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Thanks. FWIW, It doesn't work the way the help document says it should, and it's missing a lot of crucial features.
Drag and drop into the Assets palette doesn't work (on Mac Catalina); you can only Add From Selection, and only then, after you've already created a Category.  There ought to be a default basic Category in place so that it's ready for you to add things right away. There's no contextual Add to Assets option when right-clicking an object, which is really essential if you're going to be doing this dozens of times a day. (It should add to the currently active asset set selected in the top dropdown).  The panel only shows you a thumbnail - there's no List view nor a way to title the Assets, search or sort them, which is important when you may have hundreds of them - not even a way to set the thumbnail size (if you work on HiDPI monitors they'll be really small!) - when you might have dozens of smaller variations on an object.  You can export and import assets to/from a file, but there's no cloud sync. This is important for backup as well as being able to share asset sets from a central library (and push updates to a team, for instance, so they have the latest set). I suppose there's some way to do this manually via Google Drive + aliases but it ought to be easier. 
 

Hello all, we're proud to announce that alongside the V2 launch of the Affinity apps, we've produced a completely new set of video tutorials to compliment the apps. These tutorials are all produced in-house by our Product Experts team.
We've worked incredibly hard on these videos, and feel they represent a huge jump in both technical and presentational quality. Hopefully you all agree! The old V1 videos—now considered legacy—are still available on YouTube, consolidated into one playlist. The link for this playlist is available at the bottom of this post.
Hope you all find the new tutorials useful!
What's New (Overview of V2)
What's New in Affinity Designer 2 What's New in V2 for iPad Basics
Interface Overview (New: 22/03/24) Transforming Layers Adjustment Layers Layer Effects Placing and Scaling Images Colour Panel Undo, Redo and Undo History Copy, Paste and Duplicate Blend Modes Assets Navigator Panel View Modes Styles Panel Clipping and Masking Aligning, Distributing and Unifying Objects (New: 28/02/24) Advanced
Expand Stroke Artboards DWG/DXF Import & Export (Updated: 28/02/24) Placed Layer Visibility Stock Panel Ruler and Column Guides Style Picker Symbols Pixel Grid Layer States (New: 28/02/24) Vector Tools
Stroke Panel Vector Warp Vector Flood Fill Pen Tool and Node Tool Shape Builder Knife and Scissor Tools Pencil Tool Corner Tool Shape Tools Artistic & Frame Text Tools Booleans and Compounds Data Entry Spiral Tool Raster Tools
Flood Fill Tool Smudge Brush Tool Paint Brush and Erase Brush Tools Symmetry and Mirroring Live Perspective & Mesh Warp Text Tools
Text on a Path Workflows & Techniques
Vector Flood Fill with Bitmap Patterns Vector Mandalas  
iPad Tutorials
Exporting Layers Panel Navigator Panel Assets Shape Builder Vector Flood Fill Tool Smudge Brush Tool Symmetry and Mirroring Pen & Node Tools Paint Brush & Erase Brush Tools Knife & Scissor Tools Pencil Tool Command Controller Rulers and Column Guides Style Picker  
Legacy V1 Tutorials
Desktop iPad

Another +1 for Astute Graphics (or similar) pen tools for Affinity Designer. They are a huge timesaver – and fun to use!

Would be nice if Affinity team could incorporate them into Designer. At least the vector pen tools.
 

^ What they said.
Affinity Designer lacks absolutely fundamental features for all users (e.g. 'select' ignores locked layers, the ability to designate non-printing layers when created). It lacks absolutely fundamental features for print design (e.g. vector fills).
As documented on these forums it has lacked these things -- and far more -- for years.
You can find work-rounds, you can buy add-ons, but honestly, as long as you pay Affinity for what you're getting, that is exactly what you will get. There's no incentive for them to add these fundamental features. 
I'm awaiting a quote for repair of the mac that will run CS6. If it's not economic I will bite the bullet and pay Adobe for software that does what I need. 

I will hold off buying v2 until they give us Vector Patterns.

