BrettD

Hi Walt, thanks for the response. See screen capture of the Assets panel in Designer. ........... Oh wait!! I added a new category and clicked on the menu item originally labeled 'iOS12' at the top of the panel and lo and behold, there they are! Your prompt about creating a new category made me think and indeed look more closely. It wasn't a 100% intuitive location for the new assets for me (have rarely used them and then the default list usually sufficient). Then again, it is Sunday morning here and I have made and shared my scrambled eggs. So thank you!

Timely thread! But the Sunday morning 'head fog' means my neurones are not firing properly despite my MBP and Big Sur working just fine... I list of new assets pop-up when I opened Designer this morning and I thought great, some really useful stuff there, and proceeded to download them. Now, like Keene, I have no idea where the downloads went - can't find them anywhere to import in Studio>Assets. They don't show in Assets panels except for one (the Fog one) in Photo. It's probably obvious, and therefore simple, but I can't get my head in the correct logical space to find them. (I did somehow manage to import the 'Fog' asset - but don' ask me how...). Anyone able to direct me?? 3doutlaw's suggestion of including an editable location for downloads such as these assets would certainly make early Sunday mornings, in particular, less of a challenge! Now for those scrambled eggs 😀

Thanks MikeW and JimmyJack, I drive a Mac because I forgot AD is now available for Windows. I haven't been an AI user (Corel Draw instead), so that limited my understanding. The pdf I downloaded from the USGS site works / opens fine (as an embedded document). Now I'm trying to figure out how to make the symbols into swatches (using AD Help). No luck so far. Styles doesn't either. Any hints that help me work this out will make today and outstanding day - in North Sulawesi, Indonesia. At least I'm able to use the symbols now. Cheers again!

Hi, I'm trying to import a set of swatches in Adobe Illustrator 8 format into Designer. When I use the Open command and after selecting the file, nothing appears to happen. When I drag-drop AD hangs (or at least appears to; have left it for five minutes and nothing happens). When I check I see the 'Affinity Designer is not responding' message. Any assistance or advice will be gratefully received. I have attached one of the swatch files I'm trying to import. Thanks FGDCgeostdTM11A2_A-37-03ai8.eps

Hey Alex, Hadn't thought about that at all. Will give it a go. Thanks for your response. Appreciated! Cheers :D

Hi, Sorry - a basic question. I want to select (switch between) layers and draw without having to reset line and fill properties each time. Is this possible? An example workflow is: 1. Set up a layer to draw lines with a set of properties 2. Set up another layer with, say, a filled object defined by a set of properties that may include a transparency value for the fill. 3. Draw lines, but from time to time find that I want to add filled objects before switching back to line drawing. Each time I switch layers I have to re-enter the properties for the first of the additional objects added to a particular layer. For example, have drawn lines, clicked on the layer containing filled objects with the intention of drawing an additional filled shape (based on the original properties set for that layer), only to find that it defaults to the line properties (different colour, line thickness and no fill) when I start drawing in that layer. This workflow is in the context of mapping (geology) and the annotation workflow is not necessarily linear i.e. I can't just draw lines until the layer is complete, then switch to filled polygons: it's very much an interactive process. While much of this mapping is done in a GIS system, I do need AD to produce high quality graphics for reporting, presentations and other purposes. I haven't had any luck searching in the forums or help files, but that's maybe because I'm not using the correct search terms. Thanks for any assistance.

Hi, Been using AD for some months now, after deciding to switch from CorelDraw (CD). I acknowledge AD is in its infancy and therefore has all the attendant issues, but the only comparison I can make is with CorelDraw. Since installing on my late 2011 Macbook Pro (8GB, running El Capitan) I've experienced lag when snapping - and mini-hangs with spinning wheels when using boolean ops. When snapping to an object the snap was instant in CD - no lag. These seem to happen when working on graphics with very high objects counts. I'm also experiencing the same lag/spinning wheel when deleting the (often) multitude of orphan lines that seem to follow of any boolean operation. It can take several seconds to 'capture' all via kick and drag method. AD's booleans produce an incredible amount of these and they take time to remove. It takes longer when searching for these in the Layers panel. Again, CD produces very few. I work with files that have many, many objects and this seems to be a challenge for AD. Unfortunately AD does not have the import filters I need (but have added to Feature Requests thread) and the number of objects may relate to the workaround (converting to pdf and then importing). The lag is making AD slower to use than CD. Has/is anyone experiencing this too? I will be grateful if anyone can shine a light on what is going happening. Thanks.

