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Break at joints

Ordinarily, when you apply a brush stroke to a path, the stroke definition is either stretched or repeated across the entire length of the path. However, when the path contains one or more corner points (also called "discontinuities"), you can force the stroke to start and stop at each of these points. To break the stroke at each corner, select the Break at Joints check box in the Stroke section of the Appearance category of the Properties panel.

To make the stroke extend across the entire path, regardless of corner points, clear the check box.

An five-pointed polygon with a stroke set to Continuous (left) and Break at Joints (right)

Note that discontinuities in a path aren't only sharp corner points. In a Bezier path, any corner or cusp node will act as a break point. Dashed lines are not affected by the Break at Joints check box, however.