Ben

Yes. I've coded up alignment for the Node tool. So, you can use the Alignment panel to align the selected nodes in the Node tool, as you would align layers/objects in the Move tool.
 
I've also prototyped some widgets for doing snapping alignment, as an embellishment to the selection box.
 
NodeAlignment.mov
 
NodeAlignmentWidget.mov
 

Yes. I've coded up alignment for the Node tool. So, you can use the Alignment panel to align the selected nodes in the Node tool, as you would align layers/objects in the Move tool.
 
I've also prototyped some widgets for doing snapping alignment, as an embellishment to the selection box.
 
NodeAlignment.mov
 
NodeAlignmentWidget.mov
 

Yes. I've coded up alignment for the Node tool. So, you can use the Alignment panel to align the selected nodes in the Node tool, as you would align layers/objects in the Move tool.
 
I've also prototyped some widgets for doing snapping alignment, as an embellishment to the selection box.
 
NodeAlignment.mov
 
NodeAlignmentWidget.mov
 

Yes. I've coded up alignment for the Node tool. So, you can use the Alignment panel to align the selected nodes in the Node tool, as you would align layers/objects in the Move tool.
 
I've also prototyped some widgets for doing snapping alignment, as an embellishment to the selection box.
 
NodeAlignment.mov
 
NodeAlignmentWidget.mov
 

Yes. I've coded up alignment for the Node tool. So, you can use the Alignment panel to align the selected nodes in the Node tool, as you would align layers/objects in the Move tool.
 
I've also prototyped some widgets for doing snapping alignment, as an embellishment to the selection box.
 
NodeAlignment.mov
 
NodeAlignmentWidget.mov
 

Yes. I've coded up alignment for the Node tool. So, you can use the Alignment panel to align the selected nodes in the Node tool, as you would align layers/objects in the Move tool.
 
I've also prototyped some widgets for doing snapping alignment, as an embellishment to the selection box.
 
NodeAlignment.mov
 
NodeAlignmentWidget.mov
 

Yes. I've coded up alignment for the Node tool. So, you can use the Alignment panel to align the selected nodes in the Node tool, as you would align layers/objects in the Move tool.
 
I've also prototyped some widgets for doing snapping alignment, as an embellishment to the selection box.
 
NodeAlignment.mov
 
NodeAlignmentWidget.mov
 

Ok - I'm not giving a general answer to this - it's not that straight forward. So, I can speak for the bits I've done.
 
We try to use as many cores as available, depending upon the task.  Whenever something could be parallel processed, then we will have used a threaded segmented approach. So, snapping, for example, will now spawn nested threads to perform calculations.  It starts with a single high level thread, which queues up smaller tasks, and those also can queue sub-tasks. The hope being that as the snapping branches it will perform the smaller tasks in parallel.
 
All the raster stuff will be very parallelised.  @Andy Somerfield is the best person to comment on this.
 
There are some things which have to remain single thread, such as serialisation.  While threads may access stored data, file access (reading and writing) always has to be serial.
UI will also be done on the main thread, but components of UI might be generated in background task threads (such as creating thumbnail images).
 
As far as threading goes - no major task performed in Affinity will be intentionally blocking another major task - they will share available cores, subject to standard thread prioritisation.  That being said, threading is also always limited by shared resource access.  Access to the document data will use critical sections, which will prevent more than one thread accessing resources.  So, some threaded tasks will be forced to yield if they need document data access.
 

Yes. I've coded up alignment for the Node tool. So, you can use the Alignment panel to align the selected nodes in the Node tool, as you would align layers/objects in the Move tool.
 
I've also prototyped some widgets for doing snapping alignment, as an embellishment to the selection box.
 
NodeAlignment.mov
 
NodeAlignmentWidget.mov
 

Ok - I'm not giving a general answer to this - it's not that straight forward. So, I can speak for the bits I've done.
 
