gdenby

Hi, Sackadelic, 1. Standard operation. Nest the texture in the logo curves. !But, the texture is black, and so is are the logo letters. Add inverse adjustment. Then nest. Kind of works. Change blend more to add. Reduce size, duplicate, and shift position, because the texture is rather sparse. Better. But the inner glow fx on the letters over draw the nested layers. Reduce the fx. Or, just subtract the vector texture from the vector letter logo. See attached. Final Vintage Sticker rev1.afdesign Final Vintage Sticker rev2.afdesign

Hi, Jante, As far as "design" goes, Designer has much of the functionality of Illustrator. I just looked at a number of illustration of technical flats, and I didn't anything that would be particularly difficult using Designer. But it is a young program. There have been a number of posts about how to replicate patterns within areas, which works differently than what is available in Illustrator. There are also posts asking about dimensioning, which at this point must be done manually. A larger consideration is "industrial." Some devices, such as those that might cut fabric, require specific file types. Designer supports quite a few different kinds of file formats, but it does not export .ai files, which are in a format Adobe owns. Also, some companies standardize on one program for all employees. My preference continuous to be using a desktop w. a tablet. I had a MacBook Pro, but rarely used if for anything creative. I suppose I should have got a track ball for it. I have an iPad Pro, w. pencil. I enjoy using it, it is more responsive than the tablet I have, but there are some downsides for me. The newest model is a little lighter, but mine from last year seems rather heavy. I don't really like having it on my lap, or using it bent over my desk.

Hi, Markee, You just got lucky. I've been using Designer for over a year now, a minimum of 2 hours a day, sometimes 6, and this is the 1st time I've run into this. As toltec mentioned, the usual practice would be to convert the ellipse to a donut/pie. Also, I messed w. various shapes of triangles. Didn't get the problem. Seems like this problem is limited 2 those 2 shapes, in exactly that alignment.

Yes, I was able to duplicate the behavior. Tried duplicating "donuts" & diamonds, and donuts and rotated squares. The anomalous results happened about half the time. The position of the corner of the diamond/square was at the center of the donut. I found that it the corner was shifted away from the exact center, the results were as expected. This also happened w. the composite operation.

Hi, markthomson, Easiest way I know of is to make long rectangles, fill set to none, and give them strokes. Combine them w. donut shapes. Maybe add some pen lines w. very thick stroke widths, and expand those. Add the shapes together. See attached, a bit more than 1/2 hour of messing around. Note, if the street ends need to be open, that requires a more work, and the results would be much more complex, and hard to modify.

There's various ways, depending on your intent. Simplest, have a layer that is the hatching, and nest it in the letter as a child.

My guess is that you may have the "view mode" set to pixel, instead of vector. See attached. Designer's method of handling vectors is that the area enclosed by a curve can have both a fill and a stroke assigned. This applies to both open and closed curves. The difference is that the break between the ends of an unclosed curve will have no stroke. If you switch the view mode to outline, you will see the wireframe w/o those attributes. The curves/ layers cannot be merged like layers in Photo. The curves/layers are subject to various algebraic operations, usually called "booleans" after the mathematician who defined the logic. These operations are grouped under geometry. But in terms of filling, the operations automatically close open curves, while converting the shapes, but giving them the attributes of the lower level. In the example file I posted, the cloak figure was a hand drawn closed shape. Then I pulled out an ellipse where the face in the cowl was to be, and subtracted that from the cloak form. Trying to put open curves together can be quite complex, as the auto complete behavior will most likely change shapes. Typically, the curve strokes are "expanded," forming thin closed shapes, which can more easily be added, subtracted, etc. The down side is that the expansion routine can generate large, or even huge numbers of nodes, which can make continued work hard to manage. Note the more evident anti-aliasing "jaggy" edges are somewhat more evident. The difference is not as great as it would appear within the application. This is when I made the screen grab it rasterizes the vector display which doesn't come out wuite clean in the browser window.

i haven't used Windows for years, so I don't recall the key selection, but when in node tool mode on a Mac, you press command-a to select all. Then click on the smooth node icon, and all the segments will be turned to curves. When the node tool is active, the smooth routine can reduce the number of nodes on the selected object if there were lots of tiny sections. W. fewer arc portions, it may increase the number of nodes, trying to make a better balance. For what you are doing, the smooth routine will probably reduce the number of nodes. Where the shape outline should be an angle, one needs to go back to those intersections and make the nodes sharp. Smooth nodes, as you've seen, spread the "tension" on them to other nodes on either side, while sharp nodes create a break. Smooth nodes can be adjusted to be similar if their control handles are reduced to almost nothing, but just going sharp is much easier. The stroke miter is what defines how the stroke traces along the underlying vector. The options are in the stroke dialogue panel under join. A miter join will give pointy crisp shapes at sharp points, while a round join can make a puffy bulge. Its a matter of finesse. What dutchshader describes causes the node to become sharp, so the tension doesn't spread, and distort the curves running between the neighboring nodes. If you are doing really convoluted curves, classical acanthus scroll work for instance, adjusting the control handles and adding extra nodes is in my experience necessary.

