Gear maker

Hi F_Kal,
 
Draw a selection to select both nodes, the top one have the red outline. Now press and hold Shift and click the node, the red outline will disappear, release Shift. Now you can move the node, the one 'on top' will remain in place.

We'll be adding resizing (and shearing) around the Rotation Centre in 1.6, via the handles. I think it would be useful if the Transform panel used it too, but I don't know if that will be done.

The nodes and the node handles of the Pen Tool are both represented by a round circle. This is not a problem if the line is fairly long, but if you have a short line with several nodes on it all sitting next to each other, when the line is selected with the Node Tool, it is just solid circles, and it is very difficult to tell the nodes from the node handles. I find myself clicking on the handle and inadvertently changing the angle of the line when I intended to click on the node.
 
Recommend the nodes and the node handles each have their own visual identity.

It isn't very efficient time-wise, but at least for me, it goes quicker if I start with rough paths & then go back with the Node tool to refine them. The ability to bend a line segment between two nodes without having to select either node is very useful for this.

And I would say we have now gone full-circle...
 
Ouch.

Wow, just had a crash of AD 1.5.5 beta 1.  First crash for a long long time.  
 
I opened an existing document that I wanted a new one with the same dimensions.  I first checked the Document Setup of the old document then clicked on File->New.  I left the defaults it came up with but typed into the Width 634px, it was expecting inches, and pressed Return.  I had a beachball for about 40 seconds then crash.
 
I tried it again and didn't have a problem.
 
Crash 1-24-17.txt

One way to get this solved with the shadows would be, to make a copy of that car layer and then to alter the brightness/contrast on that copied layer, so you can better see the tires shape. Then make the selection on that layer and take that selection over to your original/initial car layer for performing the cut out!
 
Just captured the quick way in some other app (no AP here) so you can see what I mean ...
 

 

 
Hope this helps?

Hello kufloyd,
Alfred suggestion will do what you need, keeping the transparent areas independent (adjustable). You can group the object with itself multiple times to build the variable transparency as you wish.
 
Another alternative to have multiple transparent areas (that you can also control individually) applied to a single shape (including compounds) is to use multiple vector (or raster) masks nested to the compound shape (or regular shape). Please check the attached sample file for an example. I've used a red compound object as the main shape (which is a compound created by a circle minus a rectangle), then dragged three vector masks over the thumbnail of the compound in the Layers panel. Each mask controls one specific area of transparency. Check/uncheck them in the layers panel to see how they affect the compound object. The vector masks are just regular shapes with transparency applied using the Transparency Tool.
 
multiple_masks.afdesign

Hmm … honestly, I would rather wait until the developers have submitted an anwer to R C-R’s report …  :)
 
https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/35019-ap-ad-file-extension-lfp-should-not-be-in-infoplist-files/
 
I am a bit cautious by nature …  ;)

Hi rui_mac,
There wasn't an "official" announcement yet, just a few sneak peeks...
Light Interface: here.
Brush Stabilisation: sneak peek

Hi Charles,
Welcome to Affinity Forums :)
Regarding the first point, we are increasing the hit area for those bounding box icons which should make them easier to operate/activate.

I spend weeks without opening Photoshop, it's amazing! There are very, very few things I miss. I found most of them on the forum already, but nothing about how PS handles keyboard shortcuts, which is in my opinion better.

Pressing a shortcut, say G, selects the Paint Bucket. If you want to select the Gradient, you have to go Shit+G, and now the shortcut cycles between Paint Bucket, Gradient... But G will always select the last tool used in that family.

I have a feeling not everyone will agree, so please give us this as an option (use Shift to cycle tools of the same family) in Photo and Designer.

​Countless times I pressed B to make sure I had the Brush, and because of that switched tool!

​Thank you!

In separated mode in Designer and Photo, is there a way to change the default window size to fill my monitor every time I open or create a new document?
 
