Michael A. Lowry

@Ben: Is it fair to say that bugs specific to Symbols are not the top priority? (I recall that it took years to fix the Copy-and-Paste Symbols bug.)

Any news on this topic? Has this problem been accepted as a bug? Is there a public bug tracker somewhere?

The same problem happens in the iOS version.

As you can see in the file, I used symbols to keep the shape bilaterally symmetrical. Detaching all of the symbols appears to have to resolved the problem. So perhaps Shape Builder has a problem with constituent shapes based on symbols.

Here you go… Renaissance shield (Shape Builder).afdesign

This morning I tried to use the new Shape Builder tool for the first time. After several attempts, I gave up. I have not been able to create a shape yet. The app has crashed several times — once when I accidentally typed Command-Delete while selecting areas, and every time I tried to commit the selection and create the shape. I’m using Affinity Designer 2.0.0 on macOS 13.0.1.

On my iPad, iCloud backup has not been working for a long time. I opened a ticket with Apple Support several months ago. This past week, Apple developers finally narrowed the problem to a file or files created by Affinity Designer. According to Apple, there’s at least one file over 100 GB on the iPad that belongs to Affinity Designer. And because iCloud Backup does not support backing up files larger than 100 GB, this large file is preventing backups from completing. (iCloud Backup misleading reports that there is “not enough storage available” even though there is plenty of space available in my storage plan.) If I disable backing up files from Affinity Designer, iCloud Backup works fine. I was unable to find any such large files on my iPad by using the Files app or by browsing the iPad’s content from the Finder on my Mac. However, using a third-party file system browser, I was able to see some additional details, such as file creation/modification dates and folder sizes. Based on this information, it seems the Designer folder on the iPad is taking up more than 300 GB even though the files under the folder add up to just 228.81 MB. Evidently Affinity Designer is using more than a thousand times more storage than can be explained by the listed files. Apple developers were able to read some metadata about the >100 GB file that is preventing the iCloud Backup from working correctly. In these metadata, they found what looks like a date & time stamp: 20190516103049. (It might be part of a file name, but I’m not certain.) I have read several older threads about similar problems. It seems a work-around might be to move all Affinity Designer files to other locations (e.g., iCloud Drive or a computer), and then remove & reinstall the app. I would prefer not to do this unless absolutely necessary. I would also like Serif to help investigate this problem so that a permanent fix can be found.

Aaaaand it happened again. It seems that when AD was forced to quit by other foreground applications it failed to save the current state. This time, I lost about an hour’s worth of work — painstaking drawing I had started to redo the two hours’ work lost last week. This is getting a bit discouraging.

Just encountered another data loss problem. Perhaps two hours’ work on a file that I did last week are just gone today. This time, there was no crash that I’m aware of.

I recently discovered a document in the club archives that has another version of the coat of arms. I presume this version was in use before the 1893 design. The later 1978 version is clearly based on this one, but this small blue reproduction is the only copy I’ve found. My modern version has plain rather than colored oar blades, and incorporates an NRF monogram closer in style to the 1978 version.

Here’s another update. For the flags, I completely redrew the shading layers that simulate the draped folds using a new approach. Each of these shapes contains both a gradient and a gouache brush stroke. I think this adds a bit more of a sense of physical realism. I also added a sort of undulating gradient to the each flag, subtly implying gradual waves perpendicular to the more prominent folds.

Here’s another update. Some purists had noted that the flags looked to sterile and lifeless. So I went back and redrew the flags from scratch, based closely on the flags of the old design. I’ve moved the cantons of the flags more to the top hoist side to make the identity of each flag easier to discern. For the fringes, I used two overlaid strokes — a rope brush stroke with a subtle 3D filter atop a solid color stroke. I think the fringes look pretty good, but they’re not perfect. I like the flexibility offered by a custom brush but I haven’t found a brush that looks exactly like the fringes in the original design. I might just end up creating my own custom brush. I haven't done this before but it looks pretty straightforward. Just one question: Is it true that so-called ‘vector’ brushes are based on bitmap (PNG) graphic files? I also tweaked the floral elements, and now use a variable stroke width (custom pressure profile) for these strokes. I think this gives them more natural & elegant look. I’m still not satisfied with gradient shape overlays meant to simulate draping and folding of the flags. What I’d really like is to be able to define a gradient along a custom path, and not to be limited to linear, elliptical, or conical gradient shapes.

Here’s the latest revision, including lots of small changes, including a few based on feedback above. Thanks for the helpful tips. @Jowday: I hope Dannebrogen is now a bit more correct in its proportions. (It’s actually quite different from other Nordic Cross flags.)