Hand tracing is a good skill to learn. But it is rather tricky. Your starting point using lots of sharp nodes can get you going. Here are some steps. Many sharp nodes. All nodes selected, and turned to smooth. Nodes reduced by using the smooth curve widget. Select a few nodes, and make them sharp again. After selecting some of the nodes manually that the smoothing routine left that were not really necessary, and adjusting the node tensioning handles for the ones left. If one becomes handy w. manual tracing, this can be done fairly easily. One just needs to look for points of inflection on the curve. Places where it is close to vertical or horizontal, or where it bends up/down or left/right. Just a few nodes with proper handle adjustment will work for simple shapes like this letter "g". The stroke made thicker, and aligned inside the curve perimeter. This example probably would have been better if I'd bothered w. the stroke miter options to get a tighter alignment for the stroke to the outer curve.

I just noticed there is a new thread in the desktop section about submitting a support ticket. Check that out too.

Hello, again, Do submit a post to the bug reports section.

Hi, SandraM All I can say is that I started using the Affinity products when they were at v1.4. 1.5 and 1.6 came along in about 6 months, which is fairly quick in my experience. 1.7 I think is over a year just now. Seems there is a hump to go over. There have several posts indicating the dev team is re-working some core code, and making sure the suite works seamlessly together. There is a long list of features already slated for implementation. The only thing I can suggest is that you put in a feature request. Maybe ask for a selector that does not recognize group or layer hierarchies, but only base objects. As a personal note, I can understand your frustration. I'm pretty certain this won't help, but here is an old joke. "A man came to the Buddha, and asked, 'What is the quickest way to Nirvana?' The Buddha answered 'Patience'."

Paste style will work across groups, but selecting objects could be difficult. If you are changing the way you organize the groups, "paste style" would indeed be harder if items w .the same color (or stoke attributes, etc) are spread over various groups. I looked at global color some more. One can assign a global color to pre-existing objects. For work that has already been done, any color they have will need to be replaced by the global version. I sampled a color in the "...beer..." file, and made it global. But then had to find the other objects w. that color, and "paste style" from the changed item to the rest. All changed at once after that.

As far as I can tell, the global colors need to be defined within the document, and applied to objects as they are made. When I open the "...beer..." document on the desktop, and sample the color from a stroke, and make it global, the colors do not change in the other strokes. I think the global color attribute has to be part of the object from the start. However, because you have placed objects in group stacks arranged by color, it you choose 1, and change the color, you can copy, and "paste style" to the others when they are selected.

I viewed the vids, and d-loaded the file. Here are my observations. As I understand the matter, default behavior for AD is that the marquee will select individual items, groups, or uppermost parent layers. This is true for both the desktop and the iPad version. If everything is in a group, the whole group is the selection. None of the group members are selected. Myself, I tend to group object if I want to move the or hide them as a mass. If one wants to get access to objects several levels down, on the desktop, the marquee does not work. While clicking each sub-layer, group or object within them one must hold down the option key to drill down into sub-layers, and probably also hold down the shift key to get to objects in different sub-layers/groups The same is true for the iPad version, tho' I have to little experience w. it to know just what is the equivalent of option-click. For this sort of thing on the desktop, I switch to outline view, and click whichever items I want. There does appear to be a short-coming in the iPad version. It seems that as each object is added to the selection, anything that has a bounding box inside those already selected is very hard to add. In my attached image, some of the vectors were hard to get to. Sometimes I could find no place to click and select. Other times, it seemed that the cursor had to be exactly on the vector line. I note that in one example, Procreate (in development since first release mid 2010) shows using a lasso selection. Designer doesn't yet. Would be great if it did. I see in the file items with color are grouped. But those items are across many other groups bounding areas. So unless one drags across the color layer, and then selects other group areas, it is not possible to get to the colored strokes within those layers. Considering that Designer works w. bounding box selections, seems to me to make more sense to place the colored strokes with the other shapes in a group.

