Cartoonjosh

Hi, I think a lasso selection tool for Designer would be a big helper for many users, in many situations. In particular, if one uses Designer to illustrate and/or draw with a pen tablet, the number of small often very close objects (especially strokes) can be large. A good example could be shading an illustration with cross-hatching, where one ends up with dozens if not hundreds of strokes (and levels). Selecting portions of the illustration in such situations can become near to impossible. The Move tool is simply not precise and flexible enough. It can be used in an "intersection" mode or in a full selection mode, but in both cases it always end up capturing unwanted bits and pieces. De-selecting the unwanted objects is not easy at all, not last owing to the fact that on small objects Designer's Move tool seems to always be a little offset in relation to the object . Using the Layer panel to select details is not always an option either, because very often layers are not contiguous. 
A Lasso would allow the user to circle round objects much more accurately, thus saving time and... neurons! 🙂 
I really feel this is missing big time, I'd love to see it in a future release!  Thank you for your attention!

Hi, I think a lasso selection tool for Designer would be a big helper for many users, in many situations. In particular, if one uses Designer to illustrate and/or draw with a pen tablet, the number of small often very close objects (especially strokes) can be large. A good example could be shading an illustration with cross-hatching, where one ends up with dozens if not hundreds of strokes (and levels). Selecting portions of the illustration in such situations can become near to impossible. The Move tool is simply not precise and flexible enough. It can be used in an "intersection" mode or in a full selection mode, but in both cases it always end up capturing unwanted bits and pieces. De-selecting the unwanted objects is not easy at all, not last owing to the fact that on small objects Designer's Move tool seems to always be a little offset in relation to the object . Using the Layer panel to select details is not always an option either, because very often layers are not contiguous. 
A Lasso would allow the user to circle round objects much more accurately, thus saving time and... neurons! 🙂 
I really feel this is missing big time, I'd love to see it in a future release!  Thank you for your attention!

For what it's worth, I do not see this behavior on Windows.

@Aammppaa woah, perfect! Thanks!  
 

You need to enable Transform Mode on the toolbar of the Node Tool.
https://affinity.help/designer2/English.lproj/pages/CurvesShapes/transform_linesAndShapes.html

I think you can do what you want via the Links functionality of the Photo Persona (or just Photo itself).
It takes a while to get used to, and the documentation isn’t great, and there is a small UI ‘glitch’ (where the adjustment layer sometimes ‘jumps’ and it has to be put back where it was), but it should work.
See my quickly-made video for some clues about how to get the basics done.
2023-07-03 10-08-06.mp4

Presets just give you an initial setting for an Adjustment Layer. Changes you make are not synchronized with any other uses of the Preset.

It's only in the Photo Persona, @Cartoonjosh.

Hide would do what you want. But leaving it is also appropriate as it may help others  

Hi, I think a lasso selection tool for Designer would be a big helper for many users, in many situations. In particular, if one uses Designer to illustrate and/or draw with a pen tablet, the number of small often very close objects (especially strokes) can be large. A good example could be shading an illustration with cross-hatching, where one ends up with dozens if not hundreds of strokes (and levels). Selecting portions of the illustration in such situations can become near to impossible. The Move tool is simply not precise and flexible enough. It can be used in an "intersection" mode or in a full selection mode, but in both cases it always end up capturing unwanted bits and pieces. De-selecting the unwanted objects is not easy at all, not last owing to the fact that on small objects Designer's Move tool seems to always be a little offset in relation to the object . Using the Layer panel to select details is not always an option either, because very often layers are not contiguous. 
A Lasso would allow the user to circle round objects much more accurately, thus saving time and... neurons! 🙂 
I really feel this is missing big time, I'd love to see it in a future release!  Thank you for your attention!

Hi, I think a lasso selection tool for Designer would be a big helper for many users, in many situations. In particular, if one uses Designer to illustrate and/or draw with a pen tablet, the number of small often very close objects (especially strokes) can be large. A good example could be shading an illustration with cross-hatching, where one ends up with dozens if not hundreds of strokes (and levels). Selecting portions of the illustration in such situations can become near to impossible. The Move tool is simply not precise and flexible enough. It can be used in an "intersection" mode or in a full selection mode, but in both cases it always end up capturing unwanted bits and pieces. De-selecting the unwanted objects is not easy at all, not last owing to the fact that on small objects Designer's Move tool seems to always be a little offset in relation to the object . Using the Layer panel to select details is not always an option either, because very often layers are not contiguous. 
A Lasso would allow the user to circle round objects much more accurately, thus saving time and... neurons! 🙂 
I really feel this is missing big time, I'd love to see it in a future release!  Thank you for your attention!

