hperticarati

I really like the responsiveness and immediate feedback about symbols in Affinity.
But managing them is not as easy as it could be, much of that happens because of the lack of some functionalities in Symbols panel.
 
What I'd love to see in an updated version of the Symbols Panel:
List view Custom categories to groups symbols Search bar Ordering options: manual, alphabetical Easier renaming: select one, double click the name, and when finished, press tab to rename the next one  
Features to manage symbols in the artboard:
Contextual menu to replace a selected instance of a symbol in the artboard by another one on the library Option to, when cmd+click on the symbol, do not select it's layers, but the whole symbol. (This is useful when you want to select a symbol inside a complex hierarchy of groups and layers, but do not want to edit the symbol.)  
Other advanced features
Ability to nest symbols inside symbols Ability to override nested symbols  
Well, this is what I'd like to see regarding symbols. I hope that this adds something to the discussion about the roadmap.  

I really like the responsiveness and immediate feedback about symbols in Affinity.
But managing them is not as easy as it could be, much of that happens because of the lack of some functionalities in Symbols panel.
 
What I'd love to see in an updated version of the Symbols Panel:
List view Custom categories to groups symbols Search bar Ordering options: manual, alphabetical Easier renaming: select one, double click the name, and when finished, press tab to rename the next one  
Features to manage symbols in the artboard:
Contextual menu to replace a selected instance of a symbol in the artboard by another one on the library Option to, when cmd+click on the symbol, do not select it's layers, but the whole symbol. (This is useful when you want to select a symbol inside a complex hierarchy of groups and layers, but do not want to edit the symbol.)  
Other advanced features
Ability to nest symbols inside symbols Ability to override nested symbols  
Well, this is what I'd like to see regarding symbols. I hope that this adds something to the discussion about the roadmap.  

Status: Beta
Purpose: Features, Improvements, Fixes
Requirements: Purchased Affinity Designer
Mac App Store: Not submitted
Download: Here
 
Hello,
We are pleased to announce the immediate availability of the beta of Affinity Designer 1.7 for macOS.
Designer 1.7 is a significant change to the currently shipping 1.6 version. Files edited in this version will not be backwards-compatible with the shipping 1.6 version. As such, we would not recommend using this 1.7 version for critical or production work at this stage. It is inevitable that there were will be a number of issues with 1.7 but we hope these will be minor and aim to resolve any issues very quickly, so please use it and explore the new features, but also do keep in mind that you may find snags and we would appreciate your help with finding and reporting these to us.
If this is your first time using a customer beta of an Affinity app, it’s worth noting that the beta will install as a separate app - alongside your store version. They will not interfere with each other at all and you can continue to use the store version for critical work without worry.
It’s also worth noting that we aren’t done yet - we are still working through reported bugs from previous releases and hope to fix as many as possible before the final release of 1.7. To be notified when there is a new beta please press follow on this announcment thread
With all that said, we hope that you will enjoy the new capabilities introduced in this initial release and we look forward to any and all feedback you give to us.
Many thanks,
Matt
 
Please refer to previous beta 1.7.0.4 post where there's a list of major changes since 1.6. This latest update builds on the 1.7.0.10 changes and also includes the following changes:
Fix for issues saving after applying a 'none' arrowhead! Miscellaneous PDF import improvements. Artboard positions are now show relative to the whole spread, rather than showing as 0,0 at all times. Pen Tool now has an extra option to allow for the selection to be retained while adding new curves/extending existing ones. This is useful for allowing you to make use of snapping to other object geometry while creating/editing curves. It is on by default. 'Rotation centre' is now 'Transform origin' to better reflect what it does. Added a user-definable transform origin to the Node Tool's transform mode. Inserting a fill colour stop now correctly interpolates intensity (useful for 32bit documents).

This is a separate issue we still need to address.

Per the attached, this file is no longer usable as Designer is currently working. The ability to pixel align an art board is gone, and any attempt to align the slice to the art board doesn't work either - the slice jumps around or number entered in the panel change after '0' is entered. I'd be happy to forward the file if it of any use to the developer. 

