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  1. This technique relies on the power of Symbols to produce a good result with less effort than many other techniques I’ve encountered. First, I need to establish some terminology. Patterns generally have decorative elements displayed against a background. Decorative elements are commonly called “Motifs”. I refer to the background as “Fill”, but that’s probably not the term that professional surface pattern designers use. A motif can be as simple as a single straight line, and a Fill can be as simple as a block of solid color. Patterns are first and foremost about geometry, but that will be a very small part of this article. To keep things simple, I am going to rely on a simple square in a Brick layout. This technique requires a high degree of precision, but there’s no need to calculate where to place any element in your pattern. You need two art boards: a “small” art board where you will do most of the work of assembling your pattern, and a “large” art board where you see your assembled tiled pattern. The large art board is where you extract the repeating tile which gets constructed indirectly. I customarily use art boards dimensioned 9,000px X 9,000px; you can use any units you’re comfortable with - at least until you get to the export persona which has some complications. I’m going to stick to pixels because that simplifies things a bit. Make a new document with two art boards, each 9,000px X 9,000px. Left art board is “Design”, right art board is “Tiled Pattern” On Design art board: We are going to construct a symbol for our motifs. Make a square 4,000px X 4,000px, 1pt stroke (black), no fill, name the layer “Motif”; for now, we want this layer visible. With Motif selected (in Layers), turn it into a symbol using the Symbols panel. For convenience, position your Motif symbol in the centre of the Design art board (use Transform for this). On Tiled Pattern art board: Add one instance of Motif symbol to Tiled Pattern, transform it so it’s top left corner is in the top left corner of the art board. At this stage it should still be 4,000px X 4,000px; change it to 3,000px X 3,000px using Transform, without changing it’s position on the art board. Duplicate Motif twice, arrange the 3 instances in a row so the motifs align corner to corner, giving you a row of 3 Motifs along the top edge of the art board. Duplicate that row twice, and arrange those copies below the first, edge to edge. You should now have 9 Motifs arranged in 3 rows, 3 columns. These two steps require high precision to ensure that each row is straight, each column is straight, and each Motif square meets its neighbours exactly at their corners. Any misalignment will plague you relentlessly. And we’re done with almost all the calculations. Back on Design art board, in the Layers panel, open your Motif symbol so you can see its two layers. ALL your design elements (motifs) must be placed between these two layers; they can (and should) project beyond the edges of the square as required to fulfill your artistic vision. Start by adding motifs one at a time (grab one from the Zoo), and watch your patten assemble itself on the other art board. Reposition elements as required, and watch the other art board update accordingly. To better understand the power of symbols used this way, you should add one motif (small square, circle or similar), and slowly move it into a corner of your Motif symbol, and you’ll see it appear on the opposing edges, all with no calculations to get it there. Any motif that projects beyond the square that is the foundation of the Motif symbol automatically projects into the neighbor/s exactly as required. If you have been doing this by manually creating and positioning the counterpart motif where it should project into the opposite side of the foundation square, this technique obviates the need to do so. Especially in the corners, where it can be very painful. If you place your motifs inside the foundation square, that square will truncate them, and you’ll be back to creating and positioning counterparts manually. But you should try it. When your pattern is complete, it’s time to make that repeating tile. We are going to extract it from the Tiled Pattern art board using the Export Persona. Tap the Tiled Pattern art board so it’s active, switch to the Export Persona, and use the Slice tool to create a slice that aligns exactly with the middle Motif symbol on that art board - same size (3,000px X 3,000px), centered at 4,500px and 4,500px. Give this slice an appropriate name, and export it - just remember to make the foundation square in Motif invisible - otherwise it is going to show up on your tile, and you probably don’t want that. Test your tile in a new document by use the gradient tool to make a fill with your tile as a bitmap image. You can edit your pattern iteratively by adding, repositioning and/or resizing motif elements as required, just be sure to