Currently it's opening or creating everything at 68.8% every time as a floating window in the upper left corner area... the floating part I expected but I'd ideally like it to fill my monitor every time. It's not a big deal but just one of those things that get's annoying on the 23rd time.

Looking at the current date, that means “next week” … right?  ;)

+1  I completely agree!
 
This is by far my biggest hangup with the program, for the exact reasons others have already explained. 
 
It negates the time savings/purpose of using shortcuts if you have to stop and think about how it will behave depending on certain circumstances, and then look over to double-check you have the tool you intended. 

Hi guys,

This has been logged but it doesn't always mean it makes it into beta's or release builds. I will definitely poke the bug report as it is being raised often enough for concern. 

Any progress on this MEB? It's a bit of a show stopper for me... and I'm thinking quite a few others.

It would be very useful to have a possibility to put the drop shadow of a photo object on a separate layer.

For triangles (& a few other similar shapes) here is yet another way to do this. It sounds more complicated than it is in practice & it has some advantages for creating a large number of triangles and ones spaced at angles difficult to drag a duplicate to accurately.
 
1. Use the Star tool to create a star shape with as many points as you want triangles. Use snapping to center it on the same center as your circles. Scale it so the tips of the points are where you want the outer tips of the triangles to be. Set it to no stroke (optional) & to the fill color you want the triangles to be.
 
2. Draw a polygon on the same center with the same number of sides.Rotate it using the Transform panel with the rotation center set to the center square in the panel (so it rotates around its center) a number of degrees equal to 360 divided by twice the number of sides. (You can enter this as a math expression in the Transform panel's "R:" parameter; for instance like 360/2*27 for 27 triangles.)
 
3. Scale the polygon so that the sides are where you want the bases of the triangles to be.
 
4. Adjust what will become the base width of the triangles with the Inner Radius parameter of the Star shape.
 
5. Make sure the star shape is below the polygon shape in the Layers panel, then select both shapes & apply the boolean Subtract operation. The polygon shape will cut away everything except the tips, leaving a perfectly spaced set of triangles:
 

 
This general technique has many variations, for example changing the Outer Radius of the star shape if you want blunted points, or using other shapes besides polygons (including other star shapes) to create different base contours.
 
To make this slightly easier to understand, I have attached a sample AD file, set up to just before the Subtraction step.
27 triangles.afdesign

Squeaky wheel here...
 
Busenitz, I don't see this as a feature, I see this as a one of the basic cornerstones of a vector app's toolset... especially one that is as cutting edge, innovative and industry leading as Designer is.
 
...would really love to see some of these core and fundamental aspects nailed before adding "x" features and/or export/compatibility functions/workflow/you name it, etc... It's these "little" things that you do hundreds of times over the course of a piece that need to be solid. They're not sexy, they're not buzz worthy, they don't make for compelling video teasers but they are absolutely essential!  :-)
 
If some of the core structure needs addressing or rewriting as suggested above, in order to make some of this possible, I would think sooner rather than later is the easier course to follow. No? 

Shiver

Instead of splitting the forums is there a mod to the forum software that would enforce tagging of posts from a list of existing options.
 
Users would have to select application and OS, before the post could be created?
 
Searches could then be filtered using the tags to limit results.

Hi,
 
The Beta Support section has separate sections for Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer and the Mac and Windows version are also separated but strangely enough, it's not the case for the Affinity Support section. Things are becoming very confusing here since users are using the term Affinity for both products. We now have a Mac and a Windows version for each product and, at least for Affinity Photo, both versions are at this time different. Many posters do not specify whether they are posting about the Mac or the Windows version.
 
I vote for a new forum structure.
 
Anyone supporting this idea ?

Word of caution: once you perform the baby daughter update, you can't downgrade. At least for 18 years or so...

It should resize regardless. If you select all the items of a group or individually. Which AD doesn't appear to do.
 
Why would I or anyone else want to size the graphic elements separately from the text on the paths?