Spike when closing a separated curve from a pdf

[Gear maker]

I see this in both the 1.9.1 and the beta 1.9.2.3.  I opened a pdf that contains many compound curves.  I did a Separate Curves from the menu.  All nodes in the shapes show as being sharp nodes.  If any one of the shapes are selected and the Close Curve is clicked then a handle from one of the end nodes jumps out to the location of one of the end nodes on one of the other shapes (except for the far left shape in the example in which the handle jumps off the canvas).  This results in a huge spike in that area of the curve.

      

But if instead the end node is moved out and back, then AD does an auto close and the handle does not jump out and no spike is created.

test.afdesign

[Sean P]

Hi Gear maker,

Thanks for the afdesign file - I'm can reproduce that here. Would it be possible for you to also attach the PDF you used for import as well please? I have a feeling development are interested in what could be happening at import time to create this odd scenario!

[loukash]

18 hours ago, Gear maker said:

if instead the end node is moved out and back, then AD does an auto close and the handle does not jump out and no spike is created.

One of the stacked end nodes apparently has a "hidden" control handle. And even though both nodes appear to be aligned even at 1,000,000,000 % (!) magnification, apparently they're not.

Fixes that seem to work here:

• select both nodes and convert them to "sharp", then close
• select both and use Join Curves instead of Close Curves
• select the top node, move it slighly and let it snap back to the other end node to auto-close

[Gear maker]

6 hours ago, Sean P said:

Thanks for the afdesign file - I'm can reproduce that here. Would it be possible for you to also attach the PDF you used for import as well please? I have a feeling development are interested in what could be happening at import time to create this odd scenario!

Hi Sean, the file is 67MB.  Maybe a better way to get the entire file is to go to https://store.usgs.gov/product/468355 where I downloaded it.  The download is free.  There are many Curves about halfway down and the one I had attached above is one of them.  The problems are in the contour lines.  Many other Curves in that area have caused the same issue for me.

4 hours ago, loukash said:

One of the stacked end nodes apparently has a "hidden" control handle. And even though both nodes appear to be aligned even at 1,000,000,000 % (!) magnification, apparently they're not.

loukash, I have noticed that the curves appear to be closed in this pdf but aren't.  In just this one file, of which I am working on 4 such files, there are 3677 open curves.  But about a half of those have to be open, so I can't close them en masse.  Then as I'm closing them I find ones like my sample that require even more steps.  I'm hoping that AD can handle some of this by not employing any hidden handles.

[loukash]

18 minutes ago, Gear maker said:

I have noticed that the curves appear to be closed in this pdf but aren't.  In just this one file, of which I am working on 4 such files, there are 3677 open curves.  But about a half of those have to be open, so I can't close them en masse.

For what it's worth, I have opened the AZ_Horse_Mesa_Dam_20180728_TM_geo.pdf in Illustrator CS5 to inspect it, just to have a reference if the fault is with Designer in the first place.

Indeed, there are many open paths! Illustrator doesn't even shows me how many, and I can only select them en gros thanks to a third party plugin that enables "select all open paths".
When I try to close a path as is, the Close Path button is grayed out. I can only close a path if I move the nodes apart and click on each to select them…

So, 1:0 for Designer!

Oh, and Illustrator just ran out of memory. With 16 GB RAM, ha!

2:0 for Designer!

[Sean P]

35 minutes ago, Gear maker said:

Hi Sean, the file is 67MB.  Maybe a better way to get the entire file is to go to https://store.usgs.gov/product/468355 where I downloaded it.  The download is free.  There are many Curves about halfway down and the one I had attached above is one of them.  The problems are in the contour lines.  Many other Curves in that area have caused the same issue for me.

Thanks for that, not going to lie though! I can't actually find the curves you're referring to! I've gone through and closed a series of similar looking loops and not getting any of the handles misbehaving like that. I'll get them passed on, but if you're able to zoom into a rough area on the map that'll make it easier to find that would be helpful! 

Thanks,

[Gear maker]

16 minutes ago, Sean P said:

but if you're able to zoom into a rough area on the map that'll make it easier to find that would be helpful! 

Ha, I'm not surprised.  I'll try I know it's in the bottom (Southern) 2/3 of the map.  That should narrow it down enough!  Just kidding.  I'll be back.

[loukash]

1 hour ago, Sean P said:

I can't actually find the curves you're referring to!

Neither can I.

