Illustrator CS5 Rotate Tool Anchor Point Bug

[Infinity_Spiral]

Summary:

I can reproduce this bug consistently, every single time.  I am unable to set a new anchor point for the rotate tool in Illustrator CS5.

Steps to reproduce the bug:

1.  Create a new shape, doesn't matter what

2.  Press R or just select the rotate tool

3.  Alt-Click to pick up the anchor point and drag to a new posiiton

4.  Let the mouse go- at this point the anchor stays locked to the cursor even if I click and am only able to unlock it from the cursor if I click on a new tool, but without getting to choose a new anchor point.

Also I tried this with a Intuos 2 tablet and pen with the same results.  I have an NVidia Quadro FX 3500 card installed with the latest driver as well.

I'm not sure if this issue is related, but also in After Effects CS5 if I press 0 to start doing a preview and then click away say on Firefox, then click back to After Effects, I am unable to click around inside After Effects to get the render to stop.  It makes me wait until the whole comp is pushed into a ram preview before it unlocks itself.

Any ideas?

[Infinity_Spiral]

Also I forgot to mention, I am on Windows7

[Mylenium]

Your After effects problem may depend on specific features or effects used, so post your question over there and provide more info. As for your AI issue, I have no idea. Quite possible there's a bug somewhere. Does it also occur with guides and grids? Any particular reason you need the rotatete tool and not the generic transform?

Mylenium

[Infinity_Spiral]

The rotate tool lets me rotate around a specific anchor point for fractal or spirograph-like effects whereas the transform tool just rotates in place and doesn't offer the ability to move the anchor.  I tried uninstalling the wacom driver for the intuos3 tablet and the program functions normally so my guess would be that this is a driver bug not and adobe bug.

[Mylenium]

I see... Was beginning to wonder, as it works with no issues for me.

Mylenium

[Infinity_Spiral]

Wacom is saying they aren't able to reproduce this bug and that it's an Adobe issue hmmm how annoying.  Love when the buck gets passed around.

[randallgator]

I too experience this problem and was hoping to find a solution.  I've tried reverting to early Wacom Driver versions with no success. I find that if you "break the connection" between the pen and the tablet then the rotate point will drop and the rotate dialog will appear.  I've found that this only works reliably when lifting the pen straight up off of the tablet til it loses signal. Not ideal for precision work.  You'll notice that the rotate point drops when you move over to the menus, so I'm guessing it has something to do with the "drawing area."

My system specs for comparison.

Intuos 3

Windows 7 x64

Wacom driver v. 615-3a

Illustrator CS5 15.0.1

Nvidia GeForce 9800 GTX+ Driver Version 258.96

Core i7 920 Processor

12Gb DDR3 Ram

[Infinity_Spiral]

I did have some half-success by uninstalling, restarting, then reinstalling java and all it's updates.  Also Color Munki was trying to install multiple versions of Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable so I uninstalled that and just installed Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 x64 Redistributable which looks like the most recent one.  Illustrator still won't let me use the alt key to pick up the anchor, but if I select an object and then select the rotate tool, then left click and drag on the anchor I am able to get it into a new position without it sticking.

[CarlosCanto]

I can't test on CS5 now but I use it everyday at work and haven't noticed a difference with CS4

3.  Alt-Click to pick up the anchor point and drag to a new posiiton

4.  Let the mouse go- at this point the anchor stays locked to the cursor even if I click and am only able to unlock it from the cursor if I click on a new tool, but without getting to choose a new anchor point.

I didn't know about Alt-Clicking and dragging to change the rotation reference point, Alt-Clicking works fine for that purpose without dragging. I did Alt-Click and drag with the same results, no bug or lock with CS4, I'll try CS5 on Tuesday.

[SebAnd]

I have found that if I click directly on the pivot point I can drag and drop it without any sort of Alt funny business or any hanging to my mouse. I'm not sure if this is a happy glitch or they just made life easier in CS5.

[curtjj]

I've had this bug for as long as I can remember now - it occurs with the rotate tool and also the scale tool.

If I want to position the pivot point I have to use the mouse, which works fine. I would contact Wacom, but to be honest I'm somewhat jaded by relentlessly lacklustre product support throughout all areas of everything that I just can't be bothered.

[Eugene_Dest]

May be the bounding box is off?. In illustrator, go to View > Show bounding box > Enjoy

[go2qdesign]

I have the same issue. The problem started when I upgraded to cs5. I too am on Windows using an older CTE 640 table. I've tries everything (short of contacting WACOM) and not been able to resolve the issue.

