How to know the first anchor point in a path?

Question

I am in a middle of a website project to learn drawing for children. that project require me to know the starting anchor point for each path I draw. and if it is miss ordered I have to revers it.I know there is an option for a compound path to reverse the orders of the anchor points over a selected path, and I am using it.The reason I need to re-order of the path, that I am using an online service called [lazy_line_painter](http://lazylinepainter.info/) it's free online service that convert my .SVG file into a path animated line. This service draw the shape I converted into SVG in the same drawing order that is in illustrator, the very bottom layer will draw first, and the starting point will star the animation from, That's mean I want a certain order in illustrator to appear in a specific sequences, so when I drop it in Lazy line Painter it will draw in the same order I did in illustrator. That require me to reorder my layers and know the starting points in every path I draw in Illustrator.My question is how to know if I need to reverse the path or not? and this gonna be an easy question if I know where is my first anchor point. so How to know the first anchor point in a path?

Answer 1

This might not be the official way to reverse the first and last anchor points on a path, but here's how I'd do it. Select the Pen tool and hover over the anchor point you want to be "last" on your path. You should see a little minus next to your cursor. Click on that anchor point, then deselect the path. Now Illustrator will "remember" that path ends with the anchor point you just clicked.

If you're ever confused as to which end anchor point is the "starting point," I'd suggest using the Stroke window to check. If you show the options on the Stroke window (you can show/hide options with the three-lines icon at the top right of the window), you will see Profile options at the bottom of the window. Illustrator comes with presets for this; select "Width Profile 4" (the triangle). This will make the stroke on your path wide at the starting point and thin at the endpoint. You can use the technique I detailed above to switch these, if needed. Make sure to set the stroke Profile back to Uniform when you're done checking your endpoints.