re-export your tile after pattern changes. Make sure your Motif symbols do NOT MOVE, accidentally or on purpose. Some Notes The slice for the repeating tile will be too small if you have motifs that are much larger than the slice. Resize the slice by doubling its dimensions. The Design art board does not provide a background for your motifs. A simple way to create one is to add a square as the last layer on the Tiled Pattern art board, the same size as that art board, and add a fill to your taste. This fill is an integral part of your pattern, so choose appropriately. The attached file has a background as described. The Export Persona has a personality all it’s own, and it can be quite cranky. First of all, there’s no easy way to choose a unit of measure for your slice other than pixels. You can select a different unit when you enter a dimension, but Export converts it to pixels expertly in the blink of an eye. More about Symbols Different instances of same symbol can have their own sizes, orientations and positions, must contain same set of layers. Symbols do not have their own shape or size; they derive those properties as the sum of what they contain. Even though I based my symbols on a square, the symbol’s content can (and does) project beyond the borders of the square. And that’s exactly what you want because that’s what obviates all need to calculate positions for motifs that project beyond the nominal boundaries of the tile you are trying to create. For my sanity, I usually have a dummy layer that signals the bottom of the layer stack in the symbol. For patterns, using a shape like a square enables geometrically correct placement of the symbols on Tiled Pattern; you can make this shape visible or not as appropriate while you edit your pattern. Do not place your motifs inside the base shape of the symbol; if you do that, your motif will be truncated at the boundary, and you will have to add another copy of the motif and put it in the correct position, and you’ll have all your old alignment problems back. Repeating Patterns V2.afdesign
  2. I am a new Affinity Designer user, attempting to create seamless repeat patterns with the following technique: https://affinityspotlight.com/article/how-to-achieve-perfect-repeat-patterns-every-time-in-affinity-designer/ I keep running into the pictured layering issue. In this example, the purple lines denote the nine symbols. The guide symbol is in the center. In the first image, the white ellipse I've pointed to should be on top of the blue rectangle. This can be solved by shifting the blue rectangles down, as seen in the second image, but this voids the ability to see what the repeating pattern will look like. It's not a big problem with a simple design like this, but it is problematic with more complex designs. I'm wondering if there is a way to avoid this issue, or at least a better fix.
  3. EDIT: Latest version of AD2 on iPad. iPad running most current iPadOS. EDIT: Forgot to mention that changing the Blur Radius on any one of the single-layer Symbols updates all instances. This behaviour surprised me. I use Symbols a LOT, so I expect edits applied to a layer inside a Symbol to affect all instances, whereas edits applied at the Symbol level affect just that instance. After all, that’s how we get to have multiple instances of a Symbol in different positions, sizes and/or orientations. The Issue I made a Symbol with multiple layers and applied a Gaussian Blur to the upper 3 layers in the Symbol. Radius for the blur is specific to the layer. Great. Then I made a Symbol with just one layer, and multiple instances of the Symbol. When I applied a Gaussian Blur to just one instance, at the Symbol level, all the instances of that Symbol got the same Gaussian Blur. Removing the blur from one instance removed it from all of them. The instances of the Symbol present as Symbols throughout. Not what I expected; can this be right? So I’m calling it a bug, rightly or wrongly. The cargo I’ve attached an AD2 document with it’s very short history, and a video screen capture. Possibly related thread @Lee D I found this, and although it’s not exactly the same, I think it might be related. Regards RPReplay_Final1692712691.mp4 Effects and Symbols.afdesign
  4. Hi!Coming from Figma and Sketch, I need to be able to organize my Symbols using Folders. In Sketch / Figma, this is done by inputing a forward slash "/" inside a name, like this: "Control / Button" It would help A LOT to work faster. Thank you very much!
  5. I'm not sure if this is a bug or if there's something I'm missing here. If I create a symbol and copy it, both symbols are linked so I can make changes to them. The symbol also shows up in the symbols panel. If I then copy both of the symbols to a new document, they remain linked to eachother but they don't show up in the symbols panel for the new document. Is there any menu that describes or allows you to control the linkage between these two objects?