.

I think that probably all main issues with this were mentioned in the previous comments  
Usually, the align and distribute tools are used 100% of the time to perform these tasks. However, they are not enough and are not fail-proof, because sometimes you need to know one artboard position to place the other one. Also, it does not guarantee that the first selected artboard is placed precisely over an "entire pixel".
And well, we are not asking anything absurd. This is simply how all other graphic design software work, so if the new feature doesn't introduce any significant benefits with it and causes trouble, I think it should be reconsidered.
Anyway, the argument of having the 0,0 coordinates on the ruler does not make much sense:
- if I select the artboard, the coordinates on the ruler should provide relevant information about where the artboard is. If the values displayed are 0,0, it's irrelevant because the reference is the artboard itself.
- Now, if you select an object INSIDE the artboard, then its position should be relative to the artboard, and the rulers should display the 0,0 coordinates based on the artboard origin.
- Anyway, since the current implementation has different behaviors for objects and artboards in the canvas, it seems a not well-thought feature. 

I think that probably all main issues with this were mentioned in the previous comments  
Usually, the align and distribute tools are used 100% of the time to perform these tasks. However, they are not enough and are not fail-proof, because sometimes you need to know one artboard position to place the other one. Also, it does not guarantee that the first selected artboard is placed precisely over an "entire pixel".
And well, we are not asking anything absurd. This is simply how all other graphic design software work, so if the new feature doesn't introduce any significant benefits with it and causes trouble, I think it should be reconsidered.
Anyway, the argument of having the 0,0 coordinates on the ruler does not make much sense:
- if I select the artboard, the coordinates on the ruler should provide relevant information about where the artboard is. If the values displayed are 0,0, it's irrelevant because the reference is the artboard itself.
- Now, if you select an object INSIDE the artboard, then its position should be relative to the artboard, and the rulers should display the 0,0 coordinates based on the artboard origin.
- Anyway, since the current implementation has different behaviors for objects and artboards in the canvas, it seems a not well-thought feature. 

I know I mentioned different issues that stray from this topic, but anyway, having a position for each artboard in an infinite canvas (as we had in 1.6) would at least make it possible to manually working around each issue during my workflow, right?

Yes, that is precisely what I had in mind... afyer having all my symbols unlinked from master a bunch of times, I’m kinda stucked in the decision of re importing all symbols (which is going to be a lot of work, considering that some of them should have been updated with changes I made directly in their instances), or switching to another tool tha handles symbols with more stability. 
 
So maybe, instead of asking for “nested symbols”, the key words should be “a more stable symbol workflow”.

Well, what I have to say about this:
- People really appear and start asking things out of the topic, and that can be annoying (I think I did it sometimes too).
- But I also think we could have more participative moderators, to guide and orient the new members of the forum.
- Sometimes, because of cultural and specific language characteristics, what people type here might seem sarcasm or lack of politeness. So I think that all members should try to be polite in their comments, even when they think that they were not treated with courtesy. 
- But most of all: if you are not in the mood to write a proper answer to a new and confused member, I think you should avoid joining the discussion because the last thing we want is to make new members feel they are not welcome.
 
@MCFC_4Heatons This thread is specific to follow up what's coming for Affinity Designer 1.7. You are welcome to read all of @Ben's posts in this thread, where the new features are being showcased. Please try to keep suggestions and feedback on the topic (most of Designer 1.7 features are focused in vector editing), and if you have more suggestions, I recommend that you first take a look at the forum topics to see if they were already approached in some way, so you can contribute to the discussions contextually. If you don't find what you are looking for, you are welcome to create new threads, with your suggestions. I think you have plenty of material to contribute
 

Well, what I have to say about this:
- People really appear and start asking things out of the topic, and that can be annoying (I think I did it sometimes too).
- But I also think we could have more participative moderators, to guide and orient the new members of the forum.
- Sometimes, because of cultural and specific language characteristics, what people type here might seem sarcasm or lack of politeness. So I think that all members should try to be polite in their comments, even when they think that they were not treated with courtesy. 
- But most of all: if you are not in the mood to write a proper answer to a new and confused member, I think you should avoid joining the discussion because the last thing we want is to make new members feel they are not welcome.
 