Thanks for the tip! I actually had not noticed the second hit on V, I was going V-B-V-B etc 😁 Indeed this comes very close to what I have in mind (and what I rate as being a bit of a standard in many graphic and animation apps, like Spacebar for the Hand). Though it would be more my comfort zone if I could just press and un-press, I guess I can live with this

I appreciate it's not a toggle but from any active tool, selecting V on the keyboard will alternate between your currently selected tool and the Move tool, so, hit V to select the Move tool, hit V again to revert back to your original tool... not quite what you're looking for but maybe a halfway house...
It would certainly be nice to have a preference setting where you could choose between the Node or Move tool as the toggle for the Cmd key...

There is no way currently to over ride this behaviour. 
However hitting v will toggle to the Move tool, and a second press will return to the previous tool. 

Yes, the Knife tool has the Scissors option, which is nice and comes close to solving it... but not quite. Instead of hiding a section between two nodes of contour of a filled shape -  in such a way to get a simple gap in the contour -  Scissors actually cuts a new shape from the original shape. The severed segment of contour, or stroke, is actually a new independent shape, albeit it being open. In fact, if you move the nodes of the segment you'll get a colour fill where the geometry crosses. 
I'd find hiding segments of the contour line of a shape useful for situations in which I don't want contour where two shapes overlap. For example, the arm of a character must not have a contour where it overlaps with his torso. I tried to draw different positions of an arm over a torso and then tried to use the Scissor option of the Kinfe tool to eliminate the contour near the shoulder, and got mixed results. In some cases I could drag the portion of contour away and nicely got the gap I wanted, in other cases I got slices taken out of the entire shape because - I assume - Designer needs to recreate a coherent Geometry. 
Someone elsewhere in this forum brought the example of Moho, a 2D animation app, which has precisely this "hide (parts of) contour" function.  Adobe Animate, too, can very easily erase contour segments of a shape. I realise comparing apps, which are totally different coding worlds, is not a useful exercise,  but I just mean to get the idea across...  
The funny thing is that if I draw the shape as it should be from the beginning (which, of course, I usually do  ), by leaving an open gap, say, in the above example I'd draw the arm without closing the shape near the shoulder) and then use the Vector Fill tool to colour it, Designer will actually respect the drawing perfectly.  So the issue arises only when editing.

Completely agree that a proper stroke width tool would be very useful and more practical than current pressure curve.
Regarding the other point, have you tried the new scissor/knife tool ? I find it very well implemented 

As an illustrator, the toughest fights I've been having since I ditched Adobe for Affinity regard Stroke width control with Designer. I'm referring to the edit of strokes, not to the freehand drawing mode, which works very well. So, it's about what I can do after I've drawn a stroke, regardless of it being done with a Wacom or node-by-node with the Pen. Good line variation editing is essential in many illustration styles, and having a quick and "instinctive" approach to it equally is. Designer's "Pressure" Graph (in the Stroke panel) is exactly NOT that. It's a nice idea, on paper, but in practice it falls short of being either fast or a pleasure to use. The number of nodes in the stroke or shape don't match with the nodes in the graph; it's very hard to apply the necessary detailed expressivity to strokes. It's basically hit-and-miss, and I always end up with a frustrated "good enough" feeling. Strokes really need to be fine-tuned node by node on the actual drawn object, not by glancing at a chart on the side. I hope there is a release somewhere in the future with a true Width tool. Knowing the tremendously good work Affinity has been doing in every other respect, I'm pretty sure it would even be a BETTER tool than Ai's! 
The other, albeit lesser, problem with strokes, is not being able to hide or erase stroke segments between two (or more) nodes. Masking portions of the stroke with the Erase Brush by going back and forth between Pixel and Vector Personas works, but, again, as useful it is for other tasks, it's not ideal for hiding segments of a line.
Thanks for listening!  

As an illustrator, the toughest fights I've been having since I ditched Adobe for Affinity regard Stroke width control with Designer. I'm referring to the edit of strokes, not to the freehand drawing mode, which works very well. So, it's about what I can do after I've drawn a stroke, regardless of it being done with a Wacom or node-by-node with the Pen. Good line variation editing is essential in many illustration styles, and having a quick and "instinctive" approach to it equally is. Designer's "Pressure" Graph (in the Stroke panel) is exactly NOT that. It's a nice idea, on paper, but in practice it falls short of being either fast or a pleasure to use. The number of nodes in the stroke or shape don't match with the nodes in the graph; it's very hard to apply the necessary detailed expressivity to strokes. It's basically hit-and-miss, and I always end up with a frustrated "good enough" feeling. Strokes really need to be fine-tuned node by node on the actual drawn object, not by glancing at a chart on the side. I hope there is a release somewhere in the future with a true Width tool. Knowing the tremendously good work Affinity has been doing in every other respect, I'm pretty sure it would even be a BETTER tool than Ai's! 
The other, albeit lesser, problem with strokes, is not being able to hide or erase stroke segments between two (or more) nodes. Masking portions of the stroke with the Erase Brush by going back and forth between Pixel and Vector Personas works, but, again, as useful it is for other tasks, it's not ideal for hiding segments of a line.
Thanks for listening!  

