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It's hard to split this one up into several topics, because it all has to do with one and the same thing: layers. I have been going back and forth between Photo and Designer today for a complex file only because I am missing a couple of features in various parts of the software. These features can be are either available in Photo or Designer and not in the other. The same is true for their various personas or between personas in Publisher. I would argue that these basic layer manipulation and organisation features should be available in all of the personas and apps. That way, information is always displayed consistently in the layers panel, regardless of switching personas or programs. To be more specific, I cannot promote groups to layers in Affinity Photo, neither can I add symbols in Photo. In Designer, I cannot create linked layers. In Designer, if I go to the Photo persona, linked layers remain unavailable. In Publisher, I don't have symbols unless I go to the Designer persona. Linked layers are unavailable. For instance, the workflow with symbols in Photo becomes quite strange (same is true for Publisher when switching from the Designer to the Photo persona), because the Linked layer properties appear/ disappear between the two. Leading to different ways of interpenetrating the layer information. 2022-10-24 13-58-05.mp4 For instance, I could unlink the vector shape and it would still remain linked in Designer. Back in Photo, it shows as unlinked, but it is linked again. Though I presume this is a bug, reported here: 2022-10-24 14-03-41.mp4 I do however presume that there is much more prone to breaking the same way as this. Just because the implementation differs between one program and the other for no apparent reason. Anyways, I really think that if I switch programs for the sake of accessing features in one program that's not available in the other, I should at least be able to see my information displayed in the layers panel and the studios (linked layers and symbols) so I can opt to proceed working with them as I would in the other program I switched from. Symbols, linked layers and promoting groups to layers are all such general concepts that they can easily be used throughout the entire suite. Why shouldn't Publisher have symbols in the Publisher persona? Please evaluate these inconsistencies. It should, hopefully also help in having a cleaner and more robust code for the entire suite.

For the city size files I am often working with, I notice a very heavy performance hit when I drag-move objects to a particular layer. Designer freezes, when I move just a ~50th of the objects to a layer. On the other hand, if I group all objects and promote the group to a layer, this happens instantaneously. This is on 10.5.1342 Here's a video, which shows that moving objects outside a layer (with a hotkey) is pretty fast. Moving objects into a layer (I purposely chose a small amount so that it wouldn't freeze up) is just as fast as grouping all objects. It's a bit hard to tell, since I can't show when I pressed a button though. 2022-07-05 08-09-55.mp4 I really need to move lots of objects over to other layers, so if that causes Designer to freeze (didn't let it run for longer than 5 minutes), whereas grouping > promote to group is just 10s, then there's some performance to be gained. Even if it's just grouping objects in the background > move the group to the layer I am dragging the objects to > ungroup.

Designer Version: 1.10.1142 OS Windows 10 home version 20H2 build 19042.1237 Hardware acceleration on (makes no difference either way) Designer shows pop up with message: "Failed to save document... Save failed due to an internal error. This should be reported to the development team." Can I reproduce the fault - yes but only so far with the one document attached. A new document does not provide the same error. For this test document I created a new file, added a rectangle to this. Some text over the rectangle then using the layers panel moved the text "within" the rectangle. Grouped the text and rectangle and then promoted the group to a layer. Saving this out produces no save error. The error with the attached document is created by doing the following: Select a group then use the layer menu > promote group to layer Now attempt to save the file using CTRL S Error will be generated on save attempt. Interestingly I tried to SAVE As which appeared to save the file out however, attempting to reload the new file gives an unknown file type error upon trying to reload the file. The save error is generated whether I try to promote either the page border group or drawing info group (at bottom of layers panel). I have tried this with three different groups within this file and each one generates the error after promotion to layer. For what its worth I have save history with document turned on which for such a simple drawing (yes I know) is making the file huge but may be of help... when drawing finished this can be turned off to reduce file size. Any ideas? Cheers, Adam. VTE 01 - FoH Domestic Main A3.afdesign