Jo Jo Dancer

Crickets.

This doesn't work at all if the object you want to measure the distance to is nested in a clipping group. Sketch handles this much better, and Illustrator of course provides an actual measurement tool that isn't hidden behind secret modifier key combinations.

Steps to reproduce: 1. Create a frame text object. 2. Enter some text. 3. Convert to curves. 4. Select all and try to make this block of text a compound path. You'll notice that all you have on your screen now is some rectangles and that is because converting frame text to curves inserts these completely useless boxes into its output. Is there any way to get it to stop doing this? It makes a fairly common workflow for vinyl and/or laser cutters pointlessly complicated and those boxes serve absolutely no meaningful purpose.

Two years later and that button does nothing even close to path simplification. I keep wanting to like this thing, but it's clearly for the Sketch crowd and not a real Illustrator replacement.

I'm shocked this isn't a more popular demand. I just grabbed the trial to see if I could live with ditching my Illustrator subscription, but the giant cursors everywhere are dealbreakers.