Ian R

I am very much aware of Sketchup's file support, I have been using Sketchup since 2006, so no, you misunderstand the reason for my request, I am not here in this thread to discuss other applications' file support. I am interested in Affinity file support in this thread, not Trimble or Sketchup or suggesting using other programs... Indeed with that logic I could use Adobe Photoshop or Gimp or a whole range of other applications. Sketchup's Style Builder requires .bmp files for constructing custom strokes for creating custom styles.

Perhaps you could ask them yourself rather than seemingly posting a comment on an issue you clearly don't have a problem with? Whilst I agree Trimble could include other file types, it is a very basic program and perhaps bitmap format is the only one that is simple enough... I don't understand your comment about 'Perspective formats' - it doesn't make sense for Sketchup Style Builder. Affinity Photo is a raster based image editing software, so I'm very surprised it doesn't cater for such an old classic format

I'd like to have the .bmp as a saveable format. not for print. Sketchup Style builder requires its files to be bitmaps

I'd be interested in knowing why disabling Hardware Acceleration helps (or can help) with reducing tablet or brush lag. Whilst it seems counterintuitive to me, it has reduced the very significant lag at times of the brush tool. I'll continue to use the brush tool this way for some time now to see what happens. I should add that the lag I experience is not particularly when using large brush sizes, but small brush sizes more often

@debraspicher excellent explanation. I have experienced almost all of these issues... its hard to parce apart some issues because sometimes one's fingers and key presses and clicks are faster than the lag, so it can stack up, leaving some quite unfavourable results as you might guess. selecting anything for me once I have drawn in the viewport seems to create the issue. I have other issues if I roll back the driver for my wacom intuos , I can't try this out.

I also have been having a possible similar frustrating time with my tablet and AP since V2. There seems to be a certain number of executions in the viewport window - for me personally - that need to occur before my intuos pro medium ceases to work on the menu icons area. I then have to either alt tab out and back in or use the mouse to select an icon for the tablet to become responsive again.

+1 for this request... I get pdfs of garden plans with comments annotated over, with additional things like marks for edits and view points for visualisations also noted down. I need a way of converting these pdf images with their notes included into importable jpegs or pngs for the modelling software. Alas Affinity doesn't import any pdf comments or lines, and leaves me no option other than going to use another piece of software to fill in.

The question for me is what version should I use since they all seem to be unstable. Just yesterday after 5 or 6 hours of work, saving regularly, I had V1's restore/update system corrupt a large file such that it was completely lost, so the only backup I had was unfortunately 3 days old since that new file was totally lost. I've had V2 public version stall and lag on brushes so its not useable to me for work, and the beta seems to be crashing due to loading and saving and the restore file system has corrupted some of the work too. Luckily, I've saved often and I also do not have any files on any external drives anymore. Its a genuine concern when I choose to support Affinity(and love their apps) and what they are trying to do, but its literally cost me days of work. Please Affinity continue to focus on this issue - it can be an extremely disheartening and a tense experience to use this software...

I have been using an external 1gb SSD for my main saving location. I'm now moving to an internal one to see if this affects the issue. This is based on a hunch I had a few months ago and also here: "The Affinity apps open files in a manner that favours speed, but comes with the downside of being slightly less stable when editing from external devices, USB drives or network locations. For this reason our team recommends using internal drives where possible to reduce the chances of said corruptions occurring." ... included to link up same threads and convos.

I went back to using AP1 because it was at least more stable than AP2.. However, I just lost about 2 hours work because the auto recovery file corrupted the file I was working on,with no option for a recovery dialogue box appeared upon next opening, only that the file is corrupted. What are we to think of Affinity development if we are being ignored in such a vital situation? Auto recovery saving was set to the standard 300 seconds, but what good is an auto recovery option if it corrupts the original file such that it cannot be opened at all? How many users are actually experiencing this? Is there anyone from Affinity acknowledging this please? I know there has been staff in this thread but that is about the recovery backup interval, not about the fact of this bug corrupting files.

Glad I found this thread. Baited breath...

Hi, I have an all AMD pc and had it overclocked at 2% - my PC was crashing alot using Affinity and other software. However, since I turned off overclocking, using Affinity has become much more stable, as has the pc in general. Practically no black screen crashes or resets needed. Not my intention to muddy the waters of this thread, just to say my AMD 5900x and 6800xt with 32gb of ram doesn't crash with a black screen, hasn't done using V1 or V2 of AF Photo since I fixed the issue (for me). It has crashed sporadically from time to time ... reason unknown at present. ... as an aside... I do have a separate regular issue, when working in the viewport the rest of the app (icons, menu, shortcuts) eventually freezes after a given number of operations (I use brush tool mainly and have masks and live filters operating, but can happen at any stage). I then have to move to the taskbar and choose another app or use ALT+TAB to flick between windows back to Affinity (Photo) and the app responds again as it should. I thin kiots connected to windows explorer in windows 11 as I had this issue in other apps such as chrome, but its much much worse in Affinity software for some reason. Hardware Acceleration left turned on. I will see how it goes with it turned off, and get back here if there's a difference. There's other bugs to such as brush lag, pan tool sticking on, lag on brush use (quite bad in AF Photo V2 compared with V1) and others but I'll try to get over to those threads too. Windows 11 latest update and AMD Adrenalin V 22.11.2

The files are stored in an external 1tb samsung portable ssd. I will try do as you ask. Thanks

Weirdest one I've found so far... Happens perhaps 1 in 20 times or so - I will try report back whether it is only using ctrl + o or if its through the file menu or double clicking a blank view port, but opening a file (for me) sometimes results in the file actually being downloaded to the default downloads folder. the Next time I try open the same file from its proper location it opens fine.

