cadobir

Hi! I just wanted to chime in… Even if you don't change a thing on the way AD treats artboards and layers, this feature (being able to toggle “Clip to Canvas” in multiple-artboard documents) absolutely must become available at some point in the future. Even if things may look a bit messy in certain documents, because of artboard positioning, that should be our choice to make. This modal logic that determines that a document can be in either single- or multiple-artboard “mode” (and it's an invisible mode, at that, not like your well-thought-out personas), with different tools available depending on which “mode” you're in, adds unnecessary complexity and makes the app feel a bit broken. And I'm not using the word “broken” liberally here; having access to objects that extend past the artboard edges, even if temporarily, is of paramount importance; how else are you supposed to be able to easily select (and drag) objects that may have only a smidge inside the artboard?
 
But wait: it gets worse. I was playing around and reading the forums here, and I found out a few things about AD that left me utterly dismayed. I understand that you can still make objects visible, even with the “Clip to Canvas” option grayed-out, by dragging them outside of the artboard they're in in the Layers panel, but then they won't export because the corresponding slices will be empty… even though it doesn't seem like it visually; when looking at the working area, the artboard/slice will seem to have content, but only after exporting the files or by looking at the layers panel thumbnails will the user realise they are, in fact, empty. In my book, this is a big UX no-no. It feels as if AD is working against you, in a quite frankly illogical fashion. Yes, I know it makes sense from a database/file structure standpoint, but from a visual standpoint it's a mess. So… artboards are these transparent, diaphanous entities that allow objects to show through, but unless you manually specify on a panel which ones belong to them, they won't show up when exporting. Are we working with a modern and supposedly WYSIWYG vector app with full PDF and pre-press support, or with AutoCAD ca. 1992?  
 
Also… is there any replacement for artboards in AD, as in a proper slice tool that actually slices things in half but still shows up on the Draw persona? Because it seems you can't really slice an object between two adjacent artboards, as it can only “exist” on/belong to either one of them. That turns “Slices” into a bit of a misnomer when applied to artboards…
 
I hadn't done any complex, multi-artboard documents in AD before, but now that I started trying that out I realised just how limited AD is and… to be honest, I feel a bit cheated. Ai's implementation, all with two different panels, may feel cumbersome (I mean, all of Ai *is* cumbersome, the whole thing), but AD's implementation seems dumbed-down and broken by design. Lumping artboards with objects doesn't really make much sense if you think about it, and having your objects jumping around in your Layers panel without direct user intervention in said panel (that isn't creating, deleting or locking objects) is a big, BIG UX no-no in my book as well.
 
If I'm working on a complex multi-layer document (like, say, a map or a diagram), already spent quite a bit of time grouping objects into different layers, and need to use artboards/slices for some reason, that will completely screw up my workflow… I can either fight against AD by duplicating all my layers, moving them to the new artboard, etc. etc., or just cave in, fire up Ai and get it done in ten seconds flat (basically the time it takes to press Shift+O, select an artboard size and place it where I want it) and, even accounting for its excruciatingly slow opening time, I will still get it done faster (and in a cleaner fashion, without having to expand the file size and complicate it further with all the duplicates) than in AD. I understand that you wanted to make artboards into “mini-AD documents” inside of a bigger AD document, but shouldn't users be given some kind of choice on how to use that feature?
 
I honestly don't know how you can fix this and make AD more flexible without having to completely rework certain technical and UX assumptions (which might also break other people's workflows and documents). But, IMHO, I think you've screwed up royally with the multiple artboard implementation, as it feels extremely counter-intuitive and, frankly, useless for a sizeable proportion of your current and/or potential userbase. Please add a different type of artboard-like “thing” that doesn't mingle with (and screw up) layers, if you will, because these artboards, as they stand now, are utterly broken. Freehand (and even – *GASP* – Ai) got it somewhat right, so there's no reason AD shouldn't as well. Even though I have strongly complained on occasion about the lack of certain features in AD (I still think the Option+drag duplication behaviour feels wrong, and I still miss the option to have an object snap to its nodes on the “ghost” of its original position when dragging) or AP, I never thought I would ever write this on such strong terms: I believe you've out-Adobe'ed Adobe on the unintuitiveness department on this one.
 
