is a must.

Attached are three tool examples I would like implemented into Illustrator to speed up the process of cleaning up vector paths. A lot of times when you do a vector trace the corners of text or objects will not have a sharp point or areas with straight lines will become jagged or distorted. To clean these areas up requires a lot of single clicks on points and anchor points to get the right result. Implementing these types of tools into illustrator will allow for these changes in as little as three clicks vastly speeding up the process. On top of that being able to see the changes and adjust them before they are applied will also help in making it easier and faster to get the line, corner or curve you want. I hope this is something that can be implemented into Illustrator as it would be beneficial for anyone working with vectors.