G13RL

There are so many nuances to this.
As a thumb rule, yes. In reality, not always. I've seen big and small programs disappear, ditto companies, or change terms so that even as a commercial you have to change vendors and software. And I'm not referring to Adobe. The IT world is volatile and dynamic. Serif also retired an entire product line including file format, and replaced it with a new one, developed at an impressively slow pace with years of delays and feature shortages. It's not a better alternative at all. Better assurance that THE COMPANY is there, but an eternity of waiting and uncertainty about what to expect.
So you'll have to look around. In our professional and commercial evaluation, we did not include Vectorstyler. For several reasons. But if you are a hobbyist - and I think 98% of you are - I simply can't think of any reason other than money to advise against evaluating and buying Vectorstyler as a companion to Affinity, complementing in workflows blend or perspective, for example. As long as you are not dependent on the program and the program file format itself.
Vectorstyler is absolutely insanely good feature-wise, and the programmer is clearly in a completely different league than Serif's devs. He is so talented. And clearly a genius at vector math. On top of that, bugs are fixed within weeks or few months worst case. I'm aware of all the weaknesses and uncertainties of the current program and one-man company, so we don't need that discussion here, thank you, but the program is impressive feature-wise, so in the overall picture assess how important it is to you to get something MADE and DELIVERED. That's what it's all about as a creative. You have to take a calculated risk sometimes.
I'm personally going to keep an eye on Vectorstyler - it's a pleasure to follow something that evolves significantly from month to month. I know that as a company we won't be investing in Serif's programs for commercial use (probably never will), but I'll be keeping an eye on Serif as well, but here I can settle for dropping by annually - without any expectations. 
It was a strange experience that Affinity Designer in particular is a completely different program for a completely different audience than what the marketing and website are trying to bluff through. But I can understand that more artistic types are fond of the program. So am I for creative use. But I predict it will end up on the back burner once I finish my test creations.
We as a company - and ambitious professionals - need somethingthat has mature vector features from top to bottom, and where the algorithms are professional and solid. That's why we're staying with Adobe, but it's been exciting to look around. There is clearly money to be made from the many talented hobbyists. But it's also their limited needs that drag down many small programs. Even those with the potential for more and bigger.
But look at Vectorstyler - as the market stands now, it's clearly the cheapest of the feature-rich vector programs at a tolerable price. However, I think it's significantly much better in the macOS edition for M1.
/Eddie

A subscription plan will make me walk away on the day it comes out .... if it ever happens. And I would not be the only one I'm sure.
A permanent Internet connexion to be able to use the software would get me do the same thing.
So many users walked away from Adobe to go to Affinity... why would they do that ?
But I dont worry very much about that. 

Another way to do:

- Add a node on each curve at the intersection of the two curves.
- Select the two center nodes, "Break Curve".
- Delete the two excess curve segments.
- Select the two curves, "Join Curves".
Video_2022-07-06_133324.wmv

Click on the handle with the left mouse button, hold it down and then press the right mouse button. Keep both buttons pressed while adjusting the handle.
When finished, release the left mouse button first, then the right.

Hallo zusammen,
seit Monaten passiert nichts mehr, keine neuen Funktionen oder irgendwelche Ankündigungen wie es weiter geht mit Affinity. Selbst mit einigen Fehlern die schon länger beseitigt sein sollten geht es nicht vorwärts. Was ist los mit euch habt ihr nichts mehr drauf. Das selbe Verhalten habt ihr schon mal gemacht mit Draw Plus usw. In der letzten Version sind noch etliche Fehler, die werden wahrscheinlich auch nicht mehr beseitigt. Nichts tut sich. Um den letzten Rahm noch abzuschöpfen wir alles zum halben Preis verschleudert (Ist euch das Urlaubsgeld ausgegangen), anstatt den Usern mal eine neue Funktion zu spendieren. Wir werden richtig in der Luft hängen gelassen.    
Dieter

Sorry dass ich mich erst jetzt melde.
Ich frage mich warum Serif so ein Geheimnis aus allem macht, es ist doch nicht dabei etwas anzukündigen oder man zu schreiben an was man arbeitet. Es gibt bestimmt schon Funktionen die funktionieren, diese kann man seinen doch in einem Beitrag in Spotlight seinen Usern zeigen oder beschreiben. Warum lässt Serif uns nicht daran teilhaben. So wie es die letzten Monate lief ist für mich das schlechteste Geschäftsgebaren welches man an den Tag legen kann. Serif braucht sich nicht zu wundern wenn viele wieder zu anderen Grafikprogrammen abwandern.
Gruß Dieter
 

You may be able to get an acceptable result using the Mesh Warp Tool and tidying up with the Clone Tool. I had a quick go, but you would have to take more care and do more fine tuning to get it right. (You'd need to select the area you want and copy/paste it into position, on a new layer, first, of course!)

