Anchor Point Guides are invisible in Illustrator 2019 unless selected?
I installed the newest AI update (v23) and started testing some of the new features when I noticed that the anchor points that I rely on for my work have vanished. I've attached screen snips to show the difference between AI 2018 and 2019.
That little magenta X shows up in earlier versions but now it's invisible. It's still present and can be selected if I know where it is but that defeats the purpose, in my opinion. There must be some way to turn these back on, right?
I've tried toggling many settings in the menu and the closest thing I can find is Hide / Show Edges, which only affects my ability to select the anchors. Switching between CPU and GPU rendering doesn't affect it, and playing with the options in the "Selection & Anchor Display" menu in the preferences doesn't help. (screenshot attached)
My first installation was an upgrade that kept the previous version's settings. No anchors. I uninstalled that and had it remove the preferences and do a fresh install. No anchors. Uninstalled and removed preferences, reinstalled AI-2018 and it shows anchors just like it always did. Installed 2019 fresh (again no anchors) and tried importing my 2018 settings manually but that doesn't work between versions.
Is this affecting anyone else? A solution would be greatly appreciated!
Some installation details:
Illustrator 2019
Windows 10 Enterprise, build 17134
Dell Precision workstation, Xeon E5-1620 v3, w/ 16GB RAM
AMD FirePro W5100 4GB with the latest pro drivers, 18.Q3.1. (updated from v17-something while troubleshooting this issue)
Oz
shared this idea
It seems like several problems got mixed in the comments.
1. Guides made of single anchors (displayed as <Guide> in Layers) are displayed correctly in the latest versions of Ai when View > Guides > Show Guides is enabled (although they are rather small).
2. Illustrator does not draw centerpoints for ellipses while moving then in GPU mode — a know problem, reported separately here: http://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/601447/suggestions/39740689
Please upvote it if you want to see edges while moving.
3. Show Edges option gets occasionally disabled — gets fixed with Cmd/Ctrl + H. Edges still won’t be drawn when GPU Performance and Real-Time Drawing and Editing options are enabled in Preferences > Performance, only when you switch to CPU mode.
If your case is nothing like this — please comment and share details on the problem, with steps and screenshots or videos.
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Scott
commented
Out of curiosity, what do the 'Anchor Point and Handle Display' preferences look like with version 22.1?
Do they look like the "Old Anchor Points Preferences", or do they look like the "Current Anchor Points Preferences"?
(I'm referencing the preferences images in my forum post.) -
Oz
commented
Hi Scott,
Yes, that's the exact same issue I have with Illustrator 2019. It sounds like you use these anchors in the same way I do so we're both stuck in the same boat. The newest version that works correctly for me is AI 2018, version 22.1. You can choose to install this version in the Creative Cloud app so you don't need to go all the way back to CS5, as you mentioned in the other forum post.
Invisible anchors are a deal killer so this new version is unusable to me until this is resolved.
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Scott
commented
I don't know how to post everything I want to in this comment box, but unless I'm mistaken I'm having the same issue.
Detailed info & screenshots can be found here:
https://forums.adobe.com/thread/2577502 -
Oz
commented
Good morning, Ashutosh.
Thank you for digging for more info. I'm afraid that wasn't what I was trying to explain, though.
I create technical drawings for custom products and I use these stray anchor points to act as guides for consistent placement of symbols from my symbol library. These anchors are almost never in the center of a symbol, and placing the center of one symbol on the center of another is very uncommon. Each symbol I use gets the "Break link to symbol" treatment to expose the anchors inside. These anchors are strategically located to make it easy to place one on top of another. For example, I may have one symbol that acts as a foundation and it has anchors at all the key points so other symbols (with their matching anchors) can be plugged in to populate that foundation. Not being able to see these anchors in AI 2019 is a show-stopper for me.
Up until now, the little magenta X anchors/guides have been perfect for my needs because they've been visible to me during the creation process but they don't show in my final PDFs for our clients.
Does that make sense? If not, I'll work on creating a short video of my workflow to email to you.
Thanks again for your help!
-Oz
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Ashutosh Gupta (Illustrator Team)
commented
Hi Oz,
What I can understand from your post is : you are placing stray anchor points at the center of the group to have existence of center point .Earlier x was showing on hovering , but now it is not getting showing.
Am I right ?Please open attributes panel ( Windows -> Attributes ) . Click Show All from the flyout menu to expand the panel . Observe if the show center option is not enabled . Please enable it.
Hope it would help you.If it doesn't help you. Please zip and send illustrator preferences folder to us @ ashgupt@adobe.com analyze ( "C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Illustrator 23 Settings" ).
Thanks and Regards
Ashutosh Gupta
Illustrator Team -
Oz
commented
I don't mean the center marker of an ellipse or rectangle. Those just show up as blue squares once the object is selected, and hovering over them with the mouse cursor shows them as being called "center". I've never seen the center point marked as a magenta X unless I've placed such an anchor there manually.
No, what I'm talking about is its own item that is listed in the Layers list and is not dependent on other shapes, paths, or objects. In the Layers window it's listed as <Guide>, and "anchor" is what pops up by the mouse cursor when I hover over it. I would attach a screenshot but I don't see a way to do that in a reply here.
This is how Illustrator has behaved for me since CS4 and I rely heavily on these anchors being visible for perfect, consistent placement of objects. If this is abnormal behavior, may I ask how you would place one object onto a predetermined position of another so that it can be done consistently day after day?
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I assume that something was wrong in your 2018 settings, because 'That little magenta X shows up in earlier versions' actually is not what it should work like (at least for me and based on my experience). It's a 'center', and it's toggled on for every created ellipse or rectangle (and can be manually changed in Attributes). It gets highlighted if you have Smart Guides on (and snapping to grid off) and hover over the path, or always visible when you have object selected (but it IS broken in 2019 and NOT showing when you MOVE art, when 2018 does it OK).