Pen Tool stuck in undesired mode: Circled Asterisk

[adrm]

Yesterday I spent several hours drawing maps. After several hours without issues, I noticed the Pen Tool pointer had acquired a new symbol: the Circled Asterisk. This means the tool will "create a new curve from existing curve's node". In this mode, the Pen Tool will no longer extend a curve when you draw from an end node.

I have no idea how the tool became stuck in this mode, nor how to remedy it.

Most of my layers contain multiple curves and doing a Layer -> Geometry -> Separate Curves solved the issue for a little while, and the Pen Tool operated as normal. But shortly after the issue returned, including on the newly separated layers. The issue follows the saved document, so a restart doesn't help.

 

Not sure if this is me doing something wrong, but I'm reporting it in case it's a bug.

[Sean P]

Hi adrm,

This will happen if the last node of the curve becomes deselected (by pressing Escape). If you hold down Ctrl it should allow you to temporarily switch to the node tool where you can select an End Node and then continue drawing your curve from there. Essentially the idea is that you can draw a separate curve object that begins in the exact same place as an existing node.

Please see the documentation here for what all the new Pen Tool icons mean and how they function:

https://affinity.help/designer/English.lproj/pages/CurvesShapes/draw_linesAndShapes.html

[adrm]

Much obliged, Sean.