I so much want to like this product - it is very good in many ways - and would love to be able to buy (and use) it, but the absence of what to me is a REALLY fundamental feature stops me from doing so. I would never use it, even if I did buy it, for this one reason.
I am literally bemused that anyone can introduce a major update of a drawing application which still lacks vector/pattern fill of objects. It is surely a very basic and essential thing to be able to create hatched objects and the like.
There is not even any indication ("coming soon") that this feature will arrive in the future.

This is exactly the problem. They don't share ANYTHING with their community. "Neglect" is the exact word I'd use for their attitude towards their own community - they seldom even acknowledge our existence. At first when I bought Designer I was so hyped, because it was *ALMOST* exactly what I was looking for, with some more work and features it would have been perfect. It's so frustrating to see them get so close, but fall short of expectations, and just sit on their thumbs and keeping silent all the time.
A roadmap would be awesome to have, or even little teasers about what they're working on would do. Instead all we get is radio silence. Certainly makes me lose interest.

Agreed - It's the silence (neglect?) that is frustrating.  A reply such as "we hear you.  We are currently focusing on other key improvements and priorities and will give you an update later.  This feature IS on our planning list."
That said - I love the product and do recommend it for most users.  I've also said in surveys before - I'd be willing to pay more for the base product - It's more than worth it.
The silence spurns roumours and loss of interest, unfortunately.

Are you using the Pen tool to create vectors and apply a brush? OR are you using the Vector Brush Tool to apply strokes?
You will see a difference in the use of the tools.

If you use the Vector Brush Tool. The Context Menu (top menu) displays options that control how the brush responds with it's settings in the panel. 
Size variance | Opacity will be active if you switch Controller: Automatic or Controller: Brush Defaults. 
Controller: None will not affect the brush stroke..i.e what you see from brush stroke as applied to the vector created with Pen Tool 

Options
This is a small number of options you can try
For a recap on using Booleans Video
For information using Booleans Text Explanation
'Cutter' = a vector used as a knife (as no Knife tool) any shape used to cut up an underlying shape It can be any vector

1. Divide and edit (time consuming but will be accurate)
As sequence In Drawing 
Several stages in process. but most accurate
2. Nodes and selection then delete
Select Vector object (Trees and tent Combined)
Switch to Node Tool [A]
Hold Down [ALT] with Node Selected. Draw around the nodes you wish to delete
Press Delete
Delete or reshape any redundant nodes with Node Tool [A]
3. Shape and Subtract (Probably the easiest!)
Draw a shape over the area you wish to remove (blue in drawing but temporarily set to transparent so you can see what is beneath!).
Select Both objects
Select Subtract from Boolean operations in the Context Menu Bar
4. Cut and Booleans (Gives you more options and control but slow)
As sequence In Drawing 
Several stages in process. but most accurate
5. Masks for Non-Destructive Editing
Use masking in the Layers Panel. There are several ways to do this. Maybe the simplest is to again draw a curve (vector object) above the area you wish to keep or maintain (As mask | Paste Inside)
Non Destructive Options
A
1. Draw shape above left section (You can set it to transparent [keys 1-0] or choose opacity on layers panel}
2. In Layers Panel Select Curve (Upper shape) or just select the shape on Artboard
3. Right Click on Curve (Mask) to activate menu and then select 'Mask to Below' Then adjust shape for effect (i.e fix any issues)
B
1. Draw shape above left section (You can set it to transparent [keys 1-0] or choose opacity on layers panel}
2. In Layers Panel; Drag original shape inside vector shape above in Layers Panel (Paste inside). You can also do this by selecting original shape (tent and trees!);
3. CUT then Select Mask Shape (blue in drawing)
4. Select Paste inside (CONTROL +ALT +V) or drag the tent and trees inside the shape using the Layers Panel
3. Again Edit shape for effect (Node Tool [A])
 

A Stand of Trees
Experiment with new Vector Tree Toolkit
All Vector 1500 x 600mm 300dpi
Created partly from New Tree Toolkit containing 6 vector tree assembled elements and textures as part of the Untamed Project
 
 
 

Features such as this STILL missing from this program (in 2022!) lead me to believe that the Affinity team have decided that their software is good enough. I'm very disappointed in this team and this software and like most of my colleagues I've had to go back to using Illustrator. It would be nice if we could move past the indie status of Affinity products but like the Serif suite, the Affinity suite is already old and unfinished, in an industry that is always moving forward. It is a shame because Affinity had a good start but it seems content to have its head stuck in the ground dwelling on the past. I guess I'll have to check back in another 3 years.

