MKM Pottery Tools

Very helpful! Thanks!

Is it possible to terminate an ongoing and time consuming procedure if I don't want it to continue. For instance, some boolean procedures, such as add or combine, take a very long time to complete - 5, 10, or 15 or more minutes. How can I terminate this procedure before completion so that I can do something else in Designer for iPad? As it is, the slow procedure just blocks me using Designer for quite a while. In actuality, the geometric drawing I am currently working on is not all that complex. It is mystery to me why these procedures take so long. There are no hard drive memory constraints on the iPad Pro - there is plenty of hard drive space. The Boolean Add procedure that I am currently struggling with has been going on for 15 minutes now and designer is still working on it. A bit frustrated, here. Just want to end the procedure and move on to other tasks! -=Rick

Hi Dan C, thanks for your help with this. It is difficult to achieve locational precision without the ability to nudge a node or a selection. So, for me, it is important.

Hi Dan C, Thanks for your help with this matter. Yes, it definitely needs rulers!

Fingers or the Apple Pencil only provide a certain amount of precision. I need to be able to nudge a node similar to what the arrow keys do on a computer. Not sure how to do this on an iPad. Many thanks!

I do detailed drawings in iPad Pro Affinity Designer and need those rulers, but can't find them anywhere. This is pretty basic, so I apologize if it is right in front of my nose! -=Ricjk

Hi Jason, Thanks for your blog, and your artwork. Really enjoyed it. But something remains a mystery. From my point of view, everything you did, including all the work in CSP or ProCreate (or Concepts), can so easily be done in the iPad Pro version of Affinity Designer. For me, the iPad Pro version of AD just immediately made these other programs obsolete. It is easy to import or create your own brush styles, and working with vectors is as easy as moving the Pencil across the screen. And it very straightforward to organize objects into groups, and then more groups. I don't really even think of layers anymore, I just group things to keep the overall drawing organized, and then of course organize objects (brushstrokes, shapes, etc) into what goes on top and what goes below. But this group 'layering' is group specific. So when you mentioned how difficult it was to manage layers on the iPad, I wondered if I am just missing something. I, too, deal with thousands of individual objects. And I guess I wonder why you are still working with several different programs, each of which seems to me to be just a small part of AD? Please don't think I am criticizing your work method - I am not. This is a real question rooted in my own experience with AD and other iPad design programs. Thanks, Rick

Most commonly, a color gradient needs to follow a curve, such as the fender of a car or the curved edge of a cloud. How do I get gradients to do this and not follow the usual linear, conical, or round formats? Thanks for any help with this. -=Rick

I am VERY interested in a tool for Affinity Designer that would work the same as the 'Knife" tool in Adobe Illustrator. That is, it would separate and trim complex vector designs. So, for instance, a vector circle could be divided into two vector half circles, both half circles being complete but separate vector objects. So if you needed to trim 100 circles all into half circles, then you could do it all at once, and very quickly. Currently, this ability does not exist in AD, so I have to manually trim all the various vector objects at the edge of a vector drawing. If this is available in AD 1.6 please let me know. If it is coming up, that would be great to know and look forward to as well. Thanks, Rick

I am VERY interested in a tool for Affinity Designer that would work the same as the 'Knife" tool in Adobe Illustrator. That is, it would separate and trim complex vector designs. So, for instance, a vector circle could be divided into two vector half circles, both half circles being complete but separate vector objects. So if you needed to trim 100 circles all into half circles, then you could do it all at once, and very quickly. Currently, this ability does not exist in AD, so I have to manually trim all the various vector objects at the edge of a vector drawing. If this is available in AD 1.6 please let me know. If it is coming up, that would be great to know and look forward to as well. Thanks, Rick

I am VERY interested in a tool for Affinity Designer that would work the same as the 'Knife" tool in Adobe Illustrator. That is, it would separate and trim complex vector designs. So, for instance, a vector circle could be divided into two vector half circles, both half circles being complete but separate vector objects. So if you needed to trim 100 circles all into half circles, then you could do it all at once, and very quickly. Currently, this ability does not exist in AD, so I have to manually trim all the various vector objects at the edge of a vector drawing. If this is available in AD 1.6 please let me know. If it is coming up, that would be great to know and look forward to as well. Thanks, Rick

I am VERY interested in a serious version of Affinity Designer that would be functional (advanced functional) on the iPad Pro. The iPad pro is great, but there are few serious programs for it other than Affinity Photos, which I have. Many of the design programs are very Lite. But I really need to do serious design work on my iPad pro and hope that Affinity Designer has a future on the iPad Pro platform. Thanks, Rick

One item that I have been looking for from the beginning is the equivalent of a 'knife' tool in Adobe Illustrator. The ability to trim a complex vector form along a line is very important for my design work and something that requires hours of work to do without a 'knife' tool. Does version 1.6 have this tool, or its equivalent?

I am transitioning from Adobe Illustrator and am having a difficult time with the layers. For instance, when I am one layer creating an object (a circle, for instance), that object automatically moves to the Art Board layer. Also, since every single thing on a layer has its own sublayer, it is almost impossible to manage the layers easily - you have to sort through hundreds, sometimes, of sublayers to get to the main layer, etc. I am struggling here to do something that is very simple and easy in AI. There must be something that I am missing. I have looked at all the basic tutorials, but they don't address these kinds of issues. Many thanks for any help. -=Rick

I am struggling with Affinity designer layers. I come from the world of Adobe Designer, with objects on specific layers and carefully separated. But I am completely baffled by layers in AD! When I select a layer and then add an object, that object is immediately shifted to the Artboard layer. When I drag it up to Layer 1 (or Layer 2), where it was supposed to be, then a second Layer 1 or 2 is created. In each layer are hundreds of objects, which means it is quite difficult to move from one layer to another, or even find another layer, because you have to scroll up or down so far. there doesn't seem to be a command that forces all sublayer objects to not be viewed - in other words, to simplify the Layer panel display so that it is somewhat manageable. Things were easy and very manageable in AI, even though I might have many tens of layers. Now, I can even get a single object to be created on layer 2 - it just automatically plops itself on the art board layer - even if that layer is locked. I have read all the available information on layers, but they don't address any of these problems. Yes, I can create, delete, or move a layer up or down. Yes, I can give it a name and a color. But no, they won't lock, they won't allow me to create an object on that layer (always automatically creating the object on the art board layer), and the sheer overwhelming numbers of sublayers (one for every object), makes doing anything with layers heinously difficult and time consuming. What am I missing? HELP. I am trying to shift to AD, but Adobe Illustrator is looking so sweet and easy now. All the best, Rick