  6. Hi! Coming from Figma and Sketch, I litterally can’t work without Symbols. Now, I have like 30 symbols to create… and I cannot believe I have to use the mouse to select an create each one of them. Can you add a keyboard shortcut for Create Symbol command? Like Cmd + K… While at it, it would be nice if we could add multiple Symbols at once with another keyboard shortcut: Cmd + Alt + K Thank you very much!
  7. Hi, I would love to be able to import blocks from CAD files (DWG/ DXF/ 3dm) as symbols. That way, I could severely reduce the file size and it would be a huge workflow improvement over Adobe Illustrator, because Illustrator is not capable of importing blocks as symbols either.
  8. Once I brought back a Tsoliás Jumping-Jack souvenir from one of my Greece trips, which nowadays hangs on one of the walls in a room. (For those of you which don't know what a Tsoliás is, see related "Evzones - Tsoliádes" and the "Greek Presidential Guard".) A quick shaky take of a one hand pull and the other hand shoot experience ... tsolias_wall.mov Here's a first quickly made sketch (playaround) of a Tsoliás in ADe and some animation tryout of that ... tsolias_capto.mp4 Next step, -if I ever find some spare free time for that-, would be to draw instead a good looking much more precise copy of that Tsoliás for animation purposes! 😉
  9. Hi, I have noticed that Symbols that are copied (copy and paste) from one document to another are not added to the Symbols Panel in the destination document. They do still function as Symbols. In contrast, a quick test shows that adding a Symbol from the Assets Panel adds the Symbol to the Symbols Panel immediately - at insert. Is the copy and paste behaviour by design? This behaviour can and has caused some confusion…. As a result of the copy and paste behaviour, the Symbols Panel does not provide a catalogue of definitions of the instances of Symbols in the Document. Is there another panel that provides such a catalogue? I prefer the Insert from Assets behaviour, but it compounds the potential for confusion. Regards Lionel
  10. Hi!Coming from Figma and Sketch, I need to have my Symbols organized. After creating more than 30 Symbols, it really is a mess to find the one you need since it is ordered in order of creation, rather than alphabetically. Could you please organize the Symbols alphabetically by default, please? Thank you very much!
  11. Create an object and apply a global color to it. Editing the said global color changes the object as expected. Then convert that object into a symbol. Changing the global color no longer changes the object. Say that you now apply the global color to this symbol object, it starts working again as expected, but only for that instance. If you delete it and drag in another instance the global color will no longer work again. See attached video for steps to reproduce. Thanks! 2_Trim.mp4
  12. I am working on a repeat pattern utilizing the symbols capability. However, there is an object that is not syncing up properly and no matter what I try, it will not go all the way back or even underneath the symbol that it is crossing over. I am not sure what to do because I've tried sending to the back the initial object on Artboard 1. That did not work. I re-layered the objects so that the selected curve (and its whole group) are underneath the object I want on top, but that does nothing. I have no idea what I am missing or doing incorrectly. Not sure how to fix this. Included is a screen shot of what is happening. I wasn't able to find any FAQ topics that answered or mentioned my question. In the screenshot the object selected is the one I want on top. The vine crossing over it is definitely included in the group that is below that object. I have checked every section, grouping, and layer of each Artboard and every occurrence of that repeating vine. All the other occurrences of that vine are behaving as desired. Not sure what is happening with the top half of the repeat on the right. Hopefully it's an easy fix and that I am simply clueless. Affinity Designer 2, latest update, iPad Pro.
  13. I'd like to be able to include symbols inside compounds. I can put the symbol inside the compound in the layers panel but it doesn't seem to actually contribute to the compound, and I can't adjust the add/subtract mode. This would essentially allow me to parameterize features of a complex curve, which for what I'm doing (designing stuff to laser-cut) would be extremely useful.