As an illustrator, the toughest fights I've been having since I ditched Adobe for Affinity regard Stroke width control with Designer. I'm referring to the edit of strokes, not to the freehand drawing mode, which works very well. So, it's about what I can do after I've drawn a stroke, regardless of it being done with a Wacom or node-by-node with the Pen. Good line variation editing is essential in many illustration styles, and having a quick and "instinctive" approach to it equally is. Designer's "Pressure" Graph (in the Stroke panel) is exactly NOT that. It's a nice idea, on paper, but in practice it falls short of being either fast or a pleasure to use. The number of nodes in the stroke or shape don't match with the nodes in the graph; it's very hard to apply the necessary detailed expressivity to strokes. It's basically hit-and-miss, and I always end up with a frustrated "good enough" feeling. Strokes really need to be fine-tuned node by node on the actual drawn object, not by glancing at a chart on the side. I hope there is a release somewhere in the future with a true Width tool. Knowing the tremendously good work Affinity has been doing in every other respect, I'm pretty sure it would even be a BETTER tool than Ai's! 
The other, albeit lesser, problem with strokes, is not being able to hide or erase stroke segments between two (or more) nodes. Masking portions of the stroke with the Erase Brush by going back and forth between Pixel and Vector Personas works, but, again, as useful it is for other tasks, it's not ideal for hiding segments of a line.
Thanks for listening!  

As an illustrator, the toughest fights I've been having since I ditched Adobe for Affinity regard Stroke width control with Designer. I'm referring to the edit of strokes, not to the freehand drawing mode, which works very well. So, it's about what I can do after I've drawn a stroke, regardless of it being done with a Wacom or node-by-node with the Pen. Good line variation editing is essential in many illustration styles, and having a quick and "instinctive" approach to it equally is. Designer's "Pressure" Graph (in the Stroke panel) is exactly NOT that. It's a nice idea, on paper, but in practice it falls short of being either fast or a pleasure to use. The number of nodes in the stroke or shape don't match with the nodes in the graph; it's very hard to apply the necessary detailed expressivity to strokes. It's basically hit-and-miss, and I always end up with a frustrated "good enough" feeling. Strokes really need to be fine-tuned node by node on the actual drawn object, not by glancing at a chart on the side. I hope there is a release somewhere in the future with a true Width tool. Knowing the tremendously good work Affinity has been doing in every other respect, I'm pretty sure it would even be a BETTER tool than Ai's! 
The other, albeit lesser, problem with strokes, is not being able to hide or erase stroke segments between two (or more) nodes. Masking portions of the stroke with the Erase Brush by going back and forth between Pixel and Vector Personas works, but, again, as useful it is for other tasks, it's not ideal for hiding segments of a line.
Thanks for listening!  

All three apps can share Application palettes in V2, but yes, in V1 you'd need to do that. I'm not sure about System palettes, though. It's possible they can be shared in V2, too, but it's not something I can test.

macOS system palettes are shared across all apps that can use or support the Mac OS Color Picker. So all the Mac Affinity apps plus many others can use them.

Not all brush settings need to be modified while using the tool, but diameter and hardness are no doubt very frequently used. That's why you have a shortcut for those two but you don't have one for dithering or blending or spacing or flow or all the tens of other settings. To my mind, size and feathering of a brush - or brush preset - should be the one where you last left it. Which is very likely the size you'll use when you pick your work up again. Other solutions, like different color highlights, would seem to me to complicate the UI situation even more.
BTW, another really annoying related thing (unless I haven't found the right setting) is that you can see a brush's name only by hovering over it. No quick glimpsing at the brush list to pick the right one.

Ah, didn't know that!   Yes, all settings could just stay the way they were last edited. After all, we always have the "reset to default" option on all brushes. 

Fully agreed. The selected brush should always be highlighted regardless of if you change various settings. The only times I could see this being a problem is when using the Brush Editor, but that could be solved by just having a "Apply to Brush Preset" button that updates your selected brush after being done with the edit. Regular settings like changing brush size/hardness, etc. with normal shortcuts should just work with the highlight on and reset back to standard settings once selecting the brush preset again. Just like any other art program I've used.