@MCFC_4Heatons This thread is specific to follow up what's coming for Affinity Designer 1.7. You are welcome to read all of @Ben's posts in this thread, where the new features are being showcased. Please try to keep suggestions and feedback on the topic (most of Designer 1.7 features are focused in vector editing), and if you have more suggestions, I recommend that you first take a look at the forum topics to see if they were already approached in some way, so you can contribute to the discussions contextually. If you don't find what you are looking for, you are welcome to create new threads, with your suggestions. I think you have plenty of material to contribute
 

Well, what I have to say about this:
- People really appear and start asking things out of the topic, and that can be annoying (I think I did it sometimes too).
- But I also think we could have more participative moderators, to guide and orient the new members of the forum.
- Sometimes, because of cultural and specific language characteristics, what people type here might seem sarcasm or lack of politeness. So I think that all members should try to be polite in their comments, even when they think that they were not treated with courtesy. 
- But most of all: if you are not in the mood to write a proper answer to a new and confused member, I think you should avoid joining the discussion because the last thing we want is to make new members feel they are not welcome.
 
@MCFC_4Heatons This thread is specific to follow up what's coming for Affinity Designer 1.7. You are welcome to read all of @Ben's posts in this thread, where the new features are being showcased. Please try to keep suggestions and feedback on the topic (most of Designer 1.7 features are focused in vector editing), and if you have more suggestions, I recommend that you first take a look at the forum topics to see if they were already approached in some way, so you can contribute to the discussions contextually. If you don't find what you are looking for, you are welcome to create new threads, with your suggestions. I think you have plenty of material to contribute
 

@Hokusai I've sent emails for both Affinity and Zeplin support teams.
Affinity team said that plugins are not on the roadmap right now, and Zeplin team said that they can't implement the integration with Affinity because there's not a plugin or API system.
Maybe we should just create this new topic asking for a plugin system.

@Hokusai I've sent emails for both Affinity and Zeplin support teams.
Affinity team said that plugins are not on the roadmap right now, and Zeplin team said that they can't implement the integration with Affinity because there's not a plugin or API system.
Maybe we should just create this new topic asking for a plugin system.

And, to end the discussion, I'll just say that 1.7 will let you snap curve handles to grid, geometry, anything you want... it will be an option, to allow snapping handles to happen the same as snapping nodes, so it can be turned on for those that require the feature.
This will be separate to the constraining features I demoed earlier showing constraining of handles directions and snapping lengths.  the two features will live together, but you can use one or both.
 

Snapping handles (and nodes) to the grid can be useful for basically anything that belongs to some sort of design "system": signaletic/signage design, icon/ui design or glyphs on a font all depend on an underlying grid structure to give them consistency/coherence. The grid may not be visible but the reference points it provides both for the nodes and handles of the objects that compose the set helps to strengthen/unify the elements and make them part of the same family/all sharing particular traits (helping shaping curves, angles, dimensions/scale etc precisely). Unless we could constraint both handle angles and their lengths to a specific (configurable) size/metric for this same purpose there's no other quick way than using a grid and snapping both handles and nodes to it. This is particularly important when we are building several elements that must share a very specific set of characteristics.
It works a bit like layout grids for publications - we don't see them (and they work at a different scale/level when compared to the grids for icon/fonts etc) - but the principle is the same: the "rhythm", sense of organisation/hierarchy they "impose" on the elements help to strengthen the layout and give it coherence on all spreads/pages.

I think that @Aaron Martin was pretty clear in what he asked: GLOBAL STYLES.
 
That means:
- a set of multiple object properties (fill style, stroke style, brush, effects, gradient, transparency, corner radius, etc) that can be configured and saved in a global styles list, with a user given name;
- the style can be applied to multiple objects;
- once the style is updated, all objects with that style applied to them would have their appearance updated in real time, without having to find each one of them, select and then update style, which is a tedious non productive task.
 
