[Lasso select vertices/points, regardless of object belonging]

Thanks, a few comments on that:

• The discoverability of that option is rather low (you need to read the status bar hints).
• Affinity Photo has a proper lasso tool... why can't Designer have the same?
• The fact that you first must select all objects in order to get this working is an extra step.

Also, I unfortunately couldn't get it to work, because although it looks as if it selects things, when I hit delete, everything disappears:

 

[Lasso select vertices/points, regardless of object belonging]

This is a showstopper for us.

At work, we need to be able to lasso select a number of vertices/points, regardless of which object they belong to, and delete them.

This is due to us working with illustrations exported from Solidworks Composer, which produces thousands of often overlapping lines/objects, which need to be manually cleaned up.

[[ADe] Select same color / fill / stroke / appearance]

Great to hear that this is finally coming. This is just one of the (unfortunately) many showstoppers that prevents us from even considering Affinity where I work.

[Affinity Designer doesn't remember last style + crashes]

Several incredibly annoying things which makes me not want to use Affinity Designer on the iPad for work:

• Designer doesn't remember the fill/color style of the last selected/drawn object for the next object that I draw.
• Drawing with the sculpt pen doesn't show anything until you let go. Only then do you see what you did draw and can continue drawing/make adjustments.
• Designer crashed about two minutes after doing this video. This is the second crash in a few hours today with this file (a 4mb file on a 2020 iPad Pro 13 inch).

[All sculpt strokes have to drawn three times to smooth]

Basically, every time I see a kink (and they happen so very often, even with smoothing on), I need to draw at least three to five strokes over the same area in order to smooth it out:

This is very time consuming.

[Lagging, low FPS, and rendering bugs]

1 hour ago, Sean P said:

That's not a problem - I've created an upload link to our internal Dropbox account if you don't mind using that?
https://www.dropbox.com/request/1cl6Agz0DYm0BIBUS3EO

Thanks!

Done!

I also added my current work file, because I wanted to create multiple pattern examples in the same document, but when I duplicated everything three times and began moving the copies around with the shift + arrow buttons, it again took about a second to move everything (I wonder if it has to do with snap?)...

Again, tested on different computers (work and home). Hope this will enable you to find some further optimizations in the future!

[Locking layer contents]

I hope I'm misunderstanding the intention of Affinity developers, so I wonder if someone ( @MEB ) could take time to explain:

Each locked layer contain at least 100 objects. I had to lock these at creation by selecting each and every one of them.

I now wish to unlock all of them in order to move them around a bit, and then return to this locked state.

In Adobe Illustrator, this is literally 3 clicks. What is the procedure that Affinity expects me to do in this situation?

[Locking layer contents]

Ok, now I just don't have any words anymore...

(Btw, I couldn't get this working in windowed mode. It only behaves this way when the window is maximized in Windows 10.)

[Lagging, low FPS, and rendering bugs]

7 minutes ago, Sean P said:

Hi eobet,
I've just tried this on my machine with 300 curve objects and certainly not seeing the performance you're getting. Would you be able to attach a copy of the afdesign file shown in your GIF please?

Since it's for work, I can't post it publicly, but it doesn't contain any super sensitive information so if you let me know how to send you the file in private, I can do that.

[Lagging, low FPS, and rendering bugs]

On 6/16/2020 at 9:31 AM, Sean P said:

Whereabouts in the video is the slowdown and lagging your getting?

I just opened a PDF with a few hundred objects and tried to move them into a layer. I hope this isn't considered normal:

As you can see, it takes a second for the layer to even highlight where I can drop the objects, and then several seconds to actually move them into the layer.

Oh, and this was just a simple line drawing exported from CAD.

(Windows 10, i7-6700k, 32gb ram, 1080ti... which is actually a faster computer than the one where I reported slow performance a few posts above)

[Object Count Affinity Designer]

How do you count the objects in a layer?

When I choose properties on a layer, I only see a small popup with name and color...

[Lagging, low FPS, and rendering bugs]

I also got surprisingly poor performance when I began working on my first "bigger" Affinity Designer document.

After a few hundred objects, things suddenly got worse than even Illustrator!

Unfortunately, I can't show anything right now since I actually did it at my place of work. Once the project is finished (in a few months), I might be able to share, but I really hope the problems are fixed by then...

[Affinity has an annoying "active layer" concept that isn't clear at all!]

I've discovered that a layer can be "active", but from at least the "dark mode" UI that's not clear at all.

Even more annoying is that if a different layer is active than where you are selecting objects in, if you move those objects on the artboard, they automatically jump to the active layer, which might be hidden, so your objects suddenly disappear!

Is there a way to disable this very weird behavior?

[Locking layer contents]

I also went searching for this bug and I'm very surprised at the replies from the staff in this thread.

To me as a user, this is utter insanity. If the developers disagree, at least add a toggle in the properties!

 

(Here it seems that the issue actually got logged, though.)

