How can I select a specific anchor point that intersects with many others from the same object?

Question

I'm working with a gradient mesh in Illustrator CS6 that's arranged in a tightly closed 'C' shape, as illustrated here;

As you can see from the control handles, the central-most anchor points overlap exactly (ensuring that the 'C' shape looks like a filled circle).

How can I select a specific, single, anchor point where such overlapping is occurring? Is there a way to cycle through them on a click, or perhaps to select the anchor points specific to a horizontal/vertical segment?

Thanks in advance for any thoughts.

Answer 1

Okay, I've finally worked out a few variations on how to do this that should work for most situations. This may not work too well if your control handles are extremely short (overlapping with the originating anchor point, for example), but it's technically simple and infinitely preferable to moving each of the points aside and realigning them after modifying the target point.

Here's my solution;

1. Select the group of overlapping points using the Direct Selection Tool (white arrow).

2. LONG VERSION: De-select the unwanted anchor points by shift-clicking on each of the control handles attached to those points. Obviously, don't shift-click on the control handle of the point(s) you want to modify, otherwise it will be removed from your selection.

   Note that the opposing control handle on the adjacent anchor point(s) remain visible (in this case, the ones attached to the middle circle) - you do not want to shift-click on these, as it will ADD that anchor point to the selection.

   BETTER VERSION: Alternatively, de-select the anchor point that you WANT to modify (counter-intuitive, I know), so that only the unwanted anchor points are selected. As with the 'long version' above, you can do this by shift-clicking with the Direct Selection tool on the control handle attached to that point.

   Now (with the Direct Selection tool), shift-drag over the group of overlapping points to toggle/inverse your selection. You should now have ONLY your desired anchor point selected and all of the others de-selected, accomplishing the same as the longer method but with only three clicks (including step #1).

3. With only the desired anchor point(s) remaining, make any desired changes (such as tweaks to color or opacity).

Hope that's of use to someone.