R C-R

"Finished" means the company is no longer in business so there will be no more new features, no more updates or upgrades, no bug fixes, & no more customer support.
 
It also means it will get better & better in our memories the longer it has been since we used it.  :lol:

If by fold/unfold you mean to collapse/expand parent layers to hide/show their sublayer children, select one or more of them in the Layers panel, then right click & select "Collapse Selection" or "Expand Selection" from the popup menu.

"Replicate/Blend" is listed on the Affinity Designer feature roadmap, so eventually we should get this feature.

There is also the Navigator Studio panel, which not only has a zoom slider but also an Advanced mode that allows users to save & name view points at arbitrary zoom levels & canvas positions. The View menu includes "Move to Next View Point" & "Move to Previous View Point" items, which can be assigned custom keyboard shortcuts. This can be very useful for quickly jumping among various parts of the canvas.
 
The Zoom tool also offers two modes of operation, & there is a preference that can be set to zoom with a mouse scroll wheel or equivalent, which makes it possible to simultaneously zoom in & out & use another tool like a brush or the Pen tool at the same time.

I still see a purple car on every browser I have tried with that page. No problems with the Gary Ballard pages & every other one mentioned here using Safari ... which all of the pages say does a good job of color management.
 
So color me confused.  :unsure:

"Finished" means the company is no longer in business so there will be no more new features, no more updates or upgrades, no bug fixes, & no more customer support.
 
It also means it will get better & better in our memories the longer it has been since we used it.  :lol:

It is the same for Macs. I am not disputing that in any way. I am just pointing out that (as I put in italics to emphasize in a previous post to make it as clear as possible) if someone is configuring a system for maximum performance with the Affinity apps, then adding RAM is not going to do much because they have been optimized to use much less RAM than (as a prime example) Photoshop, even with huge files.
 
This is one of the major benefits of Serif's developing an entirely new code base for Affinity. There is no need for dedicated scratch disks or all the tweaks PS requires to optimize its performance.
 
If you are going to run both PS & Affinity, then sure, more RAM will help, but since a lot of users are interested in ditching PS & Adobe's subscription model, this is something that should not be overlooked.

From Adobe's Optimize Photoshop CC performance:
The reason Adobe recommends a different drive is so the heads don't have to keep seeking to different tracks to service I/O operations that have nothing to do with its memory swaps. Defragmentation further reduces the need for head seeks. However, this would not be necessary if:
 
1. PS did not keep so much image data cached in RAM to begin with, and
2. It took advantage of modern page oriented VM memory management techniques like those built into OS X & (I assume) Windows.
 
As you may remember from Affinity Review #1, the Affinity apps were designed from the beginning to use a memory management system capable of high-end photo editing without requiring enormous amounts of RAM. So, unlike PS, it does not require as much RAM to begin with, & even when it has to hit the disk for swaps, it will leave that task to the memory manager in the OS.
 
Getting back to the original topic of this discussion, this is why -- if someone is configuring a system for maximum performance with the Affinity apps -- the CPU is where the money should go. Upgrading RAM is not going to do much.

"Finished" means the company is no longer in business so there will be no more new features, no more updates or upgrades, no bug fixes, & no more customer support.
 
It also means it will get better & better in our memories the longer it has been since we used it.  :lol:

"Finished" means the company is no longer in business so there will be no more new features, no more updates or upgrades, no bug fixes, & no more customer support.
 
It also means it will get better & better in our memories the longer it has been since we used it.  :lol:

Affinity Designer 1.6.0 update now available on the Mac App Store
 
Affinity Designer 1.5.5 update now available on the Mac App Store
 
Fixes include
Reduce unwanted screen updates that caused visual artefacts when moving artboards around. Resolved issue with pixel layers inside symbols which are then transformed. Controversial change to pixel documents: 100% view now maps document pixels directly to screen pixels. If you have a retina Mac you will now see 100% view showing a pixel in the document on each pixel on your display. Wireframe view mode now allows the user to select locked items by click or marquee. Basically, if you're in wireframe view and you can see it, you can now click it to select it. This makes wireframe view much more useful for toggling on/off to select specific items in the document. With rulers visible and a high-frequency input device such as a pen tablet (or a mouse in macOS Sierra) the rulers would make the document update very slowly, this has been resolved. SVG export of gradients is now more compatible with QuickLook. Stability fixes for text. Fixed bug applying OpenType contextual rules. Fix for crashes with 32bit documents on Lion and Mountain Lion. Fix for right-clicking a text object in the Text tool failing to select the current word if the user is over the caret. Improved PSD import/export of HSL adjustments. Improved PSD import of fill layers with empty stroke masks and also parse line origination data. Import badly-formed PSD files created by Marmoset. Fix for occasional crash with embedded documents. PDF export fix for Overprint flag which was not getting unset at certain times, leading to items unintentionally overprinting. Fix for system chime noise when holding Cmd+Alt+Space. Fix for layers panel showing incorrect document information when changing from Separated window mode to normal mode if multiple documents are open. Fix for some images opening and saying they are 1dpi. Numerous other stability improvements and fixes.  
Many thanks,
Team Affinity

Affinity Photo 1.6.6 is now available on the Mac App Store.
 