We try to use as many cores as available, depending upon the task.  Whenever something could be parallel processed, then we will have used a threaded segmented approach. So, snapping, for example, will now spawn nested threads to perform calculations.  It starts with a single high level thread, which queues up smaller tasks, and those also can queue sub-tasks. The hope being that as the snapping branches it will perform the smaller tasks in parallel.
 
All the raster stuff will be very parallelised.  @Andy Somerfield is the best person to comment on this.
 
There are some things which have to remain single thread, such as serialisation.  While threads may access stored data, file access (reading and writing) always has to be serial.
UI will also be done on the main thread, but components of UI might be generated in background task threads (such as creating thumbnail images).
 
As far as threading goes - no major task performed in Affinity will be intentionally blocking another major task - they will share available cores, subject to standard thread prioritisation.  That being said, threading is also always limited by shared resource access.  Access to the document data will use critical sections, which will prevent more than one thread accessing resources.  So, some threaded tasks will be forced to yield if they need document data access.
 

Ok - I'm not giving a general answer to this - it's not that straight forward. So, I can speak for the bits I've done.
 
We try to use as many cores as available, depending upon the task.  Whenever something could be parallel processed, then we will have used a threaded segmented approach. So, snapping, for example, will now spawn nested threads to perform calculations.  It starts with a single high level thread, which queues up smaller tasks, and those also can queue sub-tasks. The hope being that as the snapping branches it will perform the smaller tasks in parallel.
 
All the raster stuff will be very parallelised.  @Andy Somerfield is the best person to comment on this.
 
There are some things which have to remain single thread, such as serialisation.  While threads may access stored data, file access (reading and writing) always has to be serial.
UI will also be done on the main thread, but components of UI might be generated in background task threads (such as creating thumbnail images).
 
As far as threading goes - no major task performed in Affinity will be intentionally blocking another major task - they will share available cores, subject to standard thread prioritisation.  That being said, threading is also always limited by shared resource access.  Access to the document data will use critical sections, which will prevent more than one thread accessing resources.  So, some threaded tasks will be forced to yield if they need document data access.
 

In fairness, Linux has been "the future" for years - but it still isn't converting many people.  Mainly because most flavours of it have always been so impenetrable for anyone that is not a tech geek.  I think we can be sure that OSX is going to be around a while yet - while it may be Unix under the hood, the user experience is so much better.

Because I haven't got anything I want to show you...
 
I've done some general work, adding Presets to various tools and grids.  Not really worth putting in a video - it'll be fairly obvious when you get 1.7.
 
I have also worked on a couple of tools for Photo, but they are not ready to demonstrate.

And, here is a video glimpse of some of the improvements coming to the Node tool.
 
NodeTool.mov
 

And, here is a video glimpse of some of the improvements coming to the Node tool.
 
NodeTool.mov
 

Thought I'd give you a glimpse of some of the features that will be coming in 1.7.
 
Please note - this thread is only for discussing the features detailed here.  Postings related to other feature requests should be posted on their own thread (else they will get deleted from this thread).
 
We have spent considerable time overhauling the internals of some of our main tools.  It's been a labour of love, but it's going to open up greater possibilities for our core tool set.
 
The core tools are:
- Move tool
- Pen tool
- Node tool
- Shape creation tools
- Text tools
- Fill and Transparency tools
- Place Image tool
- Vector Crop tool
 
So, what improvements can be expected?
 
- Advanced grid editing on spread (move the grid origin and edit it's axis with a handy new widget, with full snapping of course)
- Guides can be created and moved in all the core tools, plus a toggle to turn guide editing off
- Move the artboard ruler origin (with editing toggle)
- Create objects and shapes into an arbitrary grid
- Rotate and flip objects in grid planes (great for people working in isometric), plus an option to rotate shapes in plane using the Move tool
- The Move tool will now allow you to cycle though selection boxes, including regular boxes and grid plane aligned boxes
- Snapping performance improvements
 

FittingAGrid.mov
 
Shows for grid planes, but will work for any angle in 2D also.

