SpongeBob

Hi guys
I found out and use the combo of V/transform tool width/height values to figure out the "length" of fully horizontal/vertical lines. But how do I measure paths that are not horizontal/vertical and also curved lines/paths? I need lines to match in certain scenarios..
Best,
_Rupa_

I'm making garment patterns and for example, I need to match the front and the back seam curves..So I would need to measure these lines (at the very least - two nodes)..
How come there is no way in AD to know the lengths of lines and curves?

I'm making garment patterns and for example, I need to match the front and the back seam curves..So I would need to measure these lines (at the very least - two nodes)..
How come there is no way in AD to know the lengths of lines and curves?

Hi Team,
I also use AD to draft clothing patterns and other work where measurement is of supreme importance and work has to be precise. Features that will help with this are missing in AD. I'm sure you are adding and will keep adding features;  I would realllllly appreciate it if you could bring these features to AD soon. I'm dependent on it to use them for my work and it's absolutely necessary.
Following are some scenarios and features that I think will help;
1) Using pen tool, when I click a point and move my mouse/cursor etc, I want to know the measurement of how far I'm going; so I'll know when to stop and click my next point.  Similar to how some of the dynamic guides work.
2) When I select a series of nodes on a path, I want to know the length of that curve or line.
Without these two, for me it's not efficient to work in AD and is too time consuming to get the results I want..Hope to see these in AD updates soon..Thank you very much!

Hi Team,
I also use AD to draft clothing patterns and other work where measurement is of supreme importance and work has to be precise. Features that will help with this are missing in AD. I'm sure you are adding and will keep adding features;  I would realllllly appreciate it if you could bring these features to AD soon. I'm dependent on it to use them for my work and it's absolutely necessary.
Following are some scenarios and features that I think will help;
1) Using pen tool, when I click a point and move my mouse/cursor etc, I want to know the measurement of how far I'm going; so I'll know when to stop and click my next point.  Similar to how some of the dynamic guides work.
2) When I select a series of nodes on a path, I want to know the length of that curve or line.
Without these two, for me it's not efficient to work in AD and is too time consuming to get the results I want..Hope to see these in AD updates soon..Thank you very much!

Yep, mine was just an additional hint 

You'll find it together with his companion the perspective tool

It looks like your screen might not be tall enough to show all the tools. Try View > Customize Tools, and near the bottom change the number of columns to 2.

Breaking 2 points no matter how many in-between will generate new objects:

Thank you Alfred..Since I wanted to keep the original too, I duplicated it and broke the curve and deleted the other parts! It would be nice if we could just select two nodes and copy the path between them..

Since the Affinity apps don’t have a Knife Tool yet, you have to do this by choosing the Node Tool, selecting the two nodes at the ends of the segment you want to isolate, and using ‘Break Curve’ to break it at those points.

SpongeBob, if you make sure the intersection of the crossed lines are in the exact center of the symbol, then it should work fine with the Snap to object bounding boxes and Include bounding box mid points selected.  You won't be able to just snap to the actual intersection.
The easiest way I know to make sure the intersection is in the exact middle is to:
Draw a straight line either vertical or horizontal.
Make a duplicate of this line and rotate the line 90 degrees using the Rotate Clockwise icon in the toolbar.
Select both lines and click on the Join Curves icon in the toolbar.
I hope this helps.

Hi, SpongeBob,
From what I know, standard snapping snaps to the bounding box corners, mid-points and centers. The center line of the "cross mark" is not at the center of the bounds, and it also has no node to define the point.
Also, it is not fitted to the grid, so objects may snap not to the nearest grid intersection.
For what I think you are trying to do, you must be in node tool mode, w. the toggles for "snap to geometry of selected curves, : and "snap all selected nodes when dragging" active, and all nodes selected for the object to be positioned.
 

It may be be safer to copy and make New Document from Clipboard then expand the stroke and divide, and then just Select All. Just 2¢ in an attempt to prevent frustration with Undo, Undo, Undo etc.

Something I've run across that helps the estimation. After defining the stroke, dash size and gap, expand the stroke, and divide. There will be a count of the new "dash" object. While not exact, as there may be fractional gap lengths, one can get fairly close. See attached, dash - 1 pt, gap = 4, so at least 13.935 cm

SpongeBob, I don't know how accurate a measurement you need.  But a trick I have used to get a fair measurement of the length of curves in AD is to use the dashed line.  I have found that the following setting will position the dashes at 1" intervals.  So then I just count the dashes and estimate any partials.  Not the greatest, but it gives me a measurement probably to the closest 1/4".  Hint: enter the stroke width as a number instead of using the slide bar, the dash interval is very dependent upon the stroke width.  With a little playing you can find many combinations of dashed sizes that will give an interval that is usable to whatever scale is needed.  Start counting from the red node and the first dash is number zero.  So in the example below the lines total just shy of 18".

I started tinkering and 1 millimetre = 2.83465 pt approx
So, this might be slightly off but if you draw a line 100mm long you will get 20 dashes with the setting below, I made the dashes 4.95mm long taking into consideration the minimum space allowed 0.05mm, it's pretty bang on too.


 

Yeah I will be posting it soon; it is a much needed feature I think. Several others also seem to need it..
YepFor almost straight but not straight curves, I do copy the paths and superimpose them and make the best of it...
Also, I just use an actual measuring tape, place it on the screen, measure the first curve and in that same zoom %, I mark and measure the other curve..
I tried this last night and I find that this actually makes things faster for me..
 

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Even if it doesn't merge the nodes, this option does make it easier to grab the curves instead of selecting them individually before moving them..