Tangential transition in circles and curves
It would be very useful if there was a function to create a tangent transition at curves and circles. Currently, it is only possible with increased effort.
Carsten
shared this idea
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Carsten
commented
Thanks for the detailed explanation.
Yes, exactly — my suggestion is mainly about making the existing tangent snapping work directly when continuing a path from its start or end anchor point. -
I see what you mean, thanks for clarification.
Indeed, even though that recently Ai got a new additional 'tangent' snapping (thanks to this request: https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657/suggestions/34733398), the snapping does not get triggered when a line drawn from the start/end anchor of a path... there is a plugin by Astute Graphics I show in the end, that offers the dedicated Extend Path tool, and several modes to extend a path, but I agree it should just allow snapping from an anchor rather than a somewhere at a path.At the moment we can workaround it by selecting an endpoint, snapping to its handle, and repositioning the line, like the second GIF shows.
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Carsten
commented
I would like to suggest a feature that allows an open circular path or arc to be continued directly with a straight line in a tangential direction.
As shown in the example, the straight line should start at the endpoint of the open circular path and continue smoothly without any visible angle or kink.
The important point is that the line is not simply connected to the endpoint. Its direction should automatically match the tangent of the circular path at that exact point.
This would make it much easier to create clean and precise shapes where a circular or curved section transitions into a straight segment.
Currently, this kind of transition often requires manual adjustment of anchor points or handles. An automatic tangential continuation or snapping option would make this process much faster and more accurate.
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Carsten, can you elaborate on this a bit more and show an example?
Is this something like Tangent Line Tool from Astute Graphics can do?