Affinity Photo 1.5.2 update now available on the Mac App Store
 
Fixes include
Fixed RAW / HDR on macOS 10.7, 10.8. Improved reliability of automatic lens corrections. Fixed some cosmetic stepper issues in Tone Mapping. Fixed a frequency separation crash in 32bit mode. Allow PSD import to skip over ‘psdM’ blocks. Fixed Undo Brush crashes. Fixed issues which could make the Library fail to load. Fixed a potential crash-on-close bug. Fixed a TIFF issue which was preventing people from working on existing documents, or loading some TIFF files properly. Fixed spelling issue that inserted the correctly spelt world without deleting the incorrect word. Numerous other stability improvements and fixes. Many thanks,
Team Affinity
 

"Finished" means the company is no longer in business so there will be no more new features, no more updates or upgrades, no bug fixes, & no more customer support.
 
It also means it will get better & better in our memories the longer it has been since we used it.  :lol:

Yet another way to do this in Affinity Designer is using Symbols. It is a bit tricky & complicated to set up but the benefit is it remains editable. There may be simpler ways to do it but this is what I did:
 
1. With snapping on, draw a circle centered on the middle of the canvas. This will eventually form the inside curve, so size it accordingly.
2. Draw a straight vertical line with the Pen tool from the center to beyond the top edge of the circle.
3. Divide 360 by the number of 'teeth' desired. Use a calculator app if this is not an integer.
4. Duplicate the line in step 2. In the Transform panel, set the anchor point to the bottom middle one & in the Rotate ® field copy in the number from step 3.
5. Select both lines with the Node tool & from the Context toolbar select Join Curves, then Close Curve. This should produce a triangle shape with a bottom point centered in the circle. 
6. Move the circle to above the triangle in the Layers panel, select both, & use the Boolean subtract to get a 4 node shape that will form the basis for the Symbol.
7. For convenience, fill this shape with a color & set its stroke to none. (optional)
8. Do not alter the bottom curved segment's nodes but at this point you may begin adding some of the 'tooth' shape. For now it doesn't have to be precise or match the final shape.
9. Make this a Symbol by selecting it & pressing Create in the Symbols panel.
10. Select the Symbol with the Move tool, make its Rotation Center visible from the Context toolbar, & move it to the center of the canvas. It should snap there.
11. Duplicate the symbol in place (like with CMD+J).
12. On the canvas grab the rotation handle of the duplicate, hold down the Shift key & rotate it 180*. (Using Shift should make it snap to exactly 180* when you get near that point.)
13. Select both instances of the Symbol in the Layers panel & duplicate in place. (You should now have four symbol instances.)
14. With the two still selected from step 3, in the Transform panel, set the anchor point to the center one, in the Rotate ® field copy in the number from step 3, & press Return, Tab, or whatever to rotate this pair by precisely this angle.
15. Power duplicate this pair repeatedly until the total number of Symbols is either the same number of 'teeth' as desired for the final shape if that is an even number or twice that number if the number of teeth is an odd number.
16. If it was an odd number, select every other instance of the symbol (they should be stacked next to each other in the Layers panel, making this less tedious to do) & delete them.
17. You now should have the same number of Symbols on your canvas as the number of 'teeth' for your final shape, precisely aligned edge-to-edge to form a circular shape with inner edges that form a perfect circle. Yay!  :)
18. At this point it is a good idea to stop & save the document, maybe also duplicating it for future use.
19. Now the fun part: using the Node tool, select any one instance of the Symbol, add or move nodes as desired to create the final 'tooth' shape. Because it is a Symbol, all the other instances will assume the same shape automatically.
 
A few notes: This should be adaptable to any number of 'teeth." Because the Rotate ® field in the Transform panel accepts any rational number even if it does not display all the decimal places, the precision of the Symbol placements is limited only by what you enter there. In the attached 21 tooth example, I used a value of 17.142857 copied from the Mac's built in calculator, & that seems close enough for most work but it isn't really precise enough for 100% accuracy, which you can see if you zoom in to extreme levels.
21 tooth example.afdesign

I was just about to recommend that link as a much better test :P, "whacked rgb" displays good to me in a color managed aware app and purple as it should in non aware. That still doesn't explain why the car is purple also in properly color managed apps.