At first, I caused Designer to hang in a spinning beachball of death after impatiently clicking, selecting, deselecting etc. (ADe vs. AI: 2:1)
Could have been the fonts as well as there were some warnings.
Then I force quit, reloaded the file…

1. Node tool
2. Select > Select Object > Open Curves
3. Action: Close Curve
4. Deselect
5. Select > Select Object > Open Curves
6. Action: Close Curve
7. Deselect
8. Select > Select Object > Open Curves
9. no selection anywhere, all curves closed, can't see any suspicious spikes either

That's ADe 1.9.2.3 beta.

Final score: ADe wins 3:1

(An old buddy of mine from Brno, Czechia, was a cartographer, now retired. Must ask him what software have they used.)

Edited March 26, 2021 by loukash
see below

[Gear maker]

1 minute ago, loukash said:

Then I force quit, reloaded the file…

Strange I've loaded several of these files, multiple times and AD has never failed to load the file in less than about 10 seconds.  I'm currently working on a file that is a compilation of 4 of these files (minus the pixel layers).  AD still doesn't have the slightest problem.

@Sean P Still searching.

[loukash]

Tried in ADe 1.9.1 and now I see them.
I'll retry in 1.9.2 if I just missed them the first time.

[loukash]

Now I see, same spikes in 1.9.2.
Also, selecting all nodes of all open curves and converting them to sharp nodes either takes sooooo loooong, or causes a hang.
Have to leave now and put my MacBook to sleep, so it's Force Quit again…

[Gear maker]

1 hour ago, Sean P said:

zoom into a rough area on the map that'll make it easier to find that would be helpful! 

Okay now I am confused.  One of the first things I did was to select about 50 layers at a time and click on Separate Curves (I have a hot key assigned).  AD then only operates on the Curves, which is great.  So when I stumbled on this issue I figured they were from a Curves that had been split.  But they weren't, they are 5 separate Curve layers in the original file.  And even stranger they are reversed in my sample but I only did a copy then a New from Clipboard.  Or coincidentally I happened to find a set that look to be the same, no way.  The banana shaped curve is at location 878.019 pt, 1556.465 pt in the map or using the coordinates on the left side and bottom of the map 09 and 71 approximately.  The rest of the shapes are spread to the left of the banana.

So anyway by the time I found the issue many layers had been deleted, the entire file had been resized using the right lower corner handle to resize the text also.  Then the contour layers had been in a selection of maybe 50 layers that have had a Separate Curve done to all.  Then to make the Test file a selection, copy and New from Clipboard.

That reminds me, I had noticed that in the Test file I had sent the origin was in the bottom right corner, not the upper left as usual and I was wondering how this could happen.  That would maybe explain the reversal of the shapes.  What causes this change in origin?  I have never seen a command to do a reversal of origin.

[Sean P]

On 3/26/2021 at 6:00 PM, Gear maker said:

Okay now I am confused.  One of the first things I did was to select about 50 layers at a time and click on Separate Curves (I have a hot key assigned).  AD then only operates on the Curves, which is great.  So when I stumbled on this issue I figured they were from a Curves that had been split.  But they weren't, they are 5 separate Curve layers in the original file.  And even stranger they are reversed in my sample but I only did a copy then a New from Clipboard.  Or coincidentally I happened to find a set that look to be the same, no way.  The banana shaped curve is at location 878.019 pt, 1556.465 pt in the map or using the coordinates on the left side and bottom of the map 09 and 71 approximately.  The rest of the shapes are spread to the left of the banana.

So anyway by the time I found the issue many layers had been deleted, the entire file had been resized using the right lower corner handle to resize the text also.  Then the contour layers had been in a selection of maybe 50 layers that have had a Separate Curve done to all.  Then to make the Test file a selection, copy and New from Clipboard.

That reminds me, I had noticed that in the Test file I had sent the origin was in the bottom right corner, not the upper left as usual and I was wondering how this could happen.  That would maybe explain the reversal of the shapes.  What causes this change in origin?  I have never seen a command to do a reversal of origin.

Thanks for that - I've managed to find the curves, but frustratingly they're behaving for me.

I also tried doing Separate Curves on everything, resizing using the bottom right handle to resize the text also and then use 'File > New From Clipboard' and unfortunately its still behaving. I suspect it'll be something along the way that has made them act funny.

I'll keep poking any see if there are any other steps I can do to reproduce.