I find VectorStyler to be better than anything else I've tried - even more options than Macromedia Freehand - you just need to dig in to learn it 
Copy pastes Pattern fills straight into Affinity as vectors you can be sorted in a few seconds ---- I use VS as an mega-toolkit to get stuff done that can't yet be done in Affinity 
Screen Grab 2022-07-21 at 3.49.57 pm.mov

+1 It's so easy to do that in Illustrator since 20 years, I don't understant this is not possible in Affinity Designer... 

Many Thanks to you, these are wonderful !
Any Idea how to make alcohol ink effect brushes?

Like everyone else I just want to say thanks StuartRc for your amazing generosity.
Thank You!

Hi
I hope this is the right area to post this question. I would like to make an alcohol ink effect background but I cannot see any brush kits for sale that refer to Affinity, only Procreate and Photoshop (I assume they are not compatible). Is it possible to create the same effect with existing brushes? Have tried but failed with watercolour brushes.
Many thanks

@NotMyFault Thanks for adding value to this point.  I was using the terms "light and dark values" very loosely.  Your term is more accurate and further strengthens the explanation and use case for (4) Masks. 
Cheers!

@Washishu  First off, I am pleased this learning resource could benefit you and others.  My understanding of ADs layering system came after much confusion which is why I made the cheat sheet and I still sometimes lean on it for my own work because the UI drop positions are not intuitive or easy to "catch" with the mouse.  I would love to suggest to Serif more intuitive ways to do this, but I am not sure how much weight my voice would have.  So for now this is what we got, and it is pretty powerful when you know how to control it.
To answer your last question first, regarding why newly created shapes do not appear in a layer, I suppose they do indeed exist in some "phantom" layer. Maybe a better way to look at it is the objects exist at a document "root" layer.  So the dark grey space is some sort of giant canvas and all new objects start there at the root layer, essentially layer-less.  It's a bit confusing that you can start with no artboard, yet there is this white rectangle there delineating the chosen dimensions of the newly created document.  I suppose this is a more of an "output area guide" for delineating export and printing.  Creating an artboard will add your first layer, replacing the "output area guide".  Now every object you previously created within that guide area will now be in that artboard layer.  Obviously the Layers studio (panel) is your best friend here to watch how the objects behave by observing their hierarchical indentations.  Creating any new layers at this point is really for organization but it is interesting to note that you can create a layer not within the artboard hierarchy, yet the objects can be still have the artboard below/above them, if that makes sense.  So a created layer can transcend the artboard in some way and objects within that layer are independent of the artboard.  Grouping is just a handy form of a layer, with very specific contextual hierarchical results, depend upon what is selected at this point.  All types of layers (Artboards, Layers, Groups) can have Layer Effects and Adjustments applied to them for some awesome flexibility. And yes, even an object is it's own layer.
On to Cropping vs. Clipping (do you have your cheat sheet handy?).  When Cropping (2), the top shape (rectangle) is used to limit the exposure of the bottom shape Q.  Note that it is only using the path of the rectangle as a means to limit what you see of the bottom Q shape. No fill or stroke elements are applied.  When Clipping (3), the bottom Q shape uses it's outline to limit the exposure of the top rectangle, but note that both objects retain their fill and stroke.  Masks (4) behave like Crops, but their specific function is to use light and dark values, AND the outline of the top rectangle, to limit the exposure of the bottom Q shape, the extra dimension of darkness is being used to affect the visibility of the bottom Q shape.  If you notice on the cheat sheet in the layer result column of the (4) Masks row that the layer panel view shows black around the Masking shape as well as the gradient fill to black, obviously black is the value for 100% transparency.
As for your difficulties to get Clipping (3) to work, I am not sure what to suggest, but the UI delineation for the mouse pointer seems to be the bottom half of the layer to the right of the thumbnail.  Cropping/Masking is always dragging the top layer with the mouse pointer in the middle third of the thumbnail.  I just tried it will the latest Affinity Designer 1.10.5.1342 and it still worked for me. 
To answer your question: "Does it matter that I only have two layers?" No it does not.  Please note in your Layers panel, or in the "Layer Result" column of the "Layers Panel Cheat Sheet.pdf", that there is also specific indentation distances for each of the 3 states (Crop, Clip, Mask).  Personally I think that Crop and Mask should have the same indentation and the same mouse pointer drop zone but Clip and Mask should be different because the visual results are more similar, but I am sure Serif has a technical reason even if it is not intuitive.
I hope this helps anyone with similar issues.  Thanks again for your kind words!
Dave.
PS:  Here is he latest version of the "Layers Panel Cheat Sheet 3.2.pdf" (<-PDF link), found a few posts back (page 1), here:
https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/114361-layers-guide-understanding-masks-moves-crops-clips-and-adjustments/&tab=comments#comment-771765