Something is definitely odd (maybe with the page itself?) because I cannot select the image in the normal way to copy it, not with Safari, Chrome, Firefox or with any other browser I have. I have to right click on it & use the browser's 'inspect element' or 'view page source' or some such function to get to it to copy or save it. From what I can tell, the image source is https://petapixel.com/assets/uploads/2012/06/S2fzq.jpg & even if I load that URL directly into any of the browsers I still get a purple car.

According to that, Safari supports all four profiles on the page, yet the pentapixel page still shows a purple car, contrary to what it says about every browser tested in OSX correctly implementing ICC profiles.

Which of course is dictated by the need to keep the chip from melting or throttling down because more heat is generated on the die than can be removed with all cores running at full speed, even with exotic (& very noisy) cooling systems.
 
The noise generation factor is yet another thing to consider when deciding on the best system for one's needs. Some of the high end desktop PC's, particularly of the DIY variety, are so noisy when working hard that I can't stand to be around them for long. It isn't just that the sound is annoying -- it also affects my ability to concentrate on what I am trying to create. It is even worse for audio work.  :angry:
 
Watching the Mac Pro video reminded me of something else. With the super fast ports now available, it is becoming progressively less important to cram everything into one box & trying to keep the whole thing running cool & quiet.

Articles like that have been around since at least when Windows first graduated from being little more than DOS with a GUI slapped on it. There will always be cheaper PC's, complete with the latest "bullet point" specs that look so impressive on spec sheets, yet somehow Macs continue to make "best of" & "editor's choice" lists throughout the industry.
 
It is not hard to understand why: there is more to what makes a computer useful than the parts it is made from. It also involves how well they are integrated together & with the OS it runs, if it strays too far onto the bleeding edge of so-called cutting edge technology, how much user intervention & maintenance is required to keep it running smoothly, how difficult it is to get support if & when that is needed, & what the initial & total cost of ownership will be.
 
No Mac & no PC is perfect in this respect, nor will one ever be. It is all about finding the best balance for one's needs, wants, & tastes. There are lots of things to consider for that, & the best choice will be different for different people. That won't change, either.

Something is definitely odd (maybe with the page itself?) because I cannot select the image in the normal way to copy it, not with Safari, Chrome, Firefox or with any other browser I have. I have to right click on it & use the browser's 'inspect element' or 'view page source' or some such function to get to it to copy or save it. From what I can tell, the image source is https://petapixel.com/assets/uploads/2012/06/S2fzq.jpg & even if I load that URL directly into any of the browsers I still get a purple car.

Unless you have money to burn there is no point in buying a more powerful computer than you need, particularly if it means you can't afford something else just as important for your work (or hobby) like a better camera or other apps.
 
This is not a "one size fits all" kind of thing.

I don't know what to make of that petapixel page -- earlier today I opened it using Mike's link & the car was orange. 15 minutes ago I did the same thing with the same browser (Safari 10.0.3) on the same Mac with exactly the same settings & now it is purple.
 
Just to make things that much more confusing, the Cameratico link provided by Lojza says my Safari browser is properly supporting ICC 2 & 4 profiles ... but using the Safari Develop menu User Agent item to try to convince the site I am using some other browser keeps mis-identifying it, for example as Chrome 42.0.2311.135 when the User Agent is set to MS Edge or as Chrome 51.0.2704.103 when it is set to Google Chrome Mac.
 
For the petapixel page I have also tried emptying Safari's caches, turning off all extensions, & opening it with other browsers but the car remains purple.

All that you say is true, but in terms of the original question that started this topic, AP only runs on 64 bit systems & is very memory efficient compared to apps like PS. To get the best speed while using it, CPU power is the determining factor.
 
According to what the developers have said, the Affinity apps do not make much use of the GPU, at least on computers running Intel CPU's. (More details in this post by MattP.)

I vote that along with the made up name "gradient slider" we add "de-Adobe myself" to the terminology we use here in this forum.  :lol:

Not to put too fine a point on it but regarding RAM that is a bit of an oversimplification. Obviously, if you do not have enough RAM to avoid the OS constantly paging data out to disk & paging it back in then performance will suffer. However, more RAM than is needed to avoid that will not appreciably improve performance. (You might see something in an artificial benchmark suggesting that it does, but in real world practical use the difference will be negligible.)
 
That is part of why Apple now provides the "Memory Pressure" graph in Activity Monitor, with its green, yellow, & red zones, & why AP's Info panel also displays a "Memory Pressure" value. As Andy Somerfield explained here (& you not so long ago linked to in a reply in a different topic), not until Memory Pressure hits 100% does AP start using the disk.
 
Of course, you may need more RAM to run other apps, but as long as Memory Pressure stays below 100% in AP, you don't need to add more RAM to increase its performance. If that is your goal, invest instead in a more powerful CPU.