Node Add Tool Why Does it Delete Curves?

[Adrianne]

Hi, Why when I try to use the add tool it deletes some curves and joins others? The lines are all copies of each other. I just want this image to be connected so when i convert it to an SVG it's simpler and I can actually use it for what I need. Please help. Top

[GarryP]

Can you explain what you are trying to do and the precise (step-by-step) workflow that you are using to try and do that?

I don’t know which “add tool” you are using (there isn’t an “add tool”, as such), or what you mean by “want this image to be connected” (“connected” could mean lots of things), or what you mean by “use it for what I need” (we don’t know what you “need”).

I suspect that you are just using the wrong functionality but, without knowing more details, it’s difficult to advise further without lots of speculation.

If you just want to make the curves part of the same path then it sounds like you might need to use the Merge Curves functionality but I can’t be sure from the information you have given so far.

If you can also supply the document then, once you have described the situation better, that will help with giving advice.

[R C-R]

If you mean the Add Boolean Operation then if you try to add open curves together they will be erased because it is a quirk of the app to add only the area filled by the curve & an open curve encloses no area.

So if you want to combine several open curves into one "Curves" (note the plural form) layer you can use the Boolean Merge Curves operation instead. Note that there still will be more than one curve in the Curves layer. An alternative is to use Layer > Expand Stroke to convert the open curves to closed ones but that is likely to add a lot of extra nodes, which is probably not what you want.

Either way, note that since a curve can have only one start & one end node (which may be coincident) you cannot combine multiple curves into a single curve unless you double back over the same path, like I have done in this single curve shapes.afdesign AD V2 example.

[Adrianne]

Thank you R C-R. I'm not sure how I double back on them easily but it sounds like I can't turn this into one curve. I don't understand why the first one worked to turn it into one curve since they were all individual items and now one curve but the flower heads which were copies of the stem can't join. I was using the node- add tool (I don't know what it's called, it just says add with the square and the circle with a plus sign icon)

[R C-R]

27 minutes ago, Adrianne said:

I was using the node- add tool (I don't know what it's called, it just says add with the square and the circle with a plus sign icon)

That is the Add Boolean Operation on the Toolbar. It is not a separate tool or part of the Node Tool.

We can't tell from what you showed in your screenshots what the Layers panel looks like but it is likely that the flower heads were filled ellipses or closed curves, while the stem sections attached to them were open curves, whick would explain why they were deleted.