David.P

OK so I had to select all nodes AFTER merging and then do a "Join Curves" on them...

Hey Everyone 
I'd like to thank you all for taking the time to help me. It turns out that I found a plug-in that can really help with what I'm trying to accomplish,..so I went ahead and purchased it. It's called "Halftone Processor" from The Vector lab,..and it seems like an easier way to do this type of effect. The link is below for anyone who's interested. Thank You again! JH
https://thevectorlab.com/products/halftone-processor?variant=40048092151893
and here's a video link showing what it can do:
 

Can you imagine that I just bought the whole bundle of version 2, and only then looked up the new features?
However, I fear that there are still no vector fills, right?

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.

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

I gave up on the Affinity suite about a year ago when I realised the features that are essential to me like vector patterns, vector brushes, a friggin measuring tool and others were not coming any time soon. 
 
I got excited when I heard V2 was coming, expecting that at least 1 of my desired features would finally come… yet there is nothing, out of my 6 wanted features none of them came in V2. 
Gutted
Already wasted enough money buying V1.9 won’t pay for V2 or any version until basic features become available….
I’m sticking with Adobe and not sure I can bothered making a transition again after my horrific 1.9 experience. 
 
It really is a shame because I love the product, publisher is incredible… it shits all over indesign. Designer has a lot of features I love and Photo is great too. 
Guess we’ll see how V3 turns out another decade from now. 

From my side, I just give up on Designer. It is simply impossible to use it as part of a cartographic software system without this vector fill tool.

I am rather shocked that there has been such a major upgrade to the software which doesn't include something as fundamental as vector fills. I really want to be able to use this product, but I simply can't without vector fills. How are you expected to use it for any form of serious design work/illustration if you can only fill objects with a shade of a colour, or an image (raster element)? To me this is a totally fundamental shortcoming.
Very disappointing but given the absolute silence on this feature in the past it seems clear that Serif just don't understand how basic and essential a feature this is, and will presumably now never deliver it.

Yep. But hey, there is dwg import, and guess what it imports the bloddy hatches from the dwg so maybe it's near? New tools are cool too, 1 step closer to being a complete thing.

I am not sure if this will work for you but I find if I set the tolerance to a low value then click and drag the tolerance will increase or decrease. Seems a bit flakey but it does work after a fashion.

I'm not sure what you're saying doesn't work.'
If you click/drag the Flood Select Tool on Windows, then dragging to the right increases the tolerance (but ignoring the initial value you set), and if you then drag to the left it will decrease the tolerance.

For me the tool works exactly the same on Windows and macOS so changing the tolerance setting using the Tolerance Box (typing in new values, or scrolling the mouse wheel etc.) does not alter the existing selection, but dragging with the mouse on canvas does. Personally I find the biggest issue with this tool that it does not support antialiased selection.

See also:
Selection tools Selection Brush Tool Flood Select Tool  <-- *** Marquee Selection Tools  

Yes on windows but try Select/ Select Sample Colour as that has a live Tolerance setting which may work better for you

Yes, it is awfully distracting, and I can't believe that this nuisance can't be completely switched off? 
There are people who are sufficiently proficient to know where their objects end. Come on!

Live paint bucket (and vector fill) URGENTLY needed!
Inkscape sort of has both, but lacks too many other things

Possibly good news:
From: https://aecmag.com/technology/serif-affinity-for-aec-firms/

I switch from Windows to Mac and Affinity forces me to pay again.  No DXF support confirmed.  I no longer fall into the trap.  I am using Lightburn for my edits.

Six years and no answer to this... I think it is time to accept that Serif doesn't really care what users want.

For people that need this feature now, I'd recommend VectorStyler as a companion app - it has practically all missing standard features that are missing from designer such has highly editable live vector pattern fills, Real vector brushes and all manor of non destructive vector distortions just to name a few features that I use regularly - the interface isn't has user friendly as Affiinity but we could be waiting another seven years for some of these features to make it to Designer. for me, VS paid for itself in a couple of uses, just used it today to distort a logo for a Vinyl LP record label in a few minutes   

Thanks, I already had that feeling that I hadn't used the correct word there

I have been following this thread and also interested in using VectorStyler alongside AD. Today I found a 69% off promo deal and thought I would share incase anyone else was interested. I contact the folks at VectorStyler before I purchased and they confirmed the deal was legit.
deals.bluetailcoupon.net/sales/vectorstyler-professional-illustration-software
Hope it's ok to share. I have no affiliation whatsoever.

If you can pick it in the Pixel Persona, then the small color well in the Color panel will have the color in it.
To assign it as the Fill of your vector object just select the object and click on that small color well.

The small well is on the right of the eyedropper. It is only set by using that color picker.

As far as I know it is not possible to snap the shape adjustment handles to anything external to the shape.
I’m fairly sure that at least one feature request has been created for this but you will need to do some searching to find it/them.