Come to think of it, you were probably thinking illustrators and web designers would appreciate your approach, because it is indeed orderly and saves on panels, but I think it is too much left-brainy for either group, and especially for print designers and students (that may need to do certain imposition jobs by hand and absolutely need proper slice support for those). It really forces you to respect an excessively rigid hierarchy on the layers panel that both adds unnecessary extra steps and may not even make much sense from a functional standpoint.
 
Philosophically speaking, this reminds me of when Apple decided to remove the ability to have windows spanning different screens because of the revamped Mission Control. The difference being that they more than made up for losing that ability, because that multi-desktop system now feels tighter and more intuitive than ever. I mean, should you even be able to have part of a window overlapping a full-screen app? And how could they reconcile multiple virtual desktops with multiple screens? They did the right thing, IMHO, because they had to contend with two levels of 2D complexity, one virtual and one physical, that conflicted with each other.
 
On the other hand, having that kind of behaviour (i.e. objects that can't show up/exist on two different pages and be exported on both of them at the same time) on a WYSIWYG vector drawing app, which presents us with a single, rigid virtual 2D plane made of multiple content layers, makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. And considering different sections of that plane as different layers makes even less sense; if anything, if you really wanted to have them on the Layers panel and simplify the UI, they should all co-exist in a single special “Artboards” layer. Now THAT would make more sense. Your approach, sadly, turns something that should feel like an emulation of a physical working canvas into a… I don't know, a “Microsoft Windows 3.1's File Manager”-like thing, with boxes inside of other boxes?
 
I'm really sorry for sounding so harsh, but… yep. I do feel cheated. I can't really use nor recommend AD as unreservedly as I thought I could. And I'm also sorry I hadn't noticed these limitations during the beta process, because I would've strongly made the case for a better implementation like the one I've just suggested.

Anyway, if you want, I can send you some old multiple-artboard projects I did both on Freehand and Ai that would be nigh on impossible to make on AD (without getting seriously frustrated with your app, at least), with some context on all the workflow (including printing, trimming and mounting). If you are serious about print, you absolutely must try to fix this in some way. Even if you make slices accessible and visible in the Draw persona to make up for it (and yes, a user may wish to be able to work while seeing its slices, especially for planning around, you know, actual physical seams on the printed matter, without having to resort to extra guidelines and other fluff), I still feel that the route you've taken needlessly complicates using AD for daily, multi-artboard work. It is so weird and cumbersome that I actually considered using white rectangles and slices as faux-artboards to work around ADs implementation, really, but… oh, wait; slices can only be exported into raster files, not PDFs, so… yeah, you definitely have to fix this.

Hello MEB.
 
Here's a screenshot of two artboards to show what I mean. I have objects that get cut off when they are outside of the dartboard.
 
I want to see all my drawings and objects even when they are in the grey area (outside of the artboard). Is this currently possible...? This is REALLY is useful for us designers...
 
As it is currently implemented any object i place outside the artboard simply disappears to Designer. It is lost and I can't even select or find it. It goes to limbo. Or are we doing something wrong....?
 
