curlypaws

Just in case it helps anyone else finding this issue, I recently stopped using Bitdefender AV for Mac. And now the Affinity apps start up instantly.

Hi @Dan C, thanks very much for looking at this over a weekend, and managing to find the issue (which can't have been easy)! In answer to your questions, I drew all the items in Affinity directly. I used the Pencil tool and used a mix of the iPad and Mac. While working on the iPad I did use the Apple Pencil (which makes a really good tool for tracing). As to that particular curve, I can't remember for sure how I drew it unfortunately. I have a feeling that it would have been the iPad using the Apple Pencil but couldn't say for sure.

@Dan C Thank you Dan, duly uploaded. I tried the same thing on my iPad in case there was something on my Mac Studio settings causing the issue, but I get the same result. So I presume there is something in the file which Designer doesn’t like.

Hi @Dan C, thanks very much for your reply. I turned on PDF logging as noted, but there was no log file generated once the error appeared. I can send you the Affinity Designer file itself, if that helps. Strangely, when I turn on logging the 'PDF (flatten)' option fails to generate a preview and gives an error when clicking 'Export'. Once I turn logging off again, the 'PDF (flatten)' option works OK. The other PDF options fail regardless of whether logging is enabled or not.

I've got a drawing created in Affinity Designer 2.5.4. I want to export it as a high-quality PDF. However, attempting to do so sees the preview window show a spinning cursor and the preview fails to generate. Trying to continue to export the document gives the message 'An error occurred while exporting to /Users/karen/Desktop/Map - Affinity Designer.pdf'. The 'PDF (flatten)' preset works, but all the other presets fail as mentioned. And it makes no difference whether I try to export an area of 'Whole document', 'Selection Area' or 'Selection Only'. I found that I can export the same drawing to SVG with no issues. Is there anything I can do to find out what the root cause of the error is, or are there any known issues with PDF export?

I no longer have the v1 apps installed, but find the v2 apps take a while to launch. So I don’t think prior use of a v1 app causes this. It is a real barrier to using Affinity Photo in particular as other similar programs open in a fraction of the time. Mac running OS X Ventura 13.1, hardware acceleration on (set to Metal now rather than OpenGL in Designer and Publisher but made no difference), latest Mac App Store versions of Affinity v2 apps (2.0.3). Graphics are a Radeon Pro Vega II.

Hi @Ansgar - I'm afraid that you'll find the delay returns over time. There is a recurring cycle of long delays followed by some period where the applications open normally. I think you are right and it may be to do with licence checking though.

Still waiting as well - ordered on 30 November here in the UK (of course it could be stuck in the whole Brexit mess, the border closures associated with the COVID-19 pandemic or the Royal Mail's parcel backlog).

I'm seeing the same issue. I counted some 34 bounces of the icon before the UI appears on first launch. It is at least much faster on the second startup. This is on a Mac Pro 3.3Ghz 12 core, 96Gb RAM and 4Tb SSD running Big Sur 11.0.1. And, in common with the mentions above, this is using the Mac App Store version.

Hi Jon, I've uploaded the file to the link that you provided, hopefully you can reproduce. I see the crash every time I tick "Keep paragraph together" both while "Prevent orphaned first lines" and "Prevent widowed last lines" are ticked, and if I clear them and then select "Keep paragraph together". Thanks, Karen

I'm seeing this with beta 1.8.0.535 running under macOS 10.15.2. Setting any kind of paragraph flows immediately crashes the app. This is a document which I created in the 1.8.0 betas so I can't open it under 1.7.3. But my other documents created and edited under 1.7.3 have no issue with altering paragraph flows.