Aammppaa

Are there any plans of adding a two-dimensional alignment option? Akin to the "Tidy Up" option present in Figma.
I understand the objectives of those programs are a bit outside of the central scope of Affinity, but additions like that seem like the next logical step. Thank you!

Hi there,
 
that is a pretty good question, and I doubt there is a direct way which relies on snapping objects to objects only. But for an approximate way to do it (which might eventually become an exact way, as soon as snapping is improved), you might try this recipe:
Suppose you want to reflect a triangle across a line (1). Then duplicate the line and rotate it by 90 degrees. Hold Shift to constrain the rotation values (2). Select all, but make sure that the bounding box created by the lines alone encloses all other objects. This will make the intersection point of the lines the center of all further transformations. Now duplicate all your objects and flip the whole duplicated object group (3). Finally, with the mirrored duplicate still selected, rotate the object group around the center, until the lines coincide and the duplicate triangle will be the image of the original one under reflection. This is the approximate part, but if you calculate angles beforehand, you can achieve a fairly exact result here as well (4). Done (5, 6). I really wonder if there is another method …  :unsure:
Alex

F hell mate... I feel like I am taking crazy pills when I read this forum sometimes... What is this, kindergarten? "I need to press alt? Ow no! not possible to remember!". 😶 
Dont ever try to use some 3D software if this is too much for you to remember. Sorry to be harsh but that sort of things are taking me by surprise. So maybe they should stop adding new functionalities because you know - new things to remember... "Oof" indeed.
BTW - great option indeed.

Some users request to get the blend mode dissolve.
While waiting, you may use a simple procedural texture filter to achieve the same effect with more flexibility.
Just add the filter from this document, and adjust the opacity parameter.
The filter layer must be nested to masking position of the parent layer.
Please note that I might have to delete the video at some time when I exceed my storage quota.
You can create the PT filter from scratch:
add formula
step(noise(rx,ry),a)*A
add input variable named a of type 0-1
You may use any of the noise functions, e.g. perlin noise.
Bonus:
you can adjust the point of origin. While the PT filter UI is open, use the mouse and click at the visible canvas. Then click-drag to move the origin.
 
 
Screen Recording 2024-01-09 at 18.31.39.mov
dissolve.afphoto

I was about to post saying exactly this - especially when you don't drag the cursor over the selection but manually select objects one by one:

Key object align to.mp4 It is somewhat apparent that you want to align to that object when you nominate something as the key object, but would be nice for the "Key Object" to show up in the align options too

Apps: All
Platforms: macOS, Windows and iPad
When in move tool double clicking a vector object takes you into node tool. It has been suggested that a double click on an object while in node tool should do the reverse and take you back into move tool (you could previously double click on the canvas / not over an object to return to move tool but this both loses your selection as well as not being possible if you are zoomed in). This has now been implemented in 2.4.

Hi All,
Below is the list of all new feature and improvements which are included in the 2.4 beta (bug fix list is available here).
To learn more about these features please click on the link to go to each feature's dedicated post. To give feedback or report bugs against any of these features please reply to that same post (also check out bug reporting and feedback tips).
Layer States added to Affinity Designer and Affinity Publisher DWG and DXF Export added to Affinity Designer Set Selection Box Double click / tap to switch from node to move tool Filename available as variable in Export Persona Ability to lock insertion target Space modifier for Lock Children Space Horizontal / Vertical now considers key object Size / Rotate objects to same 32-bit HDR PNG support added (PNG Third Edition) Additional RAW format support Getting the 2.4 beta
If you have not enrolled into the beta program yet and would like to take part, you can do so here. This will immediately give you access to the latest 2.4 beta builds to try for yourself.
If you are already enrolled in the beta program you have two options:
1. If you still have the 2.3 beta installed, you can now run up those beta versions and you will be prompted to update them to the 2.3 beta.
2. If you have uninstalled the 2.3 beta, you will need to go back to Your Account -> Downloads and product keys and find your previous order for the Affinity Beta Software Program, and you can download the 2.4 beta from there.
Thanks,
Ash

Apps: All
Platforms: Windows, macOS and iPad
While transforming any object with the move tool (whether resizing, rotating, skewing or moving) you can now hold space to temporarily toggle Lock Children on or off (to achieve the opposite behaviour of what you currently have set in the context toolbar).

Apps: All
Platforms: Windows, macOS and iPad
We have now added the ability to lock all insertion targets (Behind, On Top and Inside) in all apps. This is activated by holding Alt when pressing either of those buttons in the toolbar. This is particularly useful for those who like working from top to bottom in the layer stack, meaning you can now lock Insert Behind on so all new objects you create are inserted below the current selection.
The insertion target buttons are available in the top toolbar on Windows and macOS:

And can be found in the edit menu on iPad as shown below. On iPad you can lock these either by holding Alt when you tap on the appropriate option (from command controller or attached keyboard), or alternatively by long pressing on the button.

