MKM Pottery Tools

Affinity designer (2.04) freezes up when exporting pdf files of any dartboard in any document. After several force stops, the problem persists. This is a critical and fatal error for my use of Affinity Designer should this problem not be fixed. Basically, I can't get my content out to my customers. Never had this issue with version 1 of the program.

As people have noted, there is no direct equivalent to the knife tool in Adobe Illustrator. However, the subtract and divide tools (upper right on the toolbar - part of the Boolean tool set) can be used to accomplish what the knife tool could accomplish. Not quite as convenient, but still efficient. As you will find, perhaps even better once you get used to it. Select what needs to be divided, make sure you ungroup all of those items, then draw a narrow (or wide) box over (on top of) the area that needs to be cut. Select all the items and choose divide (or subtract). It is important that all elements be ungrouped. This method gives quite a bit of flexibility in terms of cutting parts from a bigger whole, or cutting out or dividing sections. In some ways, it is better that a simple knife. For trimming designs that stick out past a particular 'box', it works great.

Thanks, Abra100pro. This is nice to know! -=Rick

Completely agree with Doug. I use AD iPad version professionally and I need the rulers. I do not understand how this app could not have rulers - even on the day it was introduced!

Yes. Walt.farrell's reply is correct. Draw any size rectangle using the rectangle tool. Don't even worry about dimensions. Then select the rectangle you have just created and use the studio/transform panel to type in the exact dimensions of the rectangle that you would like. Takes three seconds total time. Definitely the fastest method I have found for exact dimensioning of objects. Also useful for the exact positioning of objects.

Hi Callum, Thanks for your response. It turns out the grid doesn't appear if, when you set up a new document, the DPI setting is brought down to zero. I did this thinking it would decrease the size of the saved document and knowing that I would not be printing the document. Once I increased the DPI setting (now I leave it as the default 300 dpi), the grid again appeared and responded to all the usual settings in the Grid and Axis Manager dropdown menu. Thanks for your help. I am, however, still somewhat confused by the the DPI setting. I create vector graphics that I don't print but use for rotary carving machines. So I never need to print at any particular dpi. All the best, Rick

Well, it turns out that if you choose to have the DPI set to 0, then the grid goes away and can't be made to appear. Curious. I tried turning down the DPI to zero to reduce the size of the document when save. -=Rick

In my Affinity Designer, I cannot make the grid appear. It does not appear if you click on View/Show Grid. It does not appear if you go into the Grid Manager and do or adjust anything. It does not appear if the gridlines are adjusted to be black and 100% opacity. I need my grid! This is very frustrating. I even uninstalled the program and re-downloaded it from Serif. If someone has a suggestion, please let me know.

I am having a problem viewing my grid in Affinity Designer. The grid I am trying to get AD to make is a 1cm grid with 10 subdivisions. No problem turning on View/Show Grid. No problem viewing the grid manager to make sure the units are correct, and the colors of the main gridlines and subdivisions are ok. No problem adjusting the opacity of the grid to an appropriate grid. No problem turning off the Automatic grid and choosing basic in order to create my own grid. Artboard size is 25cm x 25cm and there is only one artboard. In fact, no problem doing any of the things I have done countless times to create, adjust, and view a grid in AD over the last several years. But no grid now appears. Documents have been closed. New ones created. AD shut down. Computer shut down. But still no grid can be persuaded to appear. So I am very open to any suggestions as to what simple thing I have forgotten to do. Many thanks for all suggestions and help!

Personally I agree that tutorials without dialogue and just music are quite difficult to follow. So I don't watch those or subscribe to those channels. There are plenty of non-native speakers whose dialogue is quite helpful and whose videos are very instructive. You don't need to speak perfect English, you just need to communicate good/helpful information. -=Rick

Concise and helpful. Many thanks!

Very useful tutorial! Many thanks, Steve. Question: didn't AD use to have a spiral tool?

Very nice short video! Well done. One recommendation: perhaps no music in the background as it makes it a bit more difficult to understand your words. Many thanks for taking the time to do this video (and others)! -=Rick

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