viterzbayraku

Hi, is there a way to measure and mark a certain distance in Affinity Designer (vector), ie if I want to place a dot 2 inches along a curved or straight line? The ruler tool allows you to measure, but as far as I can tell, you can't mark a distance. I have been just using the pen tool, creating a line and measuring that, although I'm not sure how accurate it is for curves and it's a rather cumbersome process. Thanks-

In the beta for 2.1 there was discussion to allow the measurements from the Measure Tool to be converted to shapes (so you can add dimensions to drawings) [though not dynamically updated if shapes are changed.   This was late in the 2.1 beta cycle so it wasn't included - but this was not carried over to the 2.2 beta list.  Please add this feature option. 

Thank you for explaining and help )

Hi @viterzbayraku,
I've found the cause of the failure to generate the Preview and also the Export Failed error when trying to export to PDF.  It's caused by the unsupported characters in the Subject field as shown in the attached screenshot.  I had to open your file in the Windows version of Publisher, as Mac just displays the subject field as blank.  We do already have a version of this bug logged with the Developers and it should be fixed in the beta, which i suspect will start soon  
I'll drop you a message with a download link for a version of your .afpub file that will export fine  

Ok. I will sent it soon as possible. 

??? Try scrolling the wheel above the edit field - as OP requested in previous post ("I want to change the width of stroke using the mouse wheel without any clicks").
Or click directly to edit the field, without the need to click to expand the pulldown panel.

Did you see my proposal?
P.S. Serif does not have to invent anything new - it is enough if it uses the same element for the stroke width value as for the rounded corners value.

Personally, I think that the stroke style (dashed line, vector brush) is very useful - and should remain in the context toolbar.
 
It's a pity that the displayed stroke width value is dead/inactive and cannot be edited directly (for example, using mouse scroll as with other editing fields).

Since stroke width is set most often, direct editing in the context toolbar would certainly be beneficial.

@Che
As a result of the ongoing invasion of Ukraine we are not currently selling software within Russia.

It's sad, how it's uncomfortable 😥

Lack of features such as properly functioning boolean operations, vector brushes, perspective deformation and distortion, convenient possibility of fast merging of vector objects makes me think about going back to Adobe Illustrator. Unfortunately. I am a big fan of the Serif products. But the lack of some features causes me despair.

Looks like an essential purchase to plug the gaps til Designer catches up - only thing is the more you use it the more you may want to just switch to VS even though the interface is not a patch one Designer - it's got all the basics, it even has a printable slug area and prints CMYK to postscript printers - damn - I'd even say theres too many features  - I just wish I didn't have to buy it - if the the Designer roadmap had have moved at a fairly reasonable pace we'd not be having to look elsewhere  - that's  £85 that I'd prefer to give to Serif

I believe the situation we're in is largely caused by Affinity's business model everyone likes to praise. Since the software is a one time purchase for a rather cheap price (when compared to similar commercial software), their revenue is largely dependent on gaining new customers indefinitely. To do that they periodically release new versions that introduce a bunch of big, marketable features at the cost of the ever crumbling and deficient foundation of the software. Once the new features are introduced, they might get some bug fixes later but rarely are they fundamentally improved even if they are effectively unusable in a professional setting. The team then focuses on the next set of big, marketable features or new products to sustain the company. And with every new product their resources grow thinner and thinner. I absolutely hate Adobe's subscription but this is no alternative, never has been and it seems it never will be either.

Or devs just like to work on something new and don't care about basic vector features like per node stroke width control.
EDIT: Just tried VectorStyler mentioned in this thread. In 30 seconds I found stroke width tool so it's already superior to Affinity Designer in my eyes. This basic tool has been requested in multiple threads here as far 6/7 years ago. Affinity have made 0 improvements in all that time to stroke width control. Pressure graph is as janky as it has always been, creates ugly results and in no way it's even comparable to manual per node stroke width control.

VectorStyler is an interesting example of a 180-degree different approach from Affinity Designer. They're still in open beta, but have tried to cram everything into their 1.0 branch: VS already has features AD has made no progress on for years like blends, distortion envelopes, and more. It all looks great on paper, but unfortunately... these features are almost unusable. 
Affinity Designer has been glacially slow in adding features, which is a problem, but VectorStyler has been almost as slow in addressing critical stability issues, not to mention some major usability shortcomings from adding too many features without a consistent UX vision. The app is incredibly powerful, but it's an absolute mess in its present state.
If it's a choice between reliable versus feature-poor and feature-rich but unreliable, I'll gladly choose the former. But it will be interesting to see how this race plays out between VS developing reliability and AD developing a competitive feature set.

