Resuming a freeform (pencil) path

[RickWolff]

I'm drawing freehand with the pencil tool and a tablet, most notably a road on a map. For any of a number of reasons (like getting to the edge of the tablet), I stop drawing, and lift up on the pen, which ends the path.

Is there any way, such as a keyboard modifier, that will let me pick up on the path at the point where I left off? The way I work now, I just draw a new path beginning in the neighborhood of the end of the first path, and come back later to join (and usually to smooth the resulting corner, or sometimes remove the point altogether). Very time-consuming, and not intuitive.

 

[askIllustrator]

make sure the path is selected before you start drawing again and it will merge with the old line.(Ctrl+h will hide the selection lines) It makes for a very natural drawing technique since none of use draw out a whole shape in click. Just make sure you start back a tiny bit and start drawing in the direction of the path. Otherwise if you just click right on the end of the path and start drawing it will replace the old line with the one you just drew.

"Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds." -Einstein

 

[RickWolff]

Ah hah!

Your advice only works when I have the tool preference "Edit Selected Paths" on. That is the factory default, I think. I used the pen tool early on when we first got the tablet. I carefully drew a shape, and the next stroke wiped out the shape! I said, "Well, I certainly don't want that!" and promptly turned if off. The manual doesn't mention any of this.

Thanks! You've probably trimmed about 1/2 hour of work out of my month.