Joining curves on an entire shape at one time - help!

[thesewinglady]

Hi I have a pattern piece and would like to join the gaps seamlessly in one step.  Can this be done?  On illustrator you simply highlight the piece and command J (Join) .  So far I have had to manually click the node on each point, then select break curve, then join curve.  And even so, the shape doesn't follow a similar path as previously, it simply give me a straight line between the two nodes.  Can anyone help?  I will attach an example of my image where I am trying to connect nodes, and an image from YouTube where they have successfully done this using illustrator.  

 

Thanks

[jaedee]

Good day, to be clear are you saying that when you use the join command in illustrator that illustrator is able to connect the nodes (points) with a curved line like in the  example below (in red). 

 

[thesewinglady]

I believe so.  It isn't always perfect but it seems to follow a similar path to lines before it.

[jaedee]

 

Here is my attempt at addressing your post, I am uncertain if I clearly understand what you are attempting to do, if not, I am certain someone else more knowledgable of Adobe Illustrator and Affinity Designer could help address your concern. 

[thesewinglady]

Hmm yes this is similar to the best I have achieved so far also.  Im wondering, when you did this, how did you get the nodes to join on the first click.  When I select all my nodes, I have to first break them before I can join them, and even then they all join to random parts of each other

 

[jaedee]

 

As seen above the issue appears to be that the paths or lines where at the corners are already connected or joined in some manner, and closed. Therefore there is no apparent approximate node to join to. 

Similarly, no, the nodes did not align on the first try. 

Also my understanding is that the join command joins to the nearest node available node, I had to adjust some nodes (i.e. the upper left nodes wishbone shape) in order to accurately connect the paths (not shown in the gif). 

[firstdefence]

Would this be the video?

 

[thesewinglady]

Yes!