Apps: Designer and Publisher (+ some changes to the existing feature in Photo)
Platforms: Windows and macOS
We have now added the States panel to Affinity Designer and Affinity Publisher which previously only existed in Affinity Photo. Layer states allows you to either:
Capture the current visibility states of your layers across your document Create queries based on various criteria to use to make a selection or toggle visibility of layers This feature is particularly useful to manage different variations of your work. As an example, one of the social ad campaigns for our recent Black Friday promotion was created in Affinity Designer across multiple artboards. Each artboard had 4 variants for English, Japanese, German and French language.

 
Previously if you wanted to toggle between the English and French version for example you would need to toggle the visibility of the appropriate layers on each artboard separately - not particularly workable when you have many artboards / spreads. The new states panel gives you a new way to work with designs like this. 

In this case I could set up a query with criteria which captures all my Japanese layers. From the states panel click "New Query" at the bottom, I called the query "JA" and set up my criteria to be "All Art Text and Frame Text layers that have a layer name which ends in JA" as below:


Because on each artboard we had used the consistent naming convention that all Japanese text has a layer name ending in JA, all English text has a layer name ending in EN, etc. it made it easy to then set up 4 queries for each of the languages. We could alternatively have used a convention like all French variants are tagged yellow, English tagged Red, etc. 
So now to switch from English to Japanese across all artboards I can just turn off everything that fulfils my EN query, and turn on everything which fulfils my JP query using the visibility on/off buttons next to the queries in the states panel - so in two clicks end up with the below:

 
While this example is only including text, of course I may have had different imagery for each locale and could have included those in the same queries to still have one button to toggle text and images of each language on and off. Also, as it's set up a query like this, should I add additional Japanese specific layers to any of the artboards and name them ending in "...JA" my JA query will automatically pick them up.
In Publisher the same principles apply giving the ability to globally toggle different layers on and off across all spreads in your document which match the criteria you have specified. While building complex expressions is easy, you may also find you wish to have a query for something simple like "Layer Type is Images" giving you an instant way to turn all images on and off across your whole document.
Additional Notes
As well as toggling visibility of queries there is an additional button to make a selection of all layers which fulfil the criteria specified in the query. This is also a new function not previously available in Affinity Photo. For those who used the States panel in Affinity Photo you will notice we have changed the name of what were previously called "Smart States" to "Queries". This reason for this is in the future we anticipate adding a new feature to this which would be better described as a Smart State (this will be something you can build from multiple queries). This will be something which we add in a future update. There is other new functionality we plan to bring to this in the future - namely ability to create presets and some level of integration with export options - but again that will be something for a future update.
 

I'm curious why these new functions were added to Alignment rather than being added to Transform, though. They feel more like object transformation actions than object alignment actions. Am I missing some aspect of how this works?

I believe this has been requested before: In the case of the Desktop version, having a Panel dedicated for this alignment actions would be better than the current Dropdown option. Still, nice additions.  
Best regards!

Apps: All
Platforms: Windows, macOS and iPad
Within alignment options you will see three new options to make all items in your current selection adopt the same width, height or rotation. By default this will transform all objects to match the first item selected, or alternatively if a key object has been nominated (alt-click) it will use that as the source.
Additionally you can choose to maintain the aspect ratio of the objects being resized.
On desktop this is available via the alignment dropdown:

And on iPad via the alignment options panel which you can get to via the transform panel:

 

Apps: All
Platforms: macOS, Windows and iPad
Previously when you cycled your selection box this was only a temporary operation. You can now make this permanent...
From the select menu there are two options:
- Cycle selection box (this was the existing option)
- Set selection box (the new option)

Also note the shortcut for these - [Full Stop] to cycle and [CMD + Full Stop] to set on macOS and iPad or [Ctrl + Full Stop] to set on Windows.
The new feature is that after cycling to the selection box you want you can now permanently set that for your current selection by using the Set Selection Box command.
In the example below, I have two shapes which are rotated by the same amount. Therefore when they are selected by default the selection box is oriented to match the shape's rotation. Now if I want to permanently make those shapes have a selection box which is oriented to my page I can cycle to regular bounds and then Set Selection Box, which will now make that persist every time I select those items in future.

 
A couple of other notes on this feature:
As well as cycling to the base box and regular bounds of an object, if you have a grid set which has a different rotation to your page (or, are working on an isometric plane for example) you will additionally get the option to cycle and set the selection box to be aligned with the the current planar bounds of the selection. If you have a multiple selection which includes objects rotated by different amounts, if you wish to set your selection box for all objects in your selection to match the orientation of one of them you can set the one you want to match to be your key object. Then when you cycle your selection box the "base box" option will match that object's rotation.  
 

