Alt+drag to duplicate multiple spline knots and segments
Up until the Illustrator 23.1.1 update, splines with overlapping knots and multiple selected spline segments could be duplicated easily by:
1) using the "A" select tool to select individual knots or segments of a path,
2) region-dragging to select several knots,
3) begin dragging then quickly hold down the ALT key before releasing
This would duplicate the knot and it's connected and the newly created connected segments. If only segments were selected, then the new segments were created while dragging, <important!> keeping their anchor knots where they originated at either end of the spline. It was a very efficient tool and interaction.
In an update after 23.1.1, this was changed so that behavior now only works on an individual knot on a single path. The ability to alt+drag a spline segment while maintaining their end-points is completely disabled and will move the entire segment, not just the weights of the spline segment.
If more than one knot is selected on a path, or multiple paths, the behavior changes so that the entire path becomes selected, duplicates and follows the cursor. It is identical to how the "V" selection tool would duplicate a path using the ALT+Drag method.
Now there is no way to get the efficiency of duplicating multiple selected knots and/or spline segments by dragging them to a new location. This may be an oversight because the "A" select tool has always been able to maintain sub-path selections during the drag duplicate event and has been the intent of that selection tool for 30+ years. Please up vote to help bring back this functionality!
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This is a great video, it explains it perfectly. Indeed, it worked before, in CS at least. Can’t remember the time it changed though. But I agree it must be fixed. Thank you for raising it up.
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Anonymous commented
Here's the video. gripping watch.... the plot's a bit dry, but the filmmaker means well.
https://shared-assets.adobe.com/link/6a4c1899-c09f-46f6-40cf-d7407a8fc90d
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This definitely requires a video. Please record one.
...because I have version 19 along with 12, and all of them seem to behave is the same way.
I just can’t reproduce the problem! But I really want to. -
Until relatively recently, paths with overlapping knots could be duplicated easily by using the "A" select tool to select individual knots of a path, region-dragging to select several knots, begin dragging then quickly hold down the ALT key before releasing to duplicate the knot and the connected segments. It was a very efficient tool and interaction.
In a recent update, this was changed so that behavior now only works on an individual knot on a single path. If more than one knot is selected on a path, or multiple paths, the behavior changes so that the entire path becomes selected, duplicates and follows the cursor. It is identical to how the "V" selection tool would duplicate a path using the ALT+Drag method.Now there is no way to get the efficiency of duplicating multiple selected knots by dragging them to a new location. This must be an oversight because the "A" select tool has always been able to maintain sub-path selections and has been the intent of that tool for 30+ years.
If there is way to bring back the old behavior, please let me know. It's been reported that the behavior seems to have stopped after CC 2019. It was working in 23.1.1