EDIT: I see a use case now with multiple art boards in the same document, but that's still crazy pants to me. How often do you edit an artboard vs all the objects inside of it? The ratio is like 1 to 1000 if not more... and you shouldn't be able to edit an artboard lightly, that should only be done through its dedicated tool!

 

[How to quickly select everything in a layer?]

Things I've tried so far:

• Double clicking in various places on the layer in the layers panel.
• Right clicking and looking in the context-pop-up  menu.
• Look in the layer or select menu.

I hope I'm missing something obvious. I have several hundred objects, and multiple layers. I don't with to scroll around in the layers panel all the time.

[Change corner on multiple rounded rectangles]

Thank you for the reply!

That you need to switch to the rounded rectangle tool after a selection in order to adjust the corners wasn't obvious to me, but it worked well.

[Why does the iPad UI have to be so different?]

On 6/7/2020 at 1:38 AM, DM1 said:

You don’t. Just tap hamburger menu next to pin and select 'Show Locked'. Each layer now displays a lock symbol. Tap to lock, tap again to unlock.

Thanks for this and the previous answer, but Jesus christ, why isn't that enabled by default?

On 6/7/2020 at 1:38 AM, DM1 said:

You don’t need to hold down a finger. Just draw a marquee around objects to select them or tap 'add' and tap objects to add them to selections. Makes sure the Magnet symbol bottom left is turned on. You can also have any object 'intersected' by marquee selected by turning on that feat in Settings.

I can't get this to work no matter what order of things I try. It's super unintuitive.

On 6/7/2020 at 1:38 AM, DM1 said:

See attached screen shot.

That looks like Affinity Photo and not Designer. I do not see something similar for Designer.

On 6/7/2020 at 1:38 AM, DM1 said:

I suspect many User  'issues' occur simply because the app has so many features and settings that are hidden away in menus somewhere.

And the reason why I created this topic is because that not only are so many settings hidden by default on the iPad, they're hidden in a different location compared to the desktop version!

On 6/7/2020 at 1:38 AM, DM1 said:

Most answers are actually available in the built in help but few people seem to know how to access and search it. 

It's 2020. I think the knowledge on how to design apps that do not require you to read a help file to find basic features is exists these days...

[Change corner on multiple rounded rectangles]

1. Select two rounded rectangles
2. Attempt to change their corners

Result: The tool bar where you can change the corners disappears the moment you select more than one rounded rectangle.

Expected: If several of the exact same object type is selected, the tool bar should remain exactly as when a single object is selected. If properties differ between selected objects, the toolbar should reflect this.

1. Copy a rounded rectangle.
2. Choose paste FX or Style onto another rounded rectangle.

Result: The corner radius will not change regardless of which option you choose.

Expected: There should be at least one method of applying corner radiuses to multiple objects (preferably in real-time, since that's Affinity's strength over Adobe).

[Can’t paste style copied from group.]

Tested on Affinity Designer on iPad Pro 2020:

1. Copy a group

2. Select another group

3. Paste style

Result: Nothing happens.

Expected: The style should be pasted onto the group selected last.

 

EDIT: Seems color info transferred but wasn’t visible until I used the gradient tool. The copied group had a gradient on it. Why did it not transfer?

 

[Why does the iPad UI have to be so different?]

Why isn’t there a separate selection tool on the iPad? I can’t find, for example, a lasso selection in the move tool. I also can’t hold down a finger to drag or click to add to the current selection. The “add to selection” button in the move tool’s pop up toolbar didn’t do anything for me at first. Perhaps it doesn’t support additional box selections? It felt very unreliable. Also there is no “remove from selection” button.

Why does the layer panel close the moment I create a new layer? I wanted to move some objects into it. Why is it so difficult to scroll through hundreds of objects in a layer? Why do I need to open a second menu to lock and unlock layers?

I don’t think I’ve ever been as frustrated with an iPad UI as I have with Affinity. Desktop, warmly recommended. iPad unfortunately is a hard pass right now.

[Pen pressure does not work]

Same here, had to disable windows ink i the preferences to get it to work.

Why, why, why is that stupid thing enabled by default?

[Pressure Sensitivity in Affinity Photo (Win) not working properly]

On 5/7/2020 at 1:23 PM, walt.farrell said:

Welcome to the Serif Affinity forums.

Have you tried disabling the use of Windows Ink in your Affinity Photo Preferences, in the Tools tab?

Holy shit I had to go to the forum to look for this!

Why would affinity default to something that's almost universally hated by artists in Windows???

[How do you shift select on the iPad?]

Super weird... today, it works with holding down one finger... yesterday, it did not.

Still, the fact that you need to wait for some blue circle to finish animating is still very annoying.

[How to disable purple highlight?]

Thanks, seems to work!

[How to disable purple highlight?]

I don't understand it and it's constantly in the way on the iPad.

How do you disable it?