frankstallone

Known Issues in this feature
A list of unresolved issues for this feature, reported by users
AF-2772 - Expand Stroke fails on curves that have a large 'step' in the Pressure Profile AF-2700 - [iPad] Line Width tool missing name in tool flyout AF-2791 - Line Width Tool: Adjusting Line Width will sometimes jump to a nearby line AF-2806 - Line Width Tool causes curve to clip when used on curve inside a Symbol acting as a mask on a group AF-2807 - Set Line Width At Point dialog should say Width instead of Weight Released Fixes
A list of issues for this feature, available in the current beta build
AF-2769 - Clicking with the Line Width Tool inserts a 0% pressure point AF-2768 - Line Width Tool: using the Layer > Transform commands while the Line Width Tool is active leaves the pressure points misplaced (in their original position before transform) AF-2766 - Cannot use Line Width Tool in Designer Persona in Publisher Windows Upcoming Fixes
A list of issues for this feature, which will be available in a forthcoming build

Apps: Designer
Platforms: macOS, Windows and iPad
Affinity Designer now includes a new width tool which is available by default alongside the pencil tool in your toolbar:

The Line Width Tool gives you an on-document way of editing the pressure profile of any curve. For example the curve below has 3 pressure points (5 including the start and end pressure). While in the Line Width tool the position of those points are shown along the curve, and you have the ability to drag to change the width and position of them. 
You can also click to add a new pressure point, or double click to remove any pressure point on a curve.

There are various modifiers available which you can see in the status bar:
Shift + Drag - allows you to modify the width at any point without adjusting it's position
Cmd (Mac) / Ctrl (Win) + Click - manually enter the width required at the chosen point
Ctrl (Mac) / Ctrl (Win) + Drag - move the point position without adjusting the width
Double click - remove pressure point
Additionally you will find some other options in the context toolbar when using this tool:

Adjust Line Weight - if this is turned on then should you drag the width of any point to be greater than the current line width (i.e. greater than 100% pressure) the line width will be increased to allow you to drag the width unrestricted. If it is turned off then the maximum width you can drag to is 100% of the set line width.
Allow point reordering - This option allows to you to specify whether you want to allow the tool to drag one point past another along the curve, effectively swapping their order, or not.
Snap to curve nodes - This will show any nodes on the curve as small white dots and will snap any pressure points to those nodes
Snap to widths on same curve - this will snap the width at any pressure point on a curve to other widths which already exist on that curve. This only applies when holding shift (i.e. you are adjusting the width without altering the point position).
Snap to curve geometry - this will snap the width to the geometry of any selected curves (again if you are holding shift). 

Hi All,
I'm pleased to let you know we have now added a Line Width/Pressure Tool and improved stroke/curve drawing and closing to Affinity Designer - available now in the 2.5 beta...
 

Also, the Size Variance slider must have a value.
And that's what you can still adjust on already existing strokes that have the Texture Line Style stroke active.

I know this topic is from last year but I have a solution and what causes desync of symbols for me.
First, what most commonly causes desync of symbols for me is when I change the DPI of the file and resize it. Specifically this usually causes any line settings such as thickness, style, or otherwise to lose sync.
What I've found that fixes this for me is I make the changes I'd like to propagate across the symbols to the element that's not syncing then I duplicate that element and delete the original. The duplicate gets propagated across all the symbols and includes your changes and will continue to sync from that point forward. So any changes you make it to the object will now sync across all the symbols.
I thought I'd post a reply in case it could help someone. I know I've spent hours trying to figure out a fix.
 

I believe it's more to do in the "back end code" and how the software treats the text. The Frame text will have a solid line as it's fully synced. The artistic text I believe it's just a "Text frame with a frame=disabled tag( back-end), therefore the dashed line and the "unlinked attribute: Frame text " (front end). It's just a thought. Will log this as an improvement with our devs in the meantime. 

But that does not explain why for Frame text in a symbol there is no popup advisory saying it has an Unlinked Text frame or a dashed line indicating that it does. Both Art & Frame text should be the same, right?

I believe the Unlinked Text frame is because both text tools are technically the same, one being constrained within a box(frame text tool), probably with a tag in the code, while the other one is not. If this applies to the symbols, then the "tag being off" for the artistic text would be the Unlinked attribute. The symbol might look for all the attributes, and if any are "disabled" - Artistic text, it will display the unlinked "error". 

That is what I would like to know! It clearly is Art Text because the thumbnail icon is the unframed capital A, yet it has the "orangey red" dashed line & the popup says its Text Frame is an unlinked attribute. Changing the bounding box changes all instances of the symbol it is in, so text frame must mean something else, but I have no idea what.

How can you have an Unlinked attribute: Text Frame on an Artistic Text Layer that isn't in a Text Frame? Or is it?  
I assume the Artistic Text is actually in a text frame of sorts, either way it syncs fine if size is adjusted just the same as the Text Framed text does.
 
What would have to happen for the unlinked text frame to show it's "unlinkedness"
 
I have created symbols from Text, both artistic and framed and in each case the symbols have behaved as symbols regardless of the "orangey red" dashed lines being present

How are you doing that? If you create a symbol from a group or layer that includes text objects, or from a simple ungrouped Art or Frame text layer, it is created with sync enabled for all attributes (except for Art Text for the "unlinked attribute: text frame" thing, whatever that means.)
 
So unless you disable Sync for one of that symbol's instances, you should be able to change the font size of any one instance & all the other instances should change as well.