Finally found the right page... Would be very grateful if Serif could implement filters in AD for the file types above. Many clients are only able to provide files in these formats. Conversion to pdf and importing is a workaround, but adds a large amount of time to completing a drawing/project. Thanks.

Hey Affinity mods... Is anyone at Serif able to provide an insight into whether you intend to add a .cdr (CorelDraw) import filter to AD? Like some (many?) I have a significantly sized library of CorelDraw files that I would like to import. Converting to pdf is a work around, but not entirely satisfactory: here I mean that, depending on the complexity, the workflow can be seriously impacted by virtue of the additional effort required to bring the project into a native AD format. I ( and I presume others judging from this thread at least) would very much appreciate an indication of Serif's intentions re. import filters. I also have a need for filters to import Autocad and Microstation files, but I'm guessing that the audience here is relatively small for these. Would be good to see though. Many thanks.

Thanks Alex. Yes, you understood correctly and thanks for the link. I figured that there was something wrong, because the Divide operation does two different things depending on where the object you want to use to cut the target object lies (across the target object's boundary, or within the boundary of the target object). I hope that AD gets this right - would help me big time. By extension from your comment, in Corel Draw I assume that the 'new' object is the one that has had something 'cut out' of it, not a completely new one. The position of the target object does not change, even though it has been modified. I'd like to see an option that allows the preservation of the position of the object that had the boolean operation applied to it in its original position in the layer hierarchy. It must be possible, as CD manages to do it. Thanks for taking the time to reply! Cheers! Brett

Hi Serif, I am switching to AD/AP and I am not quite grasping the logic associated with 'clipping', nor understanding the behaviour of objects in a layer when performing boolean operations. I have been a Corel Draw (CD) user for many years, so my brain is perhaps too hard wired to see the obvious. A couple of things: An important part of my workflow is the need to 'clip' (cut-out) complexly shaped objects from a 'target object'. In CD the logic is: move the object to use as the 'clipping' object over a 'target' object, select both objects (the target always second), then simply click on the appropriate button to perform the clipping, which is destructive. The only way I can see to do this in AD is to place the new object over the target (in the wanted position), copy the clipping object to the clipboard, then select both objects, perform the Subtract boolean operation, then paste the original object back. This basically doubles the amount of work I have to do and adds considerably to the time it takes to complete a graphic element, especially where the latter is (often) very complex. My question is: is there a quicker way to do this? When performing the boolean operation as described above, the 'target' object changes position in its host layer - upwards. Why does this happen? Surely the position of an object in the hierarchy shouldn't change relative to any other ('younger') daughter objects once it has been drawn. Once I worked out what was happening it became clear that even more clicks were required to complete a complex graphic/layer. I can clip in one click using the Divide boolean operation if the object I'm clipping with overlaps the edge of the target object. If it doesn't, then Divide simply duplicates the object being used to clip target object and places it behind that target, leaving the latter intact. So two different things happen using the same boolean function. Not understanding this. Can I make Divide destructive on the first go, if I want to use a smaller object 'internally' within the target object? What am I missing here? In AD the 'clipping' process is very cumbersome, and somewhat irritating to be truthful, compared to CD, but I am persisting with it. I would love to see this functionality streamlined and basically made simpler. I have attached an image that graphically illustrates points 1 & 2 above. Thanks for your patience in reading all of this and I look forward to being educated. Again. Cheers Clipping issue.afphoto

Hi All, I am very much a newbie to AD and this is my first post, so thanks in advance for your patience. I making the switch to Designer from Corel Draw, which I have been using since v.5 (now v.X5) (bring on the .cdr import filter!). Unfortunately, I seem to be misunderstanding something about the process of exporting in AD. Now, to become familiar with AD, I have been playing with several simple designs (plans really) that include a base bitmap (its own layer) that is overlain by vector and text layers. When I export the design as seen on the screen (File > Export > PDF ('for print')) the exported file only shows one vector layer has exported plus some text layers. The other vector layers, text and one other image (a logo) are not present. I have tried exporting after selecting all the relevant layers (either by click-drag the Move tool, or selecting each layer I want to export using Command (click) from the Layers list) with the same result. When I click on where the image should be (listed as an embedded object in the Layers panel) a light blue rectangle, that approximates the size and location of the image, appears. I have tried the same process, but chosen jpeg as the export format, but again only one layer actually is exported. I will be very grateful to anyone who can assist me in overcoming my ineptitude. BrettD