Lack of features such as properly functioning boolean operations, vector brushes, perspective deformation and distortion, convenient possibility of fast merging of vector objects makes me think about going back to Adobe Illustrator. Unfortunately. I am a big fan of the Serif products. But the lack of some features causes me despair.

I agree too. The variable fonts is important for designers at the current moment.

Variable fonts are the future. If you want to be a viable and competitive alternative to the Creative Suite you need Variable Font Support ASAP!
Aside form any major bugs this should be a top priority. Is there a time line for it to be released?

I love Affinity Designer, but I cannot understand why the issues with the boolean operations persist years after they have been flagged repeatedly in the forums. Trying to expand simple strokes and divide and add together parts of these simple shapes results in a ton of errors. When I had discussed this in prior posts to the forum, it was alluded to that "dirty geometry" was the issue - because I had used the pen tool like a brush, building up multiple strokes at times to get the kind of thick to thin lines I wanted. In this case here, I'm using single pen strokes.
I really want to replace Illustrator with Designer - but I cannot understand why such a major component of Designer is still not anywhere closer to being fixed years after the problems began. I literally have to take the design out of Designer and into Illustrator or VectorStyler to expand it and merge cleanly the different parts

Anchor.afdesign

I am deeply involved in software development of a huge project and at this time two huge projects of national importance. Actually three now covid-19 is here. We are scaling up and down from one to several teams and funding is great at times, sometimes not. I know a thing or two about building products from the ground and up. Was involved in four major projects similar to Affinity: starting from scratch on new platforms. There is a factor these apologist posts totally - totally - misses: management decisions, product vision and just plain vanilla business priorities.
My job is to tell developers (entire teams) what to do next. Their job is to offer advice about how to do it and to then implement the features. If we need a bigger team to reach the target and in time, my job is to get the extra money from management. Usually not a big problem if there is a business priority behind and a well defined business case. Architecture and complexity is a huge part of software development and you have to build things in the right order. But you also have to adjust the team for the tasks and projects at hand. The alternative is starvation of resources, reduced speed of development and goals not met and in the end... failure to meet expectations. And all that follows. Sounds familiar? We are super agile and flexible. Because we HAVE to.
No need for these endlessly repeating apologist explanations about why Affinity is developed they way it is and why it takes time. Guestimates from deep down the Mariana Trench.
No further comments. 

Lack of features such as properly functioning boolean operations, vector brushes, perspective deformation and distortion, convenient possibility of fast merging of vector objects makes me think about going back to Adobe Illustrator. Unfortunately. I am a big fan of the Serif products. But the lack of some features causes me despair.

Lack of features such as properly functioning boolean operations, vector brushes, perspective deformation and distortion, convenient possibility of fast merging of vector objects makes me think about going back to Adobe Illustrator. Unfortunately. I am a big fan of the Serif products. But the lack of some features causes me despair.

When is Transform tool coming to ADesigner? We really need a tool to warp or perspective our graphics/text as vectors, (no rasterized)

Lack of features such as properly functioning boolean operations, vector brushes, perspective deformation and distortion, convenient possibility of fast merging of vector objects makes me think about going back to Adobe Illustrator. Unfortunately. I am a big fan of the Serif products. But the lack of some features causes me despair.

I agree Serif has every right to include or exclude features based on their plans and priorities, but they are also beholden to their customers or else they will fail to exist. Serif risks their product being viewed as an amateur alternative if universally understood expectations for professional software are not met sooner than later.
Everyone feels their tool preferences are "essential" and I know not everyone agrees on what is truly necessary to make Affinity products stand on their own.
I think many would agree with my perspective, that properly functioning boolean operations, true vector brushes and text warp are a few examples of basic necessities for a wide majority of designers.
How can anyone create professional designs if the boolean operations create dirty geometry and parts go missing? How limiting is it that only raster brushes can be unique? Why has text warp been available in Photo but not Designer for years?
I'm excited about the little new features like being able to port your brushes to any installed version of the apps on different devices automatically... that is cool - but it feels like we're getting excited about new fancy rims on a car and ignoring the fact that we've never installed brakes. I'd rather a car with brakes and the other essentials over one that has fancy rims and no brakes.....
Yeah the car looks nice with the new rims, but it can never leave the driveway safely... I'd much rather we get the car drive-able first and then worry about making it look flashy.
I'm using an outdated version of Adobe CS6 Illustrator to do my vector work.... I have to paste anything i do in Designer over to Illustrator to merge vectors so they are not a mess. I rely on Illustrator or Vectorstyler to make blends and make text warps. If I want to fill in sections of negative space in a design, I have to also paste it in illustrator to do a live fill or use a blob tool or use the merge tool with a fill behind the negative space to cookie-cutter it. I care WAY more about basic function than I do about the bells and whistles.
 

Ok. Thank you