Curiously, on my iMac it is orange but not quite the same orange as in your screenshot. Typically, I get this:

My Layers panel is detached & floating, & it also varies a bit depending on where on the screen it is placed, with the H value going as low as 17. This may be because in System Preferences > Accessibility > Display I have "Increase Contrast" and "Differentiate without color" enabled. Those settings cause at least one other oddity (which I reported as a bug long ago), that being the disclosure triangle & circle next to parent layers in the Layers panel always being a very dark, almost pure black grey in the Dark UI.

Dash - Some elements are not synced ( hover the mouse over the layer name, it will tell what's not synced)
Solid - Element fully synced

Why would you turn off Sync, alter an instance of a symbol and expect that altered symbol to sync back to the parent symbol in its entirety when syncing is turned back on?
 
By turning sync off while you edit an instance of a given symbol you are effectively creating a new "Child" symbol, so, the child symbol still retains some of the Parent symbol's characteristics but it also has its own characteristics.
 
I think what should happen is if you alter an instance and effectively make a child symbol, that symbol should automatically be created in the Symbol Panel with an indication that it is a child symbol of another parent symbol, possibly in the same way layers and child layers work?

Great question! In my situations I am not turning off syncing. I am creating symbols with text that is already unsynced. Let's say font size is 12px and I want to move it to 13px. I cannot do that, consistently.

It seems to depend on if it is Art or Frame text, but the dashed red line for Art text doesn't actually indicate that the text is not synced. For this text in a symbol.afdesign test document, the canvas & Layers panel looks like this:

The Layers panel shows the Art text ("Art text also synced!") as not synced, & hovering over either instance in the Layers panel says "Unlinked attributes: Text Frame." But that doesn't make any sense to me, particularly since editing either instance of that Art text's bounding box changes it in both instances, just like happens for the Frame text.  

Hi @frankstallone,
 
A broken orange line means that some features are not synced. If you need to see what features, hover your mouse over the element with the broken line and it will tell you what it is. It's hard to tell what's synced and what's not in your file without seeing it. 
 
I suggest you watch this video to understand how symbols work:
 
Thanks,
Gabe.  

I've made a symbol that pretty much has everything you can add to a symbol in AD and the damn thing still continues to sync, I've got adjustment layers, images, shapes, gradients, pencil lines, groups, fx, text and transparency, what the hell am I doing right? 
 
Joking aside, Frank can you drop the offending symbol into another Document; firstly to see if you can duplicate and sync and secondly to help GabrielM to help you, I'm sure he would give you their dropbox link so they can take a quick look for you, they delete all files received after they have worked out what's wrong and it doesn't come onto the forum.
 
Sometimes you have to give a little to get a lot.
 
#Advice

I tried braking it as well and still no luck. At this point @frankstallone it would be helpful if you could share the broken symbol with us so we can have a look. You can use the link below to upload the .afdesign file. It would be an internal access and only staff can see the content.However, if you decide not to share the file, there is little we can do to replicate the issue, and therefore little we can do to help you solve it. 
 
https://www.dropbox.com/request/rpDVfLVADO8XGEaWA3tb
 
Thanks,
Gabe. 

Okay so maybe it's a font or text issue?
What "type' are you using Artistic Text, or Frame text Tool and what font? Have you tried changing the font to a system font or just a different font? What are the parameters of the text? Symbol with all manner of settings: Uber Symbol.afdesign 

I think I've replicated Franks problem.
Turned off Sync Rotated the text from 0º to 15º on Symbol 1 Turned Sync back on Rotated the text back to 0º on the Symbol 1 and none of the text on the other symbols moved. Rotated the text on the other symbols and all of the symbols with the same angled text moved. So, if you edit a Symbol when sync isn't on, it effectively detaches that Symbol from the rest, Realigning the text back to 0º does not effect the sync i.e. it does not attach it because its back to being the same. This is kind of a forced detach.

Yes I was just playing with the uber symbol and if I rotate say the png image in the centre they all rotate, so the symbol itself isn't detached just the text. If I turn sync off and move the png and then turn sync back on the png doesn't sync, so it's not just text.
 
BUT... Whatever you edit while the sync option is turned off will not sync when the sync option is turned back on but all of the other options will move in sync. So now it's like a partial detachment within the symbol but the symbol as a whole is still attached and in sync with all the other symbols. Putting the objects back in alignment with the rest of the symbols will not recover the sync option for the unsynced objects. The only way to regain that as far as I can work out at the moment is to drag another symbol onto the artboard.
 
You cannot resync a previously unsynced object.

@firstdefence is absolutely right. Once you turn the sync off and make an adjustment, it will break the line and the sync for that adjustment. Once it's broken, it cannot be re-synced. Just as in the above video, even if you come to the original value, while the sync is off, you will still not be able to re-sync it. So, the software behaves normally. 

You cannot re-sync a previously un-synced attribute of an instance of a symbol. The built-in help & the video tutorial are not very clear about this. The Symbols help topic does say this:
... but it also says this:
The "until synchronization is enabled again" part implies turning sync back on for a symbol instance would re-sync all its attributes but obviously that is not how it works.
 
IOW, while synchronization is disabled on any specific symbol instance, a change to any of its attributes is permanent & cannot be undone by reenabling synchronization. As you mentioned, the only way to do that is to replace that instance with a new one from the Symbols panel.
 
It might be useful to have a forth "Resync" button in the panel to do that....