Pathfinder & Shape Builder: glitch when joining curvy shapes
I'm trying to join two round shapes and I'm always getting unexpected shape glitches in the result path. I tried making this new shape using pathfinder and shape builder, but the results are the same.
Sending before/after screenshots attached in outline view.
Version 28.1 (2024)
Please help!
Mariana Vale
shared this idea
This is regulated by the size of the art processes and the precision value (measured in absolute values) one can edit in Pathfinder Options.
Although vector paths stay continuous no matter how deep you zoom in, they are still stored on a canvas with rather finite coordinates, and all calculations are still very finite.
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Glad it helped!
Yes, that’s a thing with vectors. They are rather simple to understand and intuitive to use. However, they are still stored on canvas with a finite resolution, and the app has to juggle numbers. The precision is high enough in general, but not in all the cases.
Still, I noticed some other apps learned to make Pathfinder operations in a somewhat smarter way. That is, actually less precision, but more along the result most expect to get. Tricky to balance. That’s what options are for :) -
Mariana Vale
commented
Thank you so much for your help, Egor! Changing the precision on pathfinder options solved it.
I realised I was working with really small dimensions and I didn't know that would affect the precision of results — because they're mathematical shapes, I thought I could work with any size (infinitely large or small).
I've been working with Illustrator for over a decade and never ran into this issue, so I thought it was a new bug 😅Thanks a lot!
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Marianna, it all depends on the chosen size and precision.
How large are these shapes? You can scale them up, add, and scale back to workaround this.
Secondly, you can go to Pathfinder panel’s menu, call Pathfinder Options, and change the Precision.
Finally, pathfinder operations are all both very precise and not really. They are based on math and not the way we see curves. The better way (I use myself) to make these behave as I want them to is to cut the older segment and connecting the remainder with a new one. I understand this can hardly be a definitive explanation, but...
Can you share this test file maybe, so that I can look into it, to be sure this is the case?