Aongus Collins

Latest benchmarks...

Revised comparison of recent beta benchmarks. [Dell Precision 5520, 16GB RAM]

FWIW, here is a comparison on my system between benchmarks of the two most recent betas with hardware acceleration. [Dell Precision 5520, 16GB RAM]

Yes, I can reproduce this issue. Here is a screenshot of my preferences. Windows 10 Pro, Build 18363. All drivers up to date. Dell Precision 5520, i7-7820HQ @ 2.90GHz, 16 GB RAM

i7-7820HQ CPU @ 2.90GHz 16.0 GB RAM NVIDIA Quadro M1200 (4GB) + Intel HD 630

Thank you for your hard work and rapid response especially, as mentioned above, under the current emergency circumstances.

Yes, please!

I've posted my opinion on the Windows Ink issues in the Designer 1.8 beta forum, but it applies as much to the final Photo release. Using a Wacom tablet (Intuos 5 M or Cintiq 22) with Windows Ink is a horrible experience. That's why Clip Studio, Krita, Rebelle, Blender, Cinema 4D and other animation/graphics software either allow WinTab or have incorporated workarounds. Of course there are good reasons for Serif to make the change. But I can't get work done in 1.8X because of the current Ink issues. I have been using Designer since the first beta on the Mac. My workaround is to disable pressure sensitivity in Affinity, and use other software for brush work, then import into Affinity for final polishing, colour management, typography and export to online or print formats.

Update: I managed to repeat the freeze, twice, each time using the Pencil Tool to do a rapid sketch of a cartoon character. In one case, the Pencil controller was set to Automatic. In the attached screen recording, the controller was set to Pressure. It made no difference. The first of the 2 freezes was most serious, since the Quicktime player used for the screen recording also froze and I had to restart the computer. Crash_AD_1.8.mp4

This happened to me once, using a Wacom Intuous 5 medium-size tablet running on an older Mac (OS 10.9.5, 8GB RAM, Radeon HD 6750M card with 512 MB VRAM). Unfortunately when I attempted to repeat the freeze, with a screen recorder running, it could not be repeated.

For the non-subscription price Serif charges, the current feature set is more than generous. At some point I'm sure there will have to be a paid 2.0 upgrade to support further development; my credit card is at the ready!

Thanks! Your method works very well. Using a dashed stroke for a railroad is a great idea.

Michail, Here is a screenshot showing the process in more detail. I’ve also uploaded the file. For consistency, each set of roads is now on a layer level, not a C-level (that was an oversight). The lines are simple open curves, no boolean or compound operations were involved. I hope this is clearer! Road Map.afdesign

Nils, Michail, Yes, using layers can resolve the issue of varying road widths. Here’s another example, using open curves. As toth explained in an earlier post, when curves are open you can achieve a perfect illusion of 2 parallel lines. In the Appearance Panel the lower stroke must have a Butt Cap, and the top stroke a Square Cap. In this example the thinner strokes are on on a separate, upper layer. Although the roads don’t really join, they look as if they do... due to the way the uppe curves have been placed to cover the borders of the underlying curves.

(split from this announcement post) Thanks for a great update. As a quick test, I played with the appearance panel. Specifically, I tried drawing a basic street map, as you might see in a leaflet for a local business. Using the new multiple strokes capability, it’s possible to do to such work quickly Affinity Designer. First I drew the roads using a heavy dark stroke. Then in the appearance panel, I added a second stroke, in a lighter colour, above the first stroke. That produced the effect of parallel lines, with a fill in between. The technique will work only if another new feature in 1.7 is used: when using the pen tool, the "Add new curves to selected object object" button on the context toolbar must be selected. Then the lines blend together. The second stage in this exercise was to duplicate the artboard containing all the elements. On the second the strokes have brush styles to give a more hand-drawn style. This is a quick, very rough test, and I’m looking forward to exploring the latest Affinity advances in more depth!