Yes sorry I was talking about PC. However, even on the new V2 of Photo it does the same, and it sometimes even closes the program without a chance of performing the workaround close I mentioned

Apologies I am on PC and there is a close icon in the top right. When on PC If this is clicked then the 'failed to load document...' box closes and the file stays open. One can then save a copy and saving the file into the original location as the original file name works. I am assuming you are using the Mac version?

I have noticed an error on recovery files, and it seems to force you to close the file after trying to save it because the recovery data gets corrupted somehow. There's a discussion on recovery files (linked) here where I have maybe found a little work around for the corruption. It does not solve the overall discussions happening about auto saves and the like :

I'm not sure if its always the case, but when the error in the recovery file occurs and it says the file must be closed, you can click the X in the top right and close that error window and save the work to another location... and then save it again as the named file in the original location. Don't take my word for it but I'm pretty sure we have a work around here.

I would welcome an autosave which allows greater control and possible separate versions saved in a different location - you could say that's a backup which you can recover your autosaved recovery file from, but then people would be really confused what label to give it.. an autosave backup reserve restore - forget about the words. I'm sorry I tried to use some correct terminology and slipped up a bit, no need to dissect my words... What's important is the functionality

It needs to be stressed that it is not an autosave function. Such a function would give you options for time intervals of saves. An auto-restore after a crash as well as a proper autosave function would be appropriate I think. BTW I'm only responding on here at this moment because I have had another crash on saving the file ('Save Failed Access Was Denied'). Fortunately this time the restore option functioned well and I didn't lose much.

I have been getting very unfortunate crashes where the restore file is corrupted and no file can be restored. If I get into an image and lose track of time (please don't reply by saying the obvious 'you should save regularly', it won't help resolve matters, because sometimes I forget, simply put). Being lost in the creative flowis an important part of the productivity. I'd like to support the call for an autosave proper, like most other software. When I use sketchup it saves very regularly and because it (also) suffers from these unexpected 'bug splats' as they call them, the auto save saves me alot of repeating myself. Affinity, please give us autosave proper!

An added complication and confusion for me personally, I have found, is when I have made, for example, a simple pixel image and saved it as a Affinity photo file, then if I open it up in Publisher the next time I go to look at the file, it is often displayed with a publisher icon, although I did not save it as a publisher file. If I have saved the file as a designer file and then view it in publisher, the next time I look at the file in the OS explorer it is using a publisher file. I accept that Affinity says these file are interchangeable, but I used to use the same name in different file types for example if I was working on a vector version of a bitmap/pixel image and I could also tell which was which, now I can't

I think M1000 is making a good point and for me personally I've never seen that windows has more extra options to display such as File Extension. I wonder why Microsoft chose to have options for both [file]Type and File Extension. Surely these should by definition be the same, For example, a .txt file is a text file, and what it is opened by can change for sure, but we see Windows has a column called Type (note its not 'filetype', but is there a difference? maybe in some far fetched semantic definition) AND also a column called File Extension... Showing File Extension is what I have been assuming what Type has been showing me all along. Now I see how Windows has confused me in the past - it is in fact showing what program opens it and not necessarily what file type - although I use the icon change to see visually and then it's obvious to me what program will open it. Maybe they should have named it program type. Confusing naming conventions. It's clearly a decision by Affinity to allow this to happen, as M1000 points out - not all programs do this File Extension is by default hidden away in some extra options whereas Type is shown as standard in a column. On the other hand if Affinity didn't know they had done this, its a bug, which is hard to believe. But anyway I found this interesting and I've learnt more. Now I'll go and start my own thread on another confusing file type subject, which I'd like to understand.

This would be handy for sure.

Here's a scenario for you Affinity: I start using a brush I test the size I see it's too big so I reduce the size (selection of brush type disappears) I then skip to a marquee tool to make a mask or to the pointer to move something I then click B to go back to the brush tool and trust I have the same brush type and size and start painting because I can't see which I have selected then I use a different brush for a different effect and change the size (and also lose the selection of said brush type) losing the knowledge of knowing which brush I have selected I click on the brush I want, and in so doing I reset the brush to it's default, so I have to modify it to get it back to how I wanted. Time goes by with every selection and modification Making custom brushes is absolutely necessary to work efficiently in AP, but I find it very unintuitive. These things make me frustrated and when you're working under tight deadlines the annoyance levels go up and up. I love Affinity software but this issue really needs to be fixed. Please give us an easy way to know which brush we have selected and/or modified (just a simply blue dot but the brush selection to show it's modified?) I could go on, but lets hear from you Affinity - we'd really appreciate it.