kevn86

@kevn86
 
Thanks - at least someone else gets it.  ;)  We did come to this way of doing things as a result of using the app a lot ourselves.

I'm just here to say that I personally LOVE the temp Alt override model.  It comes in handy so freaking often lol it just makes so much sense... Being able to set ridiculous parameters in the snapping menu knowing that I'm not committing to anything because I'll always be able to just Alt it all away whenever I want/need to is such an empowering thing.  It may not seem like a big deal to some - but to me, ANYTHING that removes the potential risk of "wasted time" associated with expressing creative freedom on the fly while working on a project is absolutely priceless.  This feature, along with so many others that you all have implemented has made an impeccable impact on my ability to safely and consistently push the boundaries in everything that I create.  Sure, I could create in AI.  But with AD, I can BE creative.  I'm able to create so much more efficiently and that extra time allows me to experiment within those creations.  AI is a means to an end, AD is a playground for creativity.
 
Seriously, thank you for pushing YOUR boundaries and enabling me to push mine.  I know I'm not the first to say so, but that doesn't make you any less deserving of my sincerest gratitude :)

The axis setup would not require the grid to be visible, but you would have to chose an axis setup that suited your purposes.
 
I have other ideas too that I will be trying out to augment this.
 
The handle snapping would probably follow our usual model - an option to turn it on/off, then use Alt to override snapping momentarily. It will be a property of the Pen/Node tool.

The move and node tools act differently toward groups and layers.  Best way to think about it is that (aside from container level FX) LAYERS will never act like GROUPS unless you group them (or select them together, of course).  GROUPS act like GROUPS (obviously) but can also act as layers...
 
So what's the difference?  How do they each act?  Pretty simple really.  But it's probably easier to show you  :P  here's a quick screen recording for you.
 
Main takeaway is that you can force AD to treat groups as layers by double clicking on the objects within the group using selection tools.  Using layers to hold other layers is basically just to help you organize your layers panel, they'll still act like layers as far as your selection tools are concerned - although it will still give you the ability to add FX to the entire layer container as you would with groups.  You can also have multiple layer containers within a single group, and vice versa.  Groups are like folders, layers are like files, you have to double click to get into folders, once you're in a folder you can single click between the files in that folder - if you want to get into a different folder, you have to double click on a file within THAT folder.  Ungrouped layers and layers within layer containers are like universal files, no matter where you're at in your file/folder structure you can always access them individually with a single click.