Bmuse

Hi all,
In the Export dialog (Affinity Design for Mac), there are a couple of consistent issues that affect and impede workflow.
 
EXPORT PREVIEW RENDERING - CAUSES LAG/DELAY
The Export dialog's Area usually defaults to "entire document," sometimes to the current artboard. And the small preview image takes a very long time to display. I have an M1 Max MBP with 32GB, and it is a really long delay while that small preview is rendered. I'm almost always exporting only a selection, so I try to change it, but even using the drop-down is laggy while the preview is rendering. Once I'm able to change the area, the preview displays instantly.
I often have many artboards in a document, and multiple documents open, and never have a problem with memory or lag. But that simple preview image in the Export dialog somehow bogs down everything.
And when designing icons/graphics for a website, I'm continually exporting, so this forced "entire document" preview and lag are very frustrating.
Worth noting: even in V1, which also defaulted to "entire document" on export, these same documents displayed instantly in the preview. This display lag problem was introduced in V2.
 
EXPORT AREA - NEVER OPENS TO "SELECTION" even though something is selected
As i noted above, the Export dialog almost always opens with the Area of "Entire Document." Sometimes, it will randomly open with the Artboard name I was working in. (I haven't figured out why that happens sometimes and not others.)
But, I almost always have elements selected -- and even when something is selected, Export never opens with Selection as the area.
 
EXPORT DESTINATION - IT'S NEVER TO THE LAST USED
The export dialog never opens to the previously-used destination. Most often, it seems to open two (or more) folders "up" from where I last saved. Even knowing that this happens, when working quickly I sometimes end up with files saved in scattered folders. Default Folder X is my savior here, but even that still requires extra clicks to get back to the folder it should have opened to in the first place.
 
That preview-image display lag needs to be addressed. But the other two issues could absolutely be solved by:
Basing the export Area on whether nothing, an Artboard, or some element(s) are currently selected when the Export dialog is opened Opening to the last-used export parameters and destination. Opening to last-used has been standard behavior in applications for so long, that I'm baffled why it's so difficult with the Affinity apps.
Is there any hope of addressing these?
Thanks everyone,
B

Hi @Sean P,
December 10, 2019... I'm still seeing this behavior. Guides on additional artboards are displaying as negative numbers.
But -- I realized that in the Guides Manager, the Spread Origin on the add'l artboards is being set wrong. When I change that to 0, the guides work at their correct measurements.
Is this still considered a bug, and being addressed?

When designing PowerPoint, Keynote, E-learning courses, etc., I do my graphics work in Designer (of course). I usually have an artboard dedicated to icons and graphic elements, in addition to creating titles & headings. All of these are exported as PNGs, to be used in the other apps.
As I work, I do a lot of rapid-fire exporting. I don't always have organized layers, so I work best by selecting elements/groups on the canvas and using the Export shortcut.
The Export panel pops open to PNG. But it always defaults the Area to the artboard I'm on. What I need is Selection without background, and I have to use the drop-down to get it. And when I have a lot of artboards, the drop-down list gets long, and opens to different positions depending on what board I'm on.
Area isn't saved with presets. In my workflow, constantly having to drop down and scroll adds a lot of friction.
Is there any way to either:
Have the Export panel open with the last-used Area Save the Area as part of a preset Define a default Area Any of those would be very helpful!
Thanks!
B

Hello!
 
I saw in another post that Affinity Photo can't import Photoshop styles (.asl).  Two questions, if I may:
 
1.  Is this ability planned for the future?
2.  Is there any other way to get PS layer styles into Affinity Photo?
 
Worst-case, if I create a bunch of objects with the layer styles in Photoshop, then import that file into Affinity Photo, will I be able to define Affinity styles from the objects?
 
Thanks very much!
 
B

Yes, right click on the object with the imported style and then choose 'Create style' 
 
We will improve the granularity of styles going forward but have a go in the Designer Trial and see how you get on.