Pedro Antonio

I was frustrated importing existing photos into Affinity Photo for iPad in having to deal with the Transform dimensions default set to Pixels with no apparent way to change the overall document import default measurement to inches (or any other preferred measurement system) until I tried…
Selecting the DOCUMENT icon at top left, tapping on RESIZE ( checking that the ratio lock was highlighted), changing the UNITS to inches,  then tapping on the APPLY circle at bottom right and…voilá!—the TRANSFORM palette now renders all measurements in inches going forward.
Although there doesn't seem to be a way to set a universal measurement display for photo imports, it at least does reset the current imported photo to inches in placing any subsequent items and/or continuing to work on that project.
It would be great to have that universal default measurement option in SETTINGS…and while I'm on the subject of default settings, also:
An option when using PLACE to import a photo or graphic initially as either:
1) Rasterized Original—since having to "draw" their size each time would make it SO much easier to import a set of matching photos without having to use TRANSFORM to set the X/Y and size dimensions for each subsequent photo placement import
2) Smart Object, which would then require selecting an additional SET-as-Smart-Object or SET-as-rasterized once the desired size was reached. 
This would speed the overall PLACE workflow considerably in not having to select RASTERIZE everytime before being allowed to Cut, Copy or Delete a selectioned area for each placed graphic.
And a floating circle Nudge palette with four directional arrows (like in Adobe's discontinued PS Touch app) would complete Affinity Photo as my now #1 default photo editing and graphic design app on my iPad. 
 

Considering all of Serif's incredible attention to detail regarding the multitude of amazing features in both its desktop and mobile platform apps—with particular note to the amazing degree of feature control throughout the complexity within Affinity Designer for iPad —the one glaring gap in all of Affinity's applications ( soon to be six with Publisher for iPad ) has been in providing users with a tool to facilitate pixel-accurate positioning of objects on the canvas.
The measurement readouts in the Transform Studio for iPad only display a 2 decimal point positions. Even though one can actually enter a 3- or 4 decimal digit figure and see a clear result, an object's EXACT positioning remains "in the dark" as far as the numerical display is currently able to show for those fields. Numerical positioning capability is certainly a boon in achieving the accurate positioning and movement of an object, but when faced with numerous objects that all require precise placement, continually entering numbers in a field can become exhausting and very time consuming.   Adding a tool that allows for pixel-based X/Y MOVEMENT would be a HUGE improvement to all Affinity's apps—especially on the iPad. Adobe had a great one in their now-abandoned Photoshop PS Touch app—please see the screenshot below that illustrates the potential design and functionality for this badly-needed tool, and how Affinity could incorporate this feature into its Transform Studios.    The screenshot illustrates two layers, one with lowered opacity for visual lineup, that have slightly different features on the horizon. I'm attempting to precisely align the pixels that are common to both and then mask a section out on the top layer to blend it into the layer below for integrating, compositing, and rasterzing them into a single photo. Selecting the circular four-arrowed tool would activate a temporary overlay of large arrow buttons, positioned at the outer corners of the screen, to allow for easily moving the selected layer or object ( the top layer in this example ) into it's pixel-matching position by rapidly tapping on them with a finger or Apple Pencil.   This would eliminate the currently frustrating continuous back-and-forth trial-and result process for guessing what numerical entry will achieve that result to position it correctly...no more multitude of attempts using my finger or Apple Pencil to get it into the EXACT needed location. An added bonus would be including a two-finger action for temporarily bumping up the pixle increment using those directional buttons to allow moving an object with them in multiples of 10 pixels.   Adding this critically essential would also offset having to redesign and widen Affinity's current iPad numerical fields to display a 4-decimal figure—though that would be a great improvement as well—and make accurate positioning so easy and convenient for both the Desktop and Mobile versions of ALL THREE Affinity applications: PHOTO, DESIGNER and PUBLISHER.   And Affinity need not consider the importance for this tool based solely on "user consensus" as to what degree of need or popularity position this "please add this feature" occupies based on its number of requests. It's really a no-brainer, day-in day-out tool whose functionality almost certainly can and will be used and welcomed to speed up the completion of every project for every user throughout ALL of Affinity applications. This is particularly the case in Designer, where cartographers need to manage, handle and precisely position a plethora of objects within a single file.

Duuuhhh…of course! Thanks for your speedy response.
There's no mention of that function in any of the AP for iPad static or video tutorials I've looked at. I've also tried all kinds of wording for Google searches, which yielded no related answers. The desktop version's pin function seems to allow for undocking and floating a studio palette. I tried that on my iPad, but couldn't detach any Studio, and I just assumed it was a yet-to-be-implemented feature.

Can someone please divide questions and posts for your Photo and Designer iPad apps into seperate forums? Its very frustrating slogging through topic headings that either cover Designer or Photo when I'm searching ONLY for those relevant to the app I need help with. PLUS a lot of the headers don't mention the app being asked about.

...rather than have to first rasterize (convert to pixel) layer before being allowed to copy selection to new layer.