ChadStyle

@Sean Pthank you so much!  This solved my problem.  I have been a long time Affinity user (at least 8 years or so now) and I have run into a handful of logos over the years that won’t allow me to adjust the stroke alignment.  I ran into this problem today and decided to search and I found this thread.  You are right…I found three open points in the logo that was preventing me from offsetting the stroke.  This is a huge time saver for me as I use this process often for machining on our CNC router and in the past, the workaround I have come up with is time consuming.  
 
Just wanted to say thank you and leave a comment so others may find this thread and solve similar issues.

Ok AD Gurus...I need your help once again.  I have searched the forums with no luck.  I may be searching under the wrong terms so if you have a link to an existing thread, I would appreciate pointing me in that direction.
 
My wife got a Cricut for Christmas and the design software is garbage.  Luckily, Affinity Designer is my go to app and I have been able to help her on many occasions.  Today she asked me to convert some PNG files into SVGs for her to cut.  I use the Image Vectorizer app but the results aren't that great.  The circles have flat spots and are funny shaped in general.
 
I decided to clean up the template for her and there are a bunch of small circles that need to be placed on a circular path evenly spaced.  How can I align and space these shapes easily?  I am sure there is a trick or tool that I am overlooking.  I have attached some screenshots so you can see what I am trying to do.
 
The first screenshot is the monogram.  She has a handful and if I can set up the template, the letters are much easier to do.  The second screenshot shows the potato shaped circles.  The last shows the circles I created and will cut out of the shape once aligned...just need to figure out how to align perfectly with proper spacing.
 
As always, thanks in advance for your help!
 
Chad

Hey all,
 
So sort of two different topics here right. 
1) place an (odd) number of circles evenly around in a circle.
2) evenly distribute objects along a path that's not so friendly. Could be a spiral, free-form curve.... whatever.
 
A more robust distribute toolset, which we obviously need (and I believe is in the works?), could of course address both issues in one tool.
 
But for now....
 
1) I have a different option other than CMD-J worth mentioning (imho). CMD J is very powerful, but for a large number of objects it can get a bit.... tedious. Even if you're CMD-Jing just a few elements, grouping, doing another transform, CMD-Jing, grouping etc....
This method takes about a minute (if I'm not talking trying to describe what I'm doing  ;)) .
And that's a minute if you're doing 9 objects or 999 objects.
Video (sorry about the clickety-clack... I come down hard on my keys).
 
2) That's a tougher one. Could be done.... but very labour intensive, and relying a little too much on eyeballing etc.
I would use the tape measure concept discussed in an earlier thread (can't find it at the moment) to place nodes and divide the path in order to snap objects to end points. Like I said, PITA.
EDIT (smacks forehead): Of course ;)  you can just use a copy of the curve as a Text path and use a bullet character (circle, square, or something more ornate) tabbed at even distances (or just use letter spacing). Then convert to curves. 
If you know how to make your own font it could be anything  :) .
 
 

All I'm saying is sometimes it is not easy to determine centers or sizes accurately enough to get acceptable results with Power Duplicate based methods. ChadStyle did say he was looking for a technique he could use on a regular basis, & with some designs that not infrequently does complicate things enough that one has to resort to other, more tedious & less precise methods like tracing over the original.

That method is an excellent one if you are starting from scratch but there are some things to be aware of if you are trying to clean up/repair an existing design that opened up in Affinity with some irregularities like the misshapen circles in the example from the first post.
 
The most obvious one is if the imported design is not symmetrical, it may be difficult to determine where to place the guidelines the bottom edge of the first rectangle is snapped to.
 
The other is that if the circles (or whatever other set of circumferential shapes you need to duplicate) are not touching in the original design, you will need to add a step after creating the first rectangle to resize the shape from its center to reduce its size to match the original's dimensions before grouping & duplicating anything. If you don't get that right, you would have to either start over or resize each duplicate individually, which would be tedious.
 
This would be much easier if the Transform panel honored offset center points for entering rotational values, although determining the exact offset center point for the rotations still could be problematic.

Actually, I was playing around with this again.  If you want an odd number, just divide the number into 360 like the above option.  So 360/45= 8º of separation.  Follow the same procedures as above but change the color of the bottom circle that you put in the 6 o'clock position (This will help you to identify it later).  Enter your rotation into the rotation box and duplicate it all the way around the circle (not just half way like before).  Now just delete the offending circles that you changed the color on and you should now have your evenly spaced and odd numbered circles in a circular pattern.

I have heard of people finding the circumfrance of the circle and then making a line the same length of the circle circumference.  Then you could space your 45 shapes (or what ever the odd number is) evenly across the line using the space horizontally tool.  Then you could create a new brush using those shapes.   Create a new circle using the brush and I guess this might work.  Especially if you have different kinds of shapes that need to be spaced evenly.  I know it's possible but it sounds like a pain to me.  Plus, if she is using a vinyl cutter, the brush would no longer be a vector shape that could be cut out.  
 
It would just be a lot easier to make an even number of circles and rebuild it.  I doubt that anyone is going to actually count the number circles other then you. 
 
On a side note, how are you exporting your AD files into your cutter software? What format? 

There is currently only one way of dealing with an odd number of items to duplicate using the CMD-J Power Duplicate method similar to what Signguy suggested that I am aware of, & it is neither very easy or elegant.
 
