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jeff

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Posts posted by jeff

  1. Just thought I'd share this. I frequently have to add dimensions to my design work to communicate to developers the specifics of a layout. Currently, there isn't a feature to create these in AD, so I've cobbled together my own workaround version using constrained objects. The benefit is it's pretty easy to resize the dimension to match the size of the element being measured. The downside, you will still have to enter all the numeric dimension manually. Ugh! I know, but a quick check of the Transform module will tell you what size to enter. One other flaw with this system is it doesn't work so well with very small measurements. Anything below 10px vertical and 30px horizontal will have to be manually adjusted because of limitations to how constraints work. Just resize one to below these thresholds and you'll see what I mean. If you know to avoid this situation, please share. To help with this, I made some smaller measurements to get you started. One other item I added to the file is a dark and light overlay to help make the dimensions easier to read. Use the dark one on dark interfaces and the light on lighter ones. There are a couple examples included that illustrate how to use them.

    It may seem that the downsides outweigh the benefit, but if you have to have dimensions, then even the seemingly small benefit of easy resizing adds up to hours of time saved on large projects. Hopefully, you find this useful.

     

     

    dimensions_template.afdesign

  2. 6 minutes ago, TristanB said:

    Did you ever find a fix for this? I just noticed this happening when I began working with a lot more text for a project. I'm using Affinity Designer 1.6.

     

    No, unfortunately not. The problem still persists in the release version of 1.6. The 'workaround' I've been using to keep my sanity and Layers in some semblance of order is to duplicate an existing text layer near the layer hierarchy position where i'm currently working, which will put the newly duplicated layer in roughly the right location. Certainly not ideal. Sorry.

  3. On 4/27/2015 at 6:06 PM, Busenitz said:

    Ok, I know I am being picky about this, but it seems to me to make more sense that the tab order of the Transform Panel would be X, Y, W, H.  Currently, if you type in the Width, then tab, you are at the Y position.  Possibly this bothers me due to OLD HABITS, but it seems that one tab from Width should be Height.  Also, one tab from X should be Y,  not the Width.

     

     

    I totally agree and have made this request previously.

  4. I have a few items to report that occur when working in Separated Mode:

    1. Transform panel - tabbing between the dimensions and position order still needs to be  adjusted (see previous post). In short, tab order currently goes from X > W >Y > H. It should go from X > Y > W > H. 
    2. Cmd ~ doesn't cycle through separate document windows as expected. Rather, nothing happens. If Merge All Windows is selected, making 1 window with tabs, then Cmd ~ works.

    This seems to happen in either Separated or normal mode. Artistic type is creating a layer outside of the selected Artboard. Specifically, in a file with multiple Artboards, selecting any object on an Artboard, then switching to the Artistic Text tool and clicking inside the same Artboard creates a new text layer outside the Artboard, i.e., the new text layer is at the same hierarchy level as all the other Artboards. This does not happen using Text Frame Tool. Instead the text frame is drawn within the Artboard at the same layer level as the last selected object, as expected.

     

    Finally, a request, please add/move the Find in Layers option to the main menu system so I can add a keyboard shortcut to it. I know there is a preference for this behavior all the time; however in documents with hundreds of layers it's unwieldy. 
     

    Thanks so much!

     

  5. Another option, and my preference, would be to move/add a couple of commands (e.g., Find in Layers Panel and Hide Layer) to the top level Layer menu, which would then enable users to assign keyboard shortcuts. Then you can click on an object in the canvas and keyboard shortcut your way to its location in the Layers Panel, or just hide it immediately.

  6. Hi Hokusai,

    Let me clarify. It isn't an issue of not seeing Studio Panels of Transform or Character. They both show up; however, if you look at the attached screen shot in the original post, you will see in the Positioning and Transform section of the Character Panel, that the form fields are missing for Shear, Horizontal Scale, and Vertical Scale - the three items in the second column of that section.

     

    Upon restarting my computer, the form fields have reappeared. My second post may sound confusing, because it is trying to describe confusing behavior that I'm seeing from the app. One of those "see it to believe it" things. As I mentioned, the computer restart seems to have fixed the issues. Next time I'll have to make a short video that shows the odd behavior.

  7. Update: I have restarted Designer several times, tried switching back and forth between Separated and default mode, and the problem persisted. Today however, I restarted the computer, launched Designer in default mode, and the fields have suddenly returned, they also remain while in separated mode. So perhaps problem solved? At this point though, I have two suspicions, 1) a "memory leak" or similar issue on my computer of some sort that just needed a restart to clean out the cruft, or 2) there are some issues with switching between Separated and default mode.

     

    The reason the second might be a possibility is I've noticed a couple of other odd behaviors. I created a previous thread about the tab order in the Transform panel. Shortly after learning that it was an issue with Separated mode, I switched back to default, and after a period of time, and even a Designer relaunch (I think), I discovered the tab order was behaving as if it were still in Separated mode, even though it was in default! Further, as I was testing my own sanity and the app, I discovered that when I was tabbing through the Transform fields, it wouldn't cycle back to the beginning. Meaning if I started in say W - tab - Y - tab - H - tab, etc. when I reached the end S - tab, nothing would happen. Tab did not take me back to X field.