This has already been covered in a another thread.
 
There will be the option to use Shift to constrain handles, and that will include snapping to grid axis.  It's been done, and will feature in a Beta soon.

@JET_Affinity
I'm interested to hear your ideas for tools supporting traditional axonometric drawing.  I try and write tools that satisfy use cases, rather than referencing existing software first - thinking outside the box.  So, inspiration from how you'd choose to work would help.
 

Thought I'd give you a glimpse of some of the features that will be coming in 1.7.
 
Please note - this thread is only for discussing the features detailed here.  Postings related to other feature requests should be posted on their own thread (else they will get deleted from this thread).
 
We have spent considerable time overhauling the internals of some of our main tools.  It's been a labour of love, but it's going to open up greater possibilities for our core tool set.
 
The core tools are:
- Move tool
- Pen tool
- Node tool
- Shape creation tools
- Text tools
- Fill and Transparency tools
- Place Image tool
- Vector Crop tool
 
So, what improvements can be expected?
 
- Advanced grid editing on spread (move the grid origin and edit it's axis with a handy new widget, with full snapping of course)
- Guides can be created and moved in all the core tools, plus a toggle to turn guide editing off
- Move the artboard ruler origin (with editing toggle)
- Create objects and shapes into an arbitrary grid
- Rotate and flip objects in grid planes (great for people working in isometric), plus an option to rotate shapes in plane using the Move tool
- The Move tool will now allow you to cycle though selection boxes, including regular boxes and grid plane aligned boxes
- Snapping performance improvements
 

Right.  I started this thread to showcase features that are coming in 1.7.  This was no way an exhaustive list of everything that will go in, and I have said there is time to add more, so I fail to understand why us showing new (hopefully helpful) stuff has come across as the complete opposite.
 
It is a shame that some people have hijacked this thread for a diatribe about how we aren't doing what they want... and in their imaginary time frame.  1.7 is not coming just yet, and we have given no fixed time frame.
 
So, I am going to delete all posts on this thread that are not discussing the features that I am showcasing (in a helpful manner).  The intention was to show what we are doing and take helpful feedback before we even get to Beta, and so that you know we are already working towards the next updates.

Actually, I could give you a list of features that show that we are not "just copying Illustrator", but I feel I'd be wasting valuable time that I could otherwise spend working on new features.

Regarding the Pixel crop tool (for resizing and cropping the document, not the vector Crop tool) - I've already rewritten this for 1.7, so if your issues are with this tool, wait for 1.7.

Thought I'd give you a glimpse of some of the features that will be coming in 1.7.
 
Please note - this thread is only for discussing the features detailed here.  Postings related to other feature requests should be posted on their own thread (else they will get deleted from this thread).
 
We have spent considerable time overhauling the internals of some of our main tools.  It's been a labour of love, but it's going to open up greater possibilities for our core tool set.
 
The core tools are:
- Move tool
- Pen tool
- Node tool
- Shape creation tools
- Text tools
- Fill and Transparency tools
- Place Image tool
- Vector Crop tool
 
So, what improvements can be expected?
 
- Advanced grid editing on spread (move the grid origin and edit it's axis with a handy new widget, with full snapping of course)
- Guides can be created and moved in all the core tools, plus a toggle to turn guide editing off
- Move the artboard ruler origin (with editing toggle)
- Create objects and shapes into an arbitrary grid
- Rotate and flip objects in grid planes (great for people working in isometric), plus an option to rotate shapes in plane using the Move tool
- The Move tool will now allow you to cycle though selection boxes, including regular boxes and grid plane aligned boxes
- Snapping performance improvements
 

Because I haven't got anything I want to show you...
 
I've done some general work, adding Presets to various tools and grids.  Not really worth putting in a video - it'll be fairly obvious when you get 1.7.
 
I have also worked on a couple of tools for Photo, but they are not ready to demonstrate.