Canterslowly

Thank you all for these colour palettes - it's one area, in particular, that I struggle with. I really appreciate the effort you've gone to in preparing and sharing these.

If you want to edit large documents/images I think you need to add more RAM, 8GB just doesn't do the job. The external drives are polled by the system, ie; it's like the system constantly asks them are you there, available for data, this data is suppose to be on you, is it there? If Affinity apps hit at the time, (milliseconds) when that external drive might be taking a nap, then the action fails, it can't save, and throws the error. I've just read your reply again Ron P, and this bit at the end is probably what's happening. I altered Windows setting so that the USB doesn't go to sleep so often but now I can hear a quiet bleep quite a lot and wonder what is going on. It's coming from the USB drive and I was wondering if it's busy saving in the background or something like that. I'm using my hard drive to save the designs I'm working on and then moving it to the USB when I'm finished it but had another fail a few days' ago when existing files were corrupted and appeared as half a thumbnail but it's been OK since then. I've been looking at new laptops but most are 8 RAM until I hit those on £1.5k (heck). I'm going to make enquiries about increasing RAM but not sure how old the laptop is and whether it would be financially viable - it's not like I'm working a load on it.

Ooh, whoosh, over my head again but I get the general drift. I had thought, when I was gifted the laptop, that it was a gaming laptop therefore it could handle anything thrown at it but it would seem not. My files aren't that huge - not like some of the work I see on various Affinity tutorials etc. I've just looked at one which is 151 mb and I probably wouldn't be vastly over that for most things. I usually do have an internet browser and facebook open whilst I'm using Affinity but that's about all. Occasionally a YT video whilst I'm learning something new. I had a nightmare a couple of years' ago when my files were being corrupted right, left and centre - not just Affinity files but documents and photos that I hadn't accessed for a long time. I asked what could be causing it on this forum and after trying a few different things I took advice to remove everything except program files off the hard drive and use the USB drive. I've had no problem until the last two months or so when it's started again but seems just to be Affinity files (although I don't use the laptop for much more than that now). I'm not sure if the laptop can be upgraded in terms of RAM because I think it's older than I was told at first so I may have to give in and buy a new one. Thank you again Ron P

Thank you. I appreciate your reply. That was the general consensus among the people I was speaking to online.

Sorry, long description - and a bit over my head! I use an MSI laptop with 8gb RAM and 11 When using v1 AD I had a lot of files being corrupted - right across my system, not just Affinity. When I queried on this forum it was pointed out that some of files were huge. I don't make complicated designs but do use jpgs as textures clipped to items. After may different suggestions it was suggested that the 8gb RAB couldn't cope with the job and I would advised to put all files (except program files) onto a USB external drive which would free up RAM. I bought a Sonnics 4tb disk and this seemed to sort out the problem. I have used the external drive as I would use the laptop disk drive - to and from it as I work and saving regularly. V2 AD was also working well under those circumstances. On moving to BETA AD I started to get save fail messages and thought the disk drive was "going to sleep" too soon and not "waking" quickly enough to save the file (it does have a lag but I've learned not to touch anything until it's saved the file). I managed to find the appropriate option to increase the sleep to 1 hour but this has not worked. Luckily there has been a restore version of my work available on each occasion. I will attach one of the fail messages - but they are not always the same. I've been onto the manufacturers of the disk drive (and a 2nd I bought as a backup) and they sent some disk checking software. All of my drives have checked out as GOOD so I thought I'd mention this issue to you. Another member of the Affinity Designer - Hands On facebook group reported that he was experiencing the same issues and wondered if the file handling procedures had changed (that's a bit over my head). It's been suggested that it would be better to work on my laptop hard drive and then back up the design afterwards to the USB which I will do for now but I thought it may be worth relating the problem to you. Thank you.

I've just made a pattern using multiple artboards and symbols and whatever had happened before seems to have been resolved now. Thank you.

I've been using AD v2 1736 tonight with symbols across artboards and have had multiple crashes. A. I was clipping jpg images to curve shapes (petals on a flower) when the first crashes happened. Re-started my laptop. Installed v2 Beta again and updated to 1736 again. I have one artboard as a symbol - it's the master artboard. I then have 4 artboards as symbols which show the repeat pattern happening. This is the file that the crashes were happening on. After re-starting my laptop and AD v2B I made my flowers on one single artboard with no symbols attached and there was no issue. I added the items onto my Assets panel to use in the repeat pattern. B. I brought up a new copy of the artboard (repeat pattern template) and started to put the pattern together using the items from my Assets panel. It has crashed twice with only 3 items on the symbols artboard. C. On trying to open the last file that crashed I have a message saying file type not supported. v2 Artboard Set Up Blank LKB.aftemplate Flower pattern v2.afdesign

Really appreciated. Thank you.

I've downloaded the free pack of patterns. Much appreciated. Thank you.

It's just as well I bought a huge external drive - I've downloaded lots of your files. Thank you so much - it's very kind of you to make these available.

Thank you very much - I'll definitely use it.

Thank you very much for sharing. It's always worth having something a little different in the styles category - you never know when you'll need it.

Thanks for sharing Ginette - these might come in quite handy.

I've downloaded the styles. Thank you very much.

Thank you. I will pass this on and they can keep an eye on the link you provided.