 
Thanks
 

As an addendum, to all Serif developers, after doing a quick test in the latest Beta and seeing that this would indeed work:
For the love of all that is good and sacred, if you're not giving us a quick but undiscoverable and potentially confusing – but definitely very much usable – fix such as the one I proposed (I'll refresh your memory: using a modifier key+mouse/trackpad click to ad hoc override that single-layer focus for selection operations, either to switch to a different layer altogether or to select objects across different layers by adding Shift to it), and the only viable way to work in that mode will indeed be having to constantly drag the cursor all the way to the Studio and click the “Edit All Layers” toggle button in any project complex enough, at least PLEASE give us a – preferably customisable – keyboard shortcut for it. PLEASE. And if you're weary of setting a precedent, well, just leave it blank but give us the option to pick one.
Do not underestimate how much extraneous cursor drag + click operations add up in wasted time and make using a piece of software feel more like a frustrating chore and less like an almost fun activity (even lowly web developers across the world know this, and you seem to underestimate it… In my interactions with you, it sometimes feels as if you eventually and begrudgingly address some general grievances without actually understanding what they were really all about in the first place, which, in the infamous and maybe apocryphal words of Comrade Dyatlov, is “not great, not terrible”). It's the least that you could do for v.1.x, without bothering anyone or introducing too much complexity.
As a matter of fact, this is such an important feature, because it changes the entire MODE of operation of AD, that it should also be featured somewhere in the Layer menu (and not on a sub-menu, but at the top level, for that matter; maybe right above or under the Show/Hide and Lock/Unlock groups). I get that adding an entire section to your Preferences > Keyboard Shortcuts system just to enable customizable shortcuts for Studio panel buttons would be a PITA at this point, and it's something I would only expect for a v.2 or even v.3 release of the suite, but that alternative would just be sensible UX, enhance feature discoverability and solve a lot of issues in one fell swoop.
And yes, I know that all items in the Layer menu only affect the currently selected object(s) but, to be fair, you also have a completely redundant (and at times useless) “Find in Layers Panel” item in there; the behaviour triggered by it is also automatically triggered the moment you select an individual object on the document, and if you have more than one object selected it becomes inactive… Chuck it away, use the spot it currently occupies for a perfectly standard “Edit All Layers” checkmark toggle and the menu doesn't even have to grow in size. Boom, problem solved!
Still feel uncomfortable with that option? Well, put it under Select, as it affects – duh – object selection, or under View, a menu also featuring items such “Lock Guides”, which definitely affects direct interactions with elements and not just their visibility; and in a roundabout way, since the “Edit All Layers” model is also all about visibility, maybe you could and should put it in View > View Mode, right under “Clip to Canvas”, as that's the feature it is most closely related to in real-world usage.
Look, please figure it out, that's just what I'm saying. As always, you are this close to a perfectly workable – if not 100% elegant – solution, and yet soooo far, so I hope you don't take this as anything but a little, constructive nudge. About the only thing I can't be faulted for is not dishing out enough sensible solutions for the problems I come across.

The reason Serif took this route was, I believe, because they always wanted to cater to the iPadOS crowd, where you'll have a single artboard onscreen (I'm not sure if that's how Affinity apps behave on that platform, as my iPad is too old for me to test them, but even if that isn't the case by design and you can zoom out and rearrange them just like in desktop Affinity apps and Ai, 90% of the time you will work zoomed in because even the bigger iPads Pro are tiny when compared with, say, a 27'' iMac like the one I work with).
As for Ai, guess what, it's the other way around, and you don't see people complaining about it. Sure, you will have to use clipping masks to prevent that from happening, but doing the opposite, i.e. having objects spanning multiple artboards, InDesign/APub-style, is MUCH easier by design.
I've said it before, and I will say it again: this all comes down to a philosophical decision from Serif's developer team regarding workflows. Their “container-like” model makes no sense from a WYSIWYG approach to classical, hand-made artistic workflows… In the real world, if you want to crop your artwork, you have to do it BY HAND, by folding, cutting, erasing, masking, whatever. And anyone with a background in fine arts, life drawing, illustration, yadda yadda, made with real, physical media and supplies, will look at artboards as SHEETS OF PAPER on a desk, atop which stuff can be laid, and not as abstract containers in a database, which have a life of their own and crop stuff automatically.
I warned the Serif dev team about many users potentially becoming unhappy with this model in the long run, and it took them years to even add the option of toggling automatic clipping of objects into artboard boundaries, and only partially at that, with some less than stellar consequences. The only way you can prevent artboards from sucking objects in is by creating one or multiple layers, and disable “Edit All Layers”.
It almost works like Ai, except… you can't quickly switch from one layer to another and select an object from a different layer, or even make a selection of different objects across different layers, without having to go to that ghastly, do-it-all, jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none Layers+Artboards panel. Also, it's not like you could create a super-layer to work around that, as clicking that automatically selects all objects inside all sub-layers.
If I didn't do so already for that last, super-layer idea (maybe I did, but my memory fails me, so please bear with me), I could and should do a video demonstrating just that and its frustrating limitations but, as I've also said several times before, I'm now doing a PhD to become a Design teacher.
I'm not fooling around, and was not joking either when I said my teachers, supervisors, fellow workshop tutors, classmates, students, etc., no longer pay much attention to Affinity Designer (or not as much as they did after the initial hype). I sincerely hope Serif polishes this thing up for v. 2 of the suite, because if Adobe gets their act together (or *gasp* backtracks on their subscription-only model!), they are either toast, or will forever be relegated to third place at best, no matter how much Apple propped Affinity up to keep their long-term frenemy on their toes (something oh-so-convenient considering their upcoming ISA transition, which tends to shake up the market and can be very dangerous to proprietary platforms like the Mac). Ehhh.
Oh, but I'm putting my money where my mouth is… As much as I love and respect Affinity apps – which, mind you, I will always buy, as I feel I have an obligation towards my students to stay informed and know what's out there in the market, and the price of admission is low enough for me not to balk at it – and Serif's lofty goals – again, I know I'm extremely harsh, but I am indeed rooting for them; it's just that I'm not a “yes-man” for anyone, and when I see BS and bad design/UX/etc. I will speak up –, I'm very likely taking some of my upcoming research scholarship allowance and putting it towards a Creative Cloud student subscription, as I will indeed need a graphic design suite for my project at some point (even if it's just to make some diagrams, and edit my final thesis manuscript in InCopy and typeset it in InDesign) and don't have time to deal with these shenanigans or retrain my muscle memory for the next 3-5 years of my life. #sorrynotsorry