It would also be nice to have:
- Create a global style from the selected object.
- Save the global styles in a shareable / external library document
- An object with a global style applied to it, could have it's properties overwritten, without affecting other objects with the same global style. However, user could be able to "update global style from selected object" or "reset changes to match global style".

I think that @Aaron Martin was pretty clear in what he asked: GLOBAL STYLES.
 
That means:
- a set of multiple object properties (fill style, stroke style, brush, effects, gradient, transparency, corner radius, etc) that can be configured and saved in a global styles list, with a user given name;
- the style can be applied to multiple objects;
- once the style is updated, all objects with that style applied to them would have their appearance updated in real time, without having to find each one of them, select and then update style, which is a tedious non productive task.
 
It would also be nice to have:
- Create a global style from the selected object.
- Save the global styles in a shareable / external library document
- An object with a global style applied to it, could have it's properties overwritten, without affecting other objects with the same global style. However, user could be able to "update global style from selected object" or "reset changes to match global style".

I think that @Aaron Martin was pretty clear in what he asked: GLOBAL STYLES.
 
That means:
- a set of multiple object properties (fill style, stroke style, brush, effects, gradient, transparency, corner radius, etc) that can be configured and saved in a global styles list, with a user given name;
- the style can be applied to multiple objects;
- once the style is updated, all objects with that style applied to them would have their appearance updated in real time, without having to find each one of them, select and then update style, which is a tedious non productive task.
 
It would also be nice to have:
- Create a global style from the selected object.
- Save the global styles in a shareable / external library document
- An object with a global style applied to it, could have it's properties overwritten, without affecting other objects with the same global style. However, user could be able to "update global style from selected object" or "reset changes to match global style".

I think that @Aaron Martin was pretty clear in what he asked: GLOBAL STYLES.
 
That means:
- a set of multiple object properties (fill style, stroke style, brush, effects, gradient, transparency, corner radius, etc) that can be configured and saved in a global styles list, with a user given name;
- the style can be applied to multiple objects;
- once the style is updated, all objects with that style applied to them would have their appearance updated in real time, without having to find each one of them, select and then update style, which is a tedious non productive task.
 
It would also be nice to have:
- Create a global style from the selected object.
- Save the global styles in a shareable / external library document
- An object with a global style applied to it, could have it's properties overwritten, without affecting other objects with the same global style. However, user could be able to "update global style from selected object" or "reset changes to match global style".

Yes, that is precisely what I had in mind... afyer having all my symbols unlinked from master a bunch of times, I’m kinda stucked in the decision of re importing all symbols (which is going to be a lot of work, considering that some of them should have been updated with changes I made directly in their instances), or switching to another tool tha handles symbols with more stability. 
 
So maybe, instead of asking for “nested symbols”, the key words should be “a more stable symbol workflow”.

@A_B_C @hperticarati Nested symbols are indeed currently possible, but they are very buggy indeed! The nesting often breaks one or both symbols (orange line in Layers panel becomes dashed) or the symbol simply vanishes (at which point Undo will not bring it back).
 
Nested symbols are a key feature for me in my work, and at present it is a real struggle to use them

Wow @Ben, I've just downloaded and watched all the clips with the new features. Well, I'm an UX designer and I've been working a lot with icon design lately, so what got me excited about these new features are all the snapping options for the node tool. REALLY AWESOME.
 
I'm not sure if this should be posted in this topic, but since it's related to shape manipulation, I was wondering if would it be in your roadmap a set of features to resize shapes with keyboard shortcuts. Similar to what Sketch does:
cmd+right arrow to increase width by 1px cmd+left arrow to decrease width by 1px cmd+shift+right arrow to increase by 10px (or specified amount in settings) cmd+shift+left arrow to decrease by 10px (or specified amount in settings) Also, differently from what Sketch does, we could benefit from the object origin (pivot), so object could shrink or grow from an specific point relative to the shape, instead of just from top left corner.
 
Congratulations for the awesome work!
 

Yes, still hoping here for an Affinity > Zeplin or any other "handoff" tool integration...