[curtjj]

For the record: I no longer see this bug in AI CS6 on Win7 x64

Nice

Message was edited by: curtjackson (added spec)

[go2qdesign]

May be reason enough to upgrade. Thanks for the info.

....................................................

This message was sent from my phone and typed on a tiny little keyboard, probably while juggling flaming chainsaws or battling wild animals, so please forgive any typos and the brevity of my message.

[Guest]

Hey, Ive just come across the same issue, im using a wacom and manage to resolve it by pressing the "windows" key. It seems that when the windows menu pops up outside of Illustrator it sort of breaks the trance of the stuck ancor point. Silly really but works for now.

[Infinity_Spiral]

Do you use a wacom mouse combo?  I did fix this issue, but can't remember if just the general upgrades so CS5 fixed it or if ditching the wacom mouse for a logitech mouse fixed the problem.

[Guest]

Im using CS5 and I use a wacom Intuos 3 that has a mouse but i never use it. I have a Logitech mouse that doesnt have the issue so definately the wacom but since using the wacom full time a few months ago i never use a mouse. It is a really weird issue but must have somthing to do with the software not recognising the wacoms tap or the wacom not telling the software, or something!?!?

Either way, in a little frustration tapping any key that i thought would commit the ancor move i hit the windows ket and realised it kinda slapped Illustrator to snap outta its trance and get on with it. Let me know if you recall any update that is practical than this current method.

cheers,

[AnanasBananas]

I somehow have a feeling I've had this problem with pretty much all Wacom / Illustrator combos I have worked with. It is prettttttty annoying to put it slightly.

Currently sporting Win7, CC2015, Intuos4&5.

The problem is the same as OP has. The rotation center / scale center crosshairdot gets stuck on the cursor, and won't let let go when: trying to activate a different tool, pushing the win key, moving the pen away from the tablet. Usually what seems to work now is switching to mouse, but not always. Then you just end up pounding the keys, and waiting for the dialog box to appear.

I remember having same type of "getting stuck" problem with the hand tool in the previous years.

Disrupts the workflow? Yes.

Am I the only one having this problem? Seems not.

Do I think it is a bug worth fixing? Yes.

Is there an easy solution? I surely do hope so

[TomNapper]

I'm getting exactly the same problem with a win10, intuos5 & CC2016 setup. It still happened in Windows 7 before upgrading so it's something to do with the newer CC2015-16 versions of Illustrator.

Hold alt to try and move the rotation anchor point and it gets stuck to the cursor. Can never "drop" it back on the page unless I switch to a mouse or open another piece of software. No keys "detach" the anchor point from the cursor. It's very frustrating and been a problem through various updates. Very surprised it's not fixed because it's a pretty fundamental failing of a tool!

Any fresh help or suggestions from people?

[TomNapper]

An ammendment to this. I actually can't use keys to detach the anchor point. Alt-tabbing doesn't work either. I have to unplug my wacom tablet completely so it freaks out and defaults to my laptop pad.

[Knirp]

I have the same issue. It started somewhere with 2015 release I believe. The "solution" for me is to turn off the GPU setting, this seems to mess things up with the alt-click reflect/rotate/scale. It's not really a solution, since I really need GPU support for my complex illustrations, but what can I do? I just pray that Adobe solve this fast. I use the latest drivers and my graphics card (Nvidia) are listed as compatible.

[Prowhiz]

I just experienced this bug for the first time in the latest version of Illustrator 2015 while using my Wacom tablet with the reflect tool. Was getting worried that I'ld have to force close and lose my work.Things popped to normal when I disconnected the tablet.Illustrator generally acts pretty weird with a tablet. On gripe I have is how I'm unable to zoom in and out without first activating the zoom tool and then dragging. In Photoshop its Alt+Pen_button+tap_drag which is a lot easier.

[Knirp]

Just an idea... has this something to do with the Wacom being CONNECTED with a CABLE? I can't find my wireless reciever now, but maybe it works better with that? (I really doubt it though!)

[TomNapper]

I'm also experiencing exactly the same and have been since a version of CC2015, probably getting towards a year now. It's pretty fundamental to one of the main tools working. Trying to drag the rotate anchor point, it gets stuck to the cursor FOREVER, locking out the ability to click on anything else on the screen. Not even the Windows minimise/maximise etc. Only way of snapping out of it, as many others have said, is to unplug the wacom tablet. I've got the latest updates of both wacom and illustrator, always have done, and this problem has been here version upon version. I don't understand how it's being missed because it's a pretty useful tool and an even more obvious error. ADOBE *waves* Help!