Re-adding this as it's still not implemented and seems the most logical approach.
I imagine the majority of users wouldn't want to nudge by pixels when their document is set to millimetres, or nudge by mm when their document is in inches.
At the moment the nudge distance is absolute/fixed, why not give an option to make it relative to the document units.
Existing:

 
Suggested:

 
 

Yes! The project I was talking about is finally completed and just got published online! The spiral tool was used to create the tapes inside the reels. You can view it here;
 
 

Never noticed before, but certainly not seeing the Presets cog on the context tool bar on my PC.

We are pleased to announce Affinity Designer 2, Affinity Photo 2 and Affinity Publisher 2 are now all updated to version 2.3.1 (for all existing customers on all platforms).
Here are links to the release notes
Affinity Designer 2.3.1 for Windows               ( Microsoft Store and Affinity Store [as sandboxed MSIX and unsandboxed MSI/EXE] ) Affinity Designer 2.3.1 for macOS                  ( Mac App Store and Affinity Store ) Affinity Designer 2.3.1 for iOS                        ( Apple iPad Store )
  Affinity Photo 2.3.1 for Windows                    ( Microsoft Store and Affinity Store [as sandboxed MSIX and unsandboxed MSI/EXE] ) Affinity Photo 2.3.1 for macOS                       ( Mac App Store and Affinity Store )  Affinity Photo 2.3.1 for iOS                             ( Apple iPad Store ) 
  Affinity Publisher 2.3.1 for Windows              ( Microsoft Store and Affinity Store [as sandboxed MSIX and unsandboxed MSI/EXE] ) Affinity Publisher 2.3.1 for macOS                 ( Mac App Store and Affinity Store ) Affinity Publisher 2.3.1 for iOS                       ( Apple iPad Store )  Please follow this thread here to get notified when any new releases are made.

See, I knew it had to be something simple I missed! Thanks!
 

I often have to deal with polygonal pathes, which represents curves*). Look at this comparison between Designer and Inkscape**) (there is a red copy of the line to visualise before and after):
 

As far as I observed, designers "fit to curve"-functionality doesn't handle sharp edges at all. Am I right with this observation? Are there plans to change this? This would turn Designer from an almost perfect to a perfect map drawing tool!
*) the pathes are derived from openstreetmap which has no real curves. So all curves are approximated by small straight lines which results in a large number of nodes, which I'd like to reduce.
**) In case of Inkscape make sure that "Deleting nodes preserve shape" is selected in the preferences.
 

Here's a list of the bugs which have been fixed in the beta build 2.3.1 (2212) (RC1)
(fixes since the post above for 2.3.0.2165)
Please only reply in this forum to comment on any fixes which are in this list (in particular to let us know if you notice that something we say is fixed isn't!) To report any new bugs please do that against the relevant new feature post, or if unrelated to new functionality in the Other bugs & issues forum.
Changes/Bugs affecting all platforms
Saving a file with a SVG/PSD embedded automatically switches the policy to linked when re-opening the file AF-1416 Bugs affecting Desktop (Windows and macOS)
Data Merge can no longer parse JSON files AF-1429 Bugs affecting Windows
Add Pages from File- Page number value cannot be specified Can't edit colours in second document palette AF-1545 Bugs affecting macOS
Floating and redocking a document creates an empty floating window which cannot be closed AF-1499 Bugs affecting iPad
Files containing SVGs crash on open AF-1413

Real time interaction cannot be done when using Power Duplicate, so I consider that a major difference. Another major difference is the number of steps added to the history panel. PD would add 50 steps for 50 duplicates; MDE just one. There is also the MDE Previous Settings option which I think has no equivalent in PD.
So it is more than "just another" interface for PD; it is a significantly better & more capable duplication tool.
EDIT: Also don't forget that MDE can be also used to transform single objects without creating duplicates, making it a useful alternative to using the Transform panel, which in some configurations might not be visible.

We are planning to release a 2.3.1 patch to address a handful of important things and then start 2.4.0 beta.
We think it's important to address a few high customer impact bugs quickly in a 2.3.1 release, in a fast/stable manner.
The release of 2.4.0 with improvements and features and many fixes will likely take a while to be "release ready" (need a longer beta testing cycle due to having more significant code changes).
We have builds for both 2.3.1 and 2.4.0 in internal testing at the moment. I would expect these to both be with you in the first half of this month

No, they are separate.
But the issue remains that the object is rotated, by the Rotation, and can not be un-rotated in any way other than manually, one object at a time.
The new Move Data Entry is really just another interface for the existing Power Duplicate. It can be more convenient at times, and allows for precise numerical entry. But it has all the shortcomings of Power Duplicate, such at the one illustrated in this thread, and that values are relative not absolute.
 
 
Move Data Entry.mp4    

It would be nice to have same expressions for Move/Duplicate Panel (when you hit Enter) as there are for Transform fields in the Transform Panel so you could move object horizontally the same amount as it width by typing "w" in the Horizontal field or to move it twice the width by typing "2*w" or in some weird case to move copies horizontally three times the amount of the object height by typing "3*h" and so forth.