@VectorVonDoom: Re: the letters, I don’t think separate shapes would deliver what I’m looking for. I want a continuous embossed effect. @Jowday: Thanks for the feedback. I had been meaning to revisit the shield at some point, because I agree it’s a special part of the original. Here’s my initial attempt at a shield that hews more closely to the original. I couldn’t resist putting a subtle embossing effect on the shield and rivets. I think it makes the shield look more real, and it helps it to stand out a bit from the flags. Now that it’s done, I really like the white border. And with the added details, I think it doesn’t look too generic or sterile. I would really like to find a way to use symbols in compound shapes. It would greatly simplify the process of making these sorts of complex symmetrical shapes while keeping their constituent components editable. I widened the rope stroke of the flags. I don’t have the time or patience to draw the fringes by hand, so I have to find a more efficient solution. I’d also like to work on making the folds of the draped flags look a bit more realistic. For the drapery shadows, I’m using shapes with highly eccentric elliptical gradients. I ‘d like to find a more flexible solution that’s adapted to more irregular fold geometries.

I also redrew the NRF monogram from the club’s 100th anniversary 1978 coat of arms. I used the Emboss effect here to good effect, but I’m not completely satisfied with the result. In particular, I would like better control over the angles of the ridge produced by the effect at acute angels in the underlying shape. E.g., look at the lower right of the letter N. I’d like the ridge to end a bit lower, and with a sharper angle that more closely reflects the corresponding sharp acute angle of the N shape at that point. A similar problem affects the middle right of the letter R — it’s too rounded, and not sharp enough. I was also forced to artificially pinch the tops of the vertical strokes of the R and F to smooth out the embossed ridge in the top horizontal strokes. See below for what it looks like without these tweaks. Notice that in the places where the vertical and horizontal strokes of the letter meet, the embossing ridge has a little kink. I’d like to find a way to smooth out the kinks in the embossing ridge while preserving the natural shapes of the letters. Suggestions are welcome!

@VectorVonDoom: The shield quadrants contain the national coats of arms of the four Nordic countries: Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Finland. For some reason, the designer of the original 1893 design opted to use the lesser coats of arms of Norway, Denmark, and Finland, but the greater coat of arms of Sweden. This always struck me as strange and inconsistent. When I redrew the design, I opted to be consistent and to use the lesser coat of arms of each nation. The other two significant changes are that I switched to modern flags, and I straightened the shield because I like the more symmetrical look. I would like to add fringes to the flags that are more faithful to the original. I’m not sure how best to do this without a lot of work. Maybe a custom brush? I have also considered altering the border of the shield to make it look more natural. Adding rivets is another idea I’ve played with, but I haven’t come up with a shield border that I find truly satisfying yet — at least not better than the simple bevel here.

For anyone who’s interested, I updated this coat of arms to make it more like the 1893 original.

I often need to make shapes that are bilaterally symmetrical. I have been doing this by creating a symbol that represents one half of the shape, and then combining two copies of the symbol — one reflected about the axis of symmetry. I sometimes often needed to create an outline stroke around the combined shape. So far I have done this the hard way — by creating copies of the original half-shape, adding them, and then applying the stroke only to the combined shape. Today I learned about compound shapes and thought that these might offer a more elegant solution. Is it possible to create a compound shape out of two symbols — each containing a shape? I have tried this but have not had success yet. It seems that the compound shape works correctly only if the shapes are immediately under the compound shape in the layer hierarchy. If a symbol is used, the symbol appears as an additional level betweeen the compound shape and the child shape. This appears to prevent the compound shape from working as desired. E.g., the fill of the compound and the child shapes does not work. Alternatively, is there a better way to create symmetrical custom shapes with a stroke outline?

@DM1: Thanks for your explanation here and in the other thread of how saving works. What seems like a new behavior in 1.9 is that the sandbox version was not auto-saved at all during more than an hour of editing. (Or perhaps it was saved, but was corrupted by the crashes.) I am accustomed to AD’s being very resilient in the face of application crashes. This is a discouraging change, and I hope it is fixed soon.

In another post, I noted that the bug related to copying and pasting symbols between documents has not been fixed. When I triggered that bug, I discovered another problem that I believe is new in version 1.9: Auto-save is broken in Affinity Designer 1.9 for iPad. When I reopened my document, I found that AD had completely failed to save the changes I had made to the document. I lost at least an hour’s worth of tedious work due to this bug. The auto-save interval is set to the lowest value allowed: 30, and the file resides on iCloud. I decided to go ahead and and redo the work that had been lost. Within minutes of my having resumed work on the document, the app had hung & crashed again due to another different bug. (I was using Apple Pencil, so maybe that had something do do with it.) When I restarted AD, I found that once again, none of my changes had been saved. Be very careful with AD 1.9 on iPad. Save manually often.

I lost about an hour’s work because the when the crash happened, the document I had been working on had not been saved. In fact, it seems none of the changed I made to the document yesterday were saved. (The file shows a last-modified date in October, and that indeed corresponds to the last time I remember working on this file.) I do not know why the auto-save feature did not work.

FYI, this bug remains in AD 1.9.3.

It would be great if there were a way to adjust the minimum radius for acute angles like those in the ‘h’ and ‘r’ of ‘Chris’ above. The effect would be more natural if the angles 3D effect could be fine-tuned to more closely match the angles of the underlying shape.

Yes. I’m familiar with that bug. I assumed it had been fixed.

I’m trying to copy a group of vector layers from one document to another in Affinity Designer for iPad 1.7. The app crashes every time I try to paste into the new document.