+1- Would love to have the recolor artwork- tool similar to AI. Affinity's Select same- is very useful, but would be handy to being able to quickly create new color combinations based on the selected color palette.

Unfortunately, this workflow requires a lot of manual adjustments to get them right. In Illustrator, you would only have to create the portion of the pattern that you want to tile (i.e. repeat) and the software then applies this pattern across the shape. When, for instance, you create a pattern for a complex shape, tiling symbols and clipping them to the shape's boundary, wouldn't be something you want to be doing. Rather, you would want to create a pattern and apply it to a shape as 'fill'.
Imagine creating a hatch in a CAD program where you would have to tile symbols... Ideally Designer could be used to create hatches for CAD drawings, since it has so much more creative control that way.

New in Version 1.2:
Tracks Function – Create many types of rotational designs. Routes Selector – You have a choice of the order in which most designs are drawn. Colour Schemes – Seven new schemes. New Shapes – Spikeys, Flowers, Rectelipses (Squircles), Quaternates, and path versions of other shapes. Code Viewer – Improved viewing options. Fields – You can now determine if the shape positions are automatically recalculated. I recently published an update to Canny Vectors which is an application that allows Windows 10 users to create various vector designs that can be used in the Affinity applications – as native Affinity layers – or saved as SVG files to be used anywhere you use SVGs. I had the Affinity applications in mind when I was developing the software but you can probably use the output anywhere that can use an SVG.
It is not meant to be the greatest vector application ever, or anything like that; it’s just a small collection of simple tools which might come in useful every now and again and save you a little bit of time here and there. And it's completely free with no ads.
At the moment it has five functions:
Grids – regular orthogonal grids of shapes;
Fields – a collection of randomly placed shapes;
Panes – an area covered with randomly altered lines or shapes.
Centrics – Create ‘concentric’ shapes, and more.
Tracks - Create rotational designs.
Each function has various options with which you can vary what the software creates, so there’s lots to experiment with.
The application comes with a user guide – written using the Affinity applications – which I have attached to this post:
I’ve attached some example images and a video of each function showing just some of what you can do.
Please do not make bug reports or make feature requests for this software in these forums; I’m sure the Serif staff don’t want that extra hassle. Use the in-app functionality instead, or you can rate/review the software in the App Store.
If you want to make a feature request, please read the notes in Part 8 of the user guide before making the request (some requests/suggestions may be ignored). (You might be able to PM me via the forums as long as the discussion doesn't go on for too long.)
If you do use the software, and find some good uses for it, then it might be nice if you could show some examples here for other people to see.
You can find and install the software via this link: https://www.microsoft.com/store/apps/9P3H0SH7XK02
Or you can get it via the Microsoft Store here: ms-windows-store://pdp/?productid=9P3H0SH7XK02
Why not give it a try and see what you can create?
 
 

2022-02-27 12-25-52.mp4 2022-02-27 12-30-24.mp4 2022-02-27 12-41-04.mp4 2022-02-27 12-43-22.mp4 2022-02-27 12-47-38.mp4

So I typed in affin.co/core_skills_artboards.afdesign (as per page 71) and all I get is an Error 404 - page not found. Clearly I am doing something wrong. Would some kind soul please enlighten me? I'm old, so be gentle. Thanks

I miss this feature too. Select same fill is not quite the same.
Thanks.