I'm just finishing up a project in which vector warp, distortion, etc, would have saved me at least an entire day of work. It would be really great if these features could be added sooner rather than later.

I'm just finishing up a project in which vector warp, distortion, etc, would have saved me at least an entire day of work. It would be really great if these features could be added sooner rather than later.

I'm just finishing up a project in which vector warp, distortion, etc, would have saved me at least an entire day of work. It would be really great if these features could be added sooner rather than later.

I'm just finishing up a project in which vector warp, distortion, etc, would have saved me at least an entire day of work. It would be really great if these features could be added sooner rather than later.

+1 ....a necessity (for iPad too) Thanks in advance devs 🙏🏻 

This is an essential feature and I was really surprised when I learnt that it's not available in AD. Please add it!

+1
And vector based one please, unlike Photo's Perspective/Mesh Warp.
Of course implementing it to Photo also would be nice.

+1 from me. It’s the only reason why I am, sadly, still using Illustrator. 

+1

+1 from  me!

Free transform / distort feature is essential, we need to know where on the roadmap this feature is. Posted in the other section but hopefully this is where we might get an update response. Without it this software is unsuitable for many tasks and hoped it would have been included in the last release as so many have requested.

+1 This feature would be really useful

Any ETA on non destructive free transform, perspective and warp tools like those found illustrator/Photoshop?
 
 

And has this ever been fulfilled?
Same story here. Over a thousand layers, all named. Need to quickly find the necessary ones.

Yes please! Search/Sort Layers 

Search by layer type (pixel, group, vector, mask, adjustment filter, live filter)
Search by blend mode
Search by name/layer description
Search locked/unlocked layers
Search visible/hidden layers
Search all layers with "x" FX applied to them
Search by opacity level
 

Yes, a good feature request. I often have hundreds of layers, and scrolling thru them can often be quite difficult. So over to features request.

I second the request for a feature to search and/or sort layers by name, type (pixel or adjustment), blend mode, etc. For my work it's critical.

If Affinity add by default non-printing guides layer, everything will be fine. There we can put anything we need to be used as guides, so I will put a rectangle that is 3 mm smaller from each side (automatically converted to a guide) and used it as a "bleed" mark.

I second the request for a feature to search and/or sort layers by name, type (pixel or adjustment), blend mode, etc. For my work it's critical.

Idea for dialog box:

I'll add my vote to batch renaming layers.
 
 
I often have layers like:
 
[folder]
t02.1_g01_s05_over
t02.1_g01_s04_over
t02.1_g01_s03_over
t02.1_g01_s02_over
...
 
[folder[
t02.1_g01_s05
t02.1_g01_s04
t02.1_g01_s03
t02.1_g01_s02
...
 
Having to do this in one file is ok, but at the moment I'm working on a yearly batch of interactive projects for which I get hundreds of files I have to prepare for incorporating into the projects.
 
Setting a base name and renaming all layers in one go would be a massive time saver. Sequential naming even better. A bit like having "a better finder rename" inside designer.  You could indeed use an external app and rename after exporting but that becomes a nightmare if you have to go back and change something to re-export.
 
 
Bert