Here is a sample. I haven't used the iPad version much. Often can't remember where various control panels are. I have fairly bad arthritis, and so the touch interface is hard for me to use. So the sample took quite some time, probably 4 - 5 times longer than doing it on the desktop. What you will see is 6 parametric shapes, and 1 hand drawn triangular "curve" layered in a specific order. On the side, a rough figure sketch made w. the pencil tool, w. an ellipse subtracted for the face. That was duplicated, and made darker. Then a rough shape was drawn over the darker copy, and subtracted. At this point, I had spent as much time as I could. So I transferred it over to the desktop, tweaked some of the node positions, copied the figure shapes, and grouped those. I moved it to the approximate position, and scales it down to fit. I don't do much work w. text, but suppose fitting the words into the portions might be quite fussy. thinkvector 2.afdesign

Hello, SandraM, As far as grouping by color, the iPad version will hopefully get the "global colors" that the desktop has. If you change a global color for 1 object, all other instances change. AFAIK, the iPad version does not have an equivalent. So, its not a bug, it is a feature not yet implemented. I'm unfamiliar with the term "shading." I assume it is an attribute in some other software. At this point, Designer does not have a find and replace for for multiple objects its own attributes. I don't use the iPad version much, but my experience is that if only the button for what in the English language version is named "select inside," the right most version on the bottom bar, is active, one can hold a finger down and do an extended selection within groups. Hope this helps some.

Hi, Jenny_li Here's a good basic definition: http://www.dignitasdigital.com/blog/what-is-vector-graphics-an-introduction/ Maybe think of this way. It is a little like making a collage from paper. The difference is that the shapes are flexible. And they can change color as you like. Typically, the shapes will be laid one on top of another, tho' sometimes one might fit the edges together. So, most of the time, the order that the shapes are stacked on on another is very important. You can make the shapes w. "connect-the-dots" tools like the pen or pencil, or use the built in shapes, all of which are extremely variable, tho' they will always be definite geometric shapes.

Hi, Rolf Smith, FWIW, I noted on a Corel forum that there were problems with reading newer Corel files on Graphtec cutters. I see there are some new drivers and firmware for the cutters. Considering that what you have accepts Illustrator 8, c 1998, I wonder if the cutter needs the earlier .eps v2, which is finally being replaced by v3.

Good work. I forgot all about what would happen w. a compound object.

Hi, wigglepixel, The crop tool is not destructive unless the layer is rasterized, AFAIK. I'll suggest a slightly different method that will reduce the repetitions a little. Draw a rectangle that encompasses all the vectors that need cropping. Copy it to the clipboard. Select a vector item, and intersect it w. the rectangle. Select another vector, and paste. The rectangle will be placed above it in the layer panel, so the lower one's attributes will be preserved. Intersect those. Etc. At least the primary rectangle is only made once, and re-used.

Here's something that might help. Select the "curves" object, and divide again. In the layers panel, you will see the many many tine fragments. You should also see a single curve that is the added together item, or the main parts. Delete all the bits. If there isn't already a joined form, add the large pieces again. Should work.

Hi, Nancy6107, The Affinity shapes tool create are for "parametric" shapes. These are geometric primitives, and can be manipulated in various ways. Stars, for instance, can have any number of rays. The speech callout has quite a few variations similar to shape d-loads I've seen for Photoshop. Affinity has an "assets" library that can be used to save any number of pre-made shapes to drop into a document as needed. These seem to be like what Photoshop calls "shapes." There is a default category called icons that has a few shapes that are like what I recall from Photoshop. While there are quite a few user created brushes and object layer styles available, I don't know of any icon assets at this time. Also, the Affinity suite will load d-loaded .svg shapes, thousands out there, which could be saved as an asset as you like.

Hi, Bung, The stroke expansion routine can create immense numbers of nodes w. curved objects. I've run into similar situations, and a few times did a force quit as my machine became completely unresponsive for more than 10 minutes. I've found that the problem is lessened if I select portions, and add in steps. For instance, I had several hundred power duplicated strokes with various pressure curve adjustments. They were overlapping in a cross hatch pattern. If I tried adding them all at once, the machine could barely handle the task. If I grabbed them in 1/4 bunches, each batch only took a minute or so.

Some crummy drawing, a couple of layers w. fx. Examine. No time for a tute just now. splat.afdesign