I don't see vectorstyler so much as a competitor, but another option to achieve the results from tools still lacking in affinity designer after all these years. Let's not forget it's been literally years of waiting for affinity to add basic professional tools. Customers are entitled to be bothered and considering alternative solutions after so many years and almost complete radio silence from serif. 
Honestly, anyone who realizes affinity is not currently capable of doing the majority of professional work had most likely already turned to a"competitor"  to fill the need. Like myself, they still love affinity and root for its success, but face the reality of needing to get work done. Why not make people aware of vector options besides adobe? I'm still going to keep supporting and buying affinity updates even as I have several vector editing programs. I don't think I'm the only one

Vectorstyler is a vector power-user program that offers more tools and features than the competition. I've tested it for the last couple years and made it my primary vector design program I use for daily professional work. As many have discussed in this thread and elsewhere, affinity has taken years to add features and we're still lacking enough to use their products without relying on other programs for the missing features as tools. That will hopefully change if the rumors are true that 2.0 will be released at the WWDC this week. After years of waiting and little to no word from the affinity team, I'm more than excited to see 2.0 come to fruition. 
I've used vectorstyler first as a way to fill in for the many tools lacking in affinity designer 1.0. I've transitioned to using vectorstyler for most work as occasionally using affinity, usually on the iPad. Affinity had set the expectation of cost very low to the point some feel the 95 dollars for vectorstyler is "expensive ", despite it offering many times the number of features and options affinity designer offers. Spending 95 dollars to have all the missing tools in affinity seems like a steal. How quickly we forget adobe charging more than fifty dollars per month with no option to use them afterward.
The vectorstyler forum is an active space where issues, ideas and bugs  get discussed and fixed quickly. Most bugs discovered are fixed within a week or two. Vectorstyler is also built on newer code than affinity or adobe and so it's understandable that there would be bugs. The developer welcomes critiques, new ideas, criticisms, etc. 
I love affinity and own every product on every platform. I've rooted for affinity and I continue to do so. Being primarily a vector design artist, I see affinity designer as a simpler semi pro program that can meet the needs of many. I can see vectorstyler being the primary option of higher use vector designers and keeping affinity around for occasional use. There are great aspects of affinity that vectorstyler cannot beat, such as the raster/vector combination, the integration between the three affinity apps and the iPad programs. 
I don't see vectorstyler in direct competition with affinity, I see it as another effective tool. With vectorstyler being a more advanced program, there are advantages to owning it alongside affinity. I don't foresee affinity ever offering as many features as vectorstyler, but I didn't think being a powerhouse vector program is their goal. There are times the simplicity of affinity, the raster crossover and iPad functionality can come into play even if you own vectorstyler. If you're a professional designer, I can see owning both and using them as needed. 
 
 
 

Affinity has been extra slow adding what many consider basic features. The roadmap came out many years ago and since then, only small fraction of things were added to their programs. Designer in particular seems to have gotten the  most neglect. Designer was released eight years ago and we're still waiting for standard  features. 
Blaming the pandemic and global financial jiitters and war for their glacial pace is ridiculous. Everyone else has to keep working and producing no matter the constant distractions of world events. Affinity shouldn't get a special pass on this.
 

Many of them will not pay for something again that was announced for their paid old version.

Another solution: type the text above the rectangle, group the two and set the text blend to "Erase".

Another solution: type the text above the rectangle, group the two and set the text blend to "Erase".

Another solution: type the text above the rectangle, group the two and set the text blend to "Erase".

Another solution: type the text above the rectangle, group the two and set the text blend to "Erase".

In this case you can create a vector brush.
Depending on the color scheme the gradient will be parallel or perpendicular to the line.

Just make sure Construction Snapping is turned on in the Node tool.
Adjust the bezier handles. The onscreen prompts will tell you when you're equal.
You don't have to be horizontal or vertical or centered. No need for midpoints, guides, grids or extra objects. Not that there's anything wrong with any of that 🙂.... sometimes midpoints come in handy. Just sayin'.
(most of the time the indicators show up together as in the pic below, but occasionally I've had to do one thing then the other. IOW get the angle first, release mouse, then click again to get the length hashes to show.) Edit: strike, that reverse it. Guess I got lucky on this example. Most of the time it's a one two punch. Still super easy. And yes to @R C-R's comment below.... hold shift when doing the length part. But, unlike his comment below, it's pretty darn responsive for me 🤔.

Thanks both for helping me back to a degree of sanity. Worse, I was working on my laptop and the presets I thought were gone, were on my studio PC🙄

You are right, I answered the wrong question, thank you for correcting it.

That would be for Templates for File > New, not for Presets for File > New.
For Presets, in the File > New dialog, in the Presets section, click on the + sign:

You're welcome!

Wow! That is actually working!! 🤩 Thank you! A very unexpected key combination but it sure works! Another cool thing I've found is that if you click-and-drag the node itself (not the handles) while pressing 2 mouse keys at the same time, then the node moves but the handles stay in place, that's awesome.
And while I was searching for this "mirroring" function, I've found one more cool thing: suppose you are dragging one handle but you want to reposition the node it belongs to. So, normally, you'd stop dragging the handle, clicked the node, repositioned the node and then modified the handle again. Well, you can reposition the node while you're dragging the handle: press SPACE while manipulating a handle, that will momentarily switch to manipulating the node.

Click on the handle with the left mouse button, hold it down and then press the right mouse button. Keep both buttons pressed while adjusting the handle.
When finished, release the left mouse button first, then the right.

You can also type the text, putting the blue outline on it.
Add a light blue "Outline" fx, set its thickness.
Select the set, "Group".
Add a second dark blue "Outline" fx, adjust its thickness.