     

    With that said, the computer restart mentioned above has resolved the odd tab behavior and the missing fields. Not sure if this is specific enough to be helpful, but I did want you to know what I was experiencing. Let me know if I can provide any additional information that you might need.

     

    Thanks! 

     

    P.S. All of this is happening on a MacBook Pro connected to two external monitors. When in Separated mode, the canvas is on one external monitor and all the panels are on the second. 

  8. Hi Jeff,

     

    I've just placed an object on my page using 1.5.5 B2 and selected the X field and pressed tab and found the tabbing order to be correct and as you are expecting!

     

    Thanks for the reply. After more investigation, I have a bit more information. The Transform panel seems to behave differently when in Separated Mode. I notice when not in Separated Mode - default mode, the tab order is as you say, but when in Separated Mode, it behaves the way I describe (X, W, Y, H), at least for me.

  9. This is a minor request. Can you change the tab order in the Transform panel? In Beta 1.5.5 B2, tab order is X, W, Y, H. The majority of the time when using Transform, I (and I assume others) typically adjust both the X and Y, or H and W in combination. It would be convenient if I could tab directly from X to Y, or from H to W. Simply put, can you change the tab order to be X, Y, W, H, R, S?

     

    Thanks for your consideration. And thanks a million for such a fantastic product! 

  10. Exactly. We are aware of the issue and we will fix it as soon as we can. The fact that it has not yet been implemented is not a reflection of how interested we are in doing the feature. Everything will get fixed as soon as we're able to get to it - hopefully it's not that far away now :)

    Thanks Matt! I'm just excited to know it's on the radar. I totally understand priorities, especially for all the new (and crazy complicated) features you're working.

  11. One have to dig into the layers panel to find the selected one, or right-click 'Reveal in layers panel' to make it show up. Why not automatizing it! Manipulations in the layers panel can be frequent. It would be a huge time saver.

     

    Yes, this would be most helpful. I mentioned a similar request here. But it was right at the end of the previous beta and might be too late for consideration. Again the benefit is substantial and I'm surprised others aren't clamoring for it.

     

    Please consider adding this as a feature.

     

    Thanks.

  12. Jeff, if you use a mouse with a scroll wheel, you might find it very useful to enable "use mouse wheel to zoom" in Preferences > Tools. With this enabled you can zoom in & out at any time with the wheel, even simultaneously while you are drawing or using another tool.

     

     

    R C-R thanks for the suggestion and for taking the time to respond, much appreciated. I use a trackpad, so it's not quite the same behavior, albeit in the right direction. Also, this method still requires a little work in terms of centering, in that it zooms to wherever the mouse is currently. I'd prefer the selected object to be centered in the view window. I know this is a nit, but when working in a tool for hours/days on end, these kinds of details make a huge difference in the quality of experience.

  13. As always, fantastic work! Most impressive.

     

    Since there are other enhancement requests being mentioned here, I thought I'd submit mine as well. They may seem minor, but they would enhance my productivity a 100 times. No exaggeration, I find myself in need of these capabilities literally hundreds of times a day.

     

    1. Zoom In towards selection - specifically when an object is selected and the Zoom In shortcut (cmd+) is used, the zoom occurs with the selected object centered in the screen. I know there is a Zoom to Selection option, which I use all the time, but frankly, 90% of the time it's too much zoom, I need to zoom out at least once or twice to see more of the surrounding context of the object I'm working on for it to be a useful view.

       
    2. Scroll to selected Layer (in the Layers Panel) - I work with files that have thousands of layers, nested within folders upon folders — and this was before art boards. I spend a lot of time in the Layers Panel, arranging, grouping, masking, renaming, etc. Scrolling through thousands of layers every few minutes is really painful. I read somewhere there used to be a behavior, maybe even in an AD predecessor, that when an object was selected it would scroll to that layer, perhaps even expanding enclosing folders. Any chance of getting this implemented again? Or perhaps a version that at least scrolls to the lowest level parent group/layer that isn't already opened (even the highest level parent would be of some use)? Or one last option that I'd still be happy with, duplicate the Context Menu (right click) option to Find In Layers Panel somewhere in the main menu, that way users could create a shortcut to quickly trigger a find. Again this simple feature would reduce effort that takes minutes down to seconds.


    Thanks for the consideration and thanks very much for all your hard work.

  14. Minor, but annoying bug, one that seems to have been around for a while. It is in the Mac App Store version and all the latest beta versions, including this one.

     

    The Effects > Outer Shadow > Color (selector) RGB Hex Slider > # (field) is not selectable with a double mouse click, actually this occurs with all the color palettes in the Effects area. The cursor can be placed in the field; however, you cannot double click the current value to select it. Nor can you click and drag to highlight. The only options are to use cmd+a or use the arrow key to move the cursor to the end of the string and hit the delete key to remove the current value.

     

    Also, it would be nice if when focusing on fields like this and others (e.g., Transform: X, Y, W, H, R, S) to have the current value automatically be highlighted, since the majority of the time, the value is being overwritten.

     

    Thanks so much

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