The basic idea is to use the "Show Rotation Center" option to offset the rotation center of the first item to duplicate to the desired center point of all the items. Depending on the symmetry of the design, this center point can be determined by selecting the group that includes all the items in the imported file or by adding a shape snapped to its edges (or if necessary by eye) & noting the x/y coordinates of that center point in the transform panel. If needed, create a new shape & using the Transform panel, move its center to that possession. Use its shown center point as a guide for where to place the offset center point of the first item to duplicate.
 
That is not very easy to do to accurately to begin with, but the next step is even harder. As with Signguy's method, figure out the needed angle between two items (the easy part) & then (since the Transform panel does not honor offset center points) you have to drag the rotation of the first duplicate to that angle using the rotation handle in the workspace (the hard part). It can be done with reasonably high accuracy, but it may require zooming out and moving the pointer very far from the initial click location to get fine enough control over the angle.
 
Once that is accomplished, it is easy to use Power Duplicate to add the remaining items, but don't be surprised if it takes several tries to get this right.
 
Assuming they add offset rotation center support to the Transform panel in the future, this should be much easier to do but for now it is the only way I know to do what you want, other than with the various totally by eye approximations you probably already know about.

This has been covered a couple of different times on this forum.
 
The easiest way is as follows:
 
1. Draw a circle using the circle shape and hold the shift key to constrain its proportions.  
2. Drag the circle to the top of your design in the 12 o'clock position.
3. Select the circle and duplicate it using either Copy/Past or Command J key combinations.
4. Drag the second circle to the 6 o'clock position while holding the shift key to keep it in perfect alignment.
5. Decide how many dots that you want your overall circle to contain.  Make sure it is an even number and divide it into 360.  (ex. 360 dots divided by 46 = 7.8260869565º of seperation)
7. Click on the center rotation spot in the transform window.
8. Select both upper and lower circle and hit CMD-J to duplicate them.
9. In the rotation box (transform window) enter the degree of separation that you came up with.
10. Continue to hit CMD-J until your circle fills up with the required number of duplicate shapes that you wanted.
 
 

Purpose: Features / Improvements / Fixes 
Status: Beta
Requirements: Purchased Affinity Designer
Mac App Store: Not Submitted
Download: Here
 
To use this beta, simply download the file from the link given above and double-click on the file to open the installer. Follow the instructions to install the beta version. The beta sits alongside the Mac App Store version and will not interfere with it.
 
- Fix for users running OS X 10.11 El Capitan Beta.
- Improvements to vector export - particularly when converting colour formats.
- Only show items in Export Persona which will be visible in the export.
- Print what is shown in the view (i.e. do not honour exportability settings when printing, unless in Export Persona at the time)
- Added ability to zoom to 100% by double-clicking the Zoom Tool's icon or 'Zoom to Fit' by double-clicking the View Tool
- Zoom Tool now zooms in/out during mouse drag about the drag start location. Zooming to a rectangle is still available by holding Alt/Option
- Improved PNG import
- Path Text baseline improvements
 

Yeah, I think the work the team at Apple have done with Metal is just awesome :)  The best bit of all (that most people don't seem to understand) is that everything that uses Metal gets faster - and they've made OpenGL, CoreGraphics and lots of their other core technology use Metal - so although we use OpenGL (not Metal directly) the performance increase is noticeable! :)  We're not in the slightest frame-rate limited on the GPU in El Capitan - which is nice! :)

We're looking into this right now and will issue a beta to fix it ASAP. The problem seems to be related to our Layers panel at this stage. El Capitan was working fine up until Developer Preview 5 - but betas occasionally break things, so it's not surprising really. We'll try to have it sorted out soon.
 
If it's of any consolation, I'm also in the same boat... I have 3 Macs at the office and now I can't run Designer on any of them (and I feel very sad!) :(
 
Thanks,
Matt

Hi,
 
I just updated my MAC to last Beta 5 of OS El Capitan (15A235d) and I found that any Affinity app works.
They open but when I try to do something then crash and remains at same window.
 
I know that's not you fault because this is a Beta but it's strange that all the previous betas was working fine with Affinity products and now I can't use the programs.
 
Can I do something?
 
Thanks very much for your support.

Hi DavidMalcolm,
You can get the latest Beta from here (usually pinned at top). After installing it you will be notified trough a dialog when a new update is available (with a link to the download).
Note that the current Beta available there (1.3.1.26723) doesn't work with El Capitan. There will be a new one soon with the El Capitan issue fixed.

The new Betas with the El Capitan issue fixed were already released: Affinity Designer Customer Beta (1.3.1.26820) and Affinity Photo Customer Beta (1.3.1.26820)
 
Hi ChadStyle,
​The Mac App Store version should receive an update soon too.

Hi Chad,
Check this link. I've been listing some learning resources there. Hope it helps.

You can bet on that ;)  
By any chance, have you checked Affinity Designer's roadmap?

Yeah, for some things Affinity is already a very capable application, however for others we are still lacking in some areas. We just need some time to get there...

Hello ChadStyle,
Welcome to Affinity Forums :)
Currently there's no warp/perspective distortion tools to distort the text directly. Both are already on our roadmap to be implemented later. The only way to create that type of distortions is to do it manually or using some creative workarounds.

Hello, Chad!
 
I looked at your thread. Unfortunately, MEB is right.  The only perspective tool available is in Affinity Photo Beta  but once you start manipulating  your text it will automatically be converted to pixels. There no easy way around it. You have to take it to another program that will allow you to adjust your vector text's perspective then import it back to AD for further adjustment.