Hello, Lots of people and friends who still use Serif Craft Artist Professional program have experienced a problem where the program won't work whilst connected to the Internet. We wonder if the links from CAP to Daisy Link or Help Files have just been disconnected because these were the only links through the Internet that we can think of. Although Serif doesn't not support CAP, there are now many, many disappointed people around the world. Could you let us know of any files we could remove from the program that would sort this out. I've tried a few myself but had no luck.

After many, many problems with corrupt files, and seeking advice on this forum and the facebook Affinity Designer group, I hope I've solved the problem by removing all saved files from my laptop and putting them onto a 4tb external drive. I didn't know that file size/amount slowed down performance and that this may lead to background saving being compromised. I was alerted to this when @carl123 mentioned how big my files were.

@carl123 thank you for looking into these so quickly. I will download them later today and look into why the chickens one might be so large. Sometimes I will put 3 artboards in one file to try the repeat patterns on - one with the original, one with 4 copies of the original to see if the patterns match plus one with original elements which I use to built the pattern in the first place. I never check file size but having had comments about massive files on the facebook group and thought it wouldn't be a problem. Perhaps I could use the rasterise feature more often? I believe that reduces file sizes. How would I attract the attention of Affinity support please? Thank you once again.

@carl123 I wonder if you could take a look at the file I posted on 28th December 2021 please when you get a chance. I did manage to recover an old version and continue with it but I'm really trying to get to the bottom of the corrupt files etc that I've had over the last year. I work on an MSI laptop. Last year I had loads of corrupt files and eventually the SSD had to be replaced because it failed. When the new SSD was put in, I went through all my files and deleted corrupt files. However, I've continued to find files that can't be opened - no photographs, no documents - only design files. I nearly always saved my design in Affinity Designer first, then make a JPEG of it to print from. The JPEGs were fine but the Affinity files were corrupt. I bought a USB a few months' ago and now save my AD file on the hard drive first, then again on the USB, then make my JPEGs and save them too. I'm still finding new files that are corrupted on my hard drive but they are not corrupt on the USB so I can bring them back into AD and save them again on the hard drive. My friend who gifted the laptop to me checked it over today and thinks the hard drive is performing well. I did a clean install of all Affinity products last night but still have a new file I can't get into from the hard drive, but it's OK on the USB. All of the above doesn't apply to the file I loaded on 28th December and is the first time I've come across that problem. I loaded it onto the Facebook group and a very helpful chap suggested that files I'd used in making the design had been lost after I'd saved it. I wondered if this could be photographs that I'd clipped to shapes (textures) because I did have a shuffle round and separated my texture files depending on where they came from because I wanted to ensure I was within licensing guidelines with them all. I'm asking about this in case it is some other type of file that's gone missing. My friend thought of .dll files but I felt they would be mentioned in an error message. I have been through all my saved files, that I could get into, and taken all the texture photos out, then re-saved so that I've still got the design/shapes and can add textures next time I use the design. I use a lot of scrapbook kits which are a collection of .png and .jpg files and am finding elements within the kits are also corrupt. The thumbnails often show half of it with the element (ie a flower) and half is black. I also make a lot of Asset files which contain either elements that I've made myself or a collection from a scrapbook kit. These also have corrupt elements within them. They appear to look OK on the asset panel but when I drag them onto the canvas there's just a bounding box and nothing else. It's very frustrating and maybe nothing that you can help with but I remain hopeful. PS: I have picked up a few ideas from this thread - ie saving to a different name instead of just doing a re-save, and the way to retrieve work from a corrupt file. I've attached 3 other files that I've found recently. More Florals may be OK.afdesign Chickens and Flowers 2.afdesign Sakura 2 Repeat Pattern - not for resale.afdesign

I have a new problem tonight. A design I was working on has saved until a certain point, then after adding more elements to the design I had an error message when I tried to do my final save. I've attached the bad file and screenshot. I can still open both the original file and a copy I made but neither show a thumbnail in my file folder - only the Affiinity logo. In my preview at the side of the file folder, the thumbnail does show. No need to repair the file for me, I can continue with my additions and re-save (hopefully). Mirror image with bird.afdesign

@Pšenda sorry I've just read your full message. I will try copying and opening it elsewhere. Often the thumbnail shows half of the image ok and the other half black!

@Pšenda - I get "this file cannot be opened as it is corrupt" or words to that effect.

@Pšenda thank you for this information. I hadn't picked up on the bit about saving externally being a possible problem. I have a good laptop but my SSD corrupted. My friend who gave me the laptop put the original SSD back in (he'd previously upgraded) but perhaps it was faulty. I can't afford to replace like-for-like as it has a big screen so will try a new SSD.

@dudu when I posted the problem I was having the reply was to make sure I back up my work regularly! Not very helpful. I now do full backups regularly but in order to save my designs I also save my work twice - once to local drive and once to USB. I'm hoping some solution is found soon. I'm planning on buying an ipad soon so may discover whether the problem is with affinity or my laptop. 😳😳. Good luck.

I save to my laptop drive but I've still finding the files are corrupt when I go back to them. I now save a 2nd time to a USB and haven't found any corrupt (yet) on there. I'm even finding bits of assets files are corrupt, items within a file (scrapbook kits) which are corrupt. No photos or documents are corrupt- just my design files. Already replaced the SSD once and loathed to replace laptop in case the problem is coming from Affinity.