  14. Layer symbols are not displayed correctly, if you hover over the symbol icon (the crossed dot), Designer displays a pop-up that reads: "layer", whereas the layer is in fact a symbol. Also, the name of the symbol in the symbol studio and layers studio still reads "layer", instead of "symbol" as symbols would. Also note that if I delete all the layers, the symbol in the symbol studio will read group, as opposed to "symbol". See video, should be self-explanatory. 2023-01-12 13-01-13.mp4
  15. Hi Symbols in Designer is a great feature. However, I need Symbols in Photo too since I do most of my art in Affinity Photo. I re-use and change multiple “objects” when creating a game scene. Symbols are later exported to Unity. I have complete software series so I can use symbols when switching to Designer Persona in Publisher. This is an issue since Affinity Publisher removes other features like Export Persona that I need. My request is to enable Symbols in Affinity Photo too. (The embedded document option is not a good solution for my work). Best regards
  16. 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.
  17. If I move a symbol back and forth between Designer and Photo and manipulate the Symbol in the linked layers of Photo, I get this weird result, where the vector shape shows as unlinked, but it remains linked in practice. 2022-10-24 14-03-41.mp4 Steps to reproduce 1. Open Affinity Designer 2. Create a rectangle 3. Convert the rectangle into a symbol 4. Go to File > Edit in Photo 5. In Photo, duplicate the symbol. Notice the symbol has linked layer properties 6. Move the top symbol to the right 7. Select the rectangle within the symbol and unlink the vector shape 8. Go to File > Edit in Designer 9. In Designer, resize the rectangle and notice how the shapes remain linked. 10. Go to File Edit in Photo Back in Photo, notice how the rectangle is displayed in the linked layers panel as being unlinked in the vector shape. 11. Resize the rectangle 12. Notice that both symbols are updated as if they were still linked by their vector shape.
  18. Hey guys, the holiday spirit got me and I experimented a little with new symbol palette in Designer. I thought maybe this will be useful for someone out there who’s creating last minute greeting cards, name-tags for presents or other related stuff – or just for fooling around. ;) Here’s an example, an inspirational little how-to clip plus the file. Snowflake Generator.afdesign Happy holidays and enjoy! :) Dennis
  19. Hello, I don't know if this happend in previous version, but if you import an asset wich inherits symbols to a file, every instance of it gets added as seperate symbol to the scene. Please see the attached video. Or am i doing something wrong? If you need any further information, please let me know. Thanks and best regards Mario 2020-09-02-21-47-16.mp4
  20. I am under the gun to finish this today, early today and keep having these problems. the symbols around the headers, the paragraph signs and the double SS and if you know, why can't I keep my text confined within my text frame? It starts and ends where it wants to which is not where I want it to. In picture 2 here, the beginning of the subtitle is above the text box and I cannot get it inside. On the right column I dragged the text box down and the overflow of text does not fill it in. Any idea why? I am trying not to panic but I really need help, please!!😛
  21. Hi So I've watched a few YouTube videos and have a pretty good idea how symbols work, but they're working in a different way than I need. Is what I'm trying to achieve possible? If so, how am I using Symbols incorrectly? What I'm trying to do: I have created a 'standard' button, to be used throughout the web app I'm designing, but also a smaller one for a mobile web app version. In both cases it's a rounded rect, with a text on top, which has a pre-defined Text Style. My issue is that I want to be able to change the look of all the buttons in one go i.e. size, shape, colour etc, HOWEVER, each button's text is unique. I do NOT want the text to be common across all of these button symbols. Yes, the font colour, style and positioning (central to it's button 'shape') but NOT the text characters themselves. Is this even possible or am I using symbols incorrectly? Thanks
  22. Masked shape is not completely overflow main object. Using square as masked object produces 1px outline from mask background. 1) create mask with red background 2) use a square with darker color square as a symbol masked by object above (Curve) 2) observe outline of 1px, this is background from mask (Curves), better is visible on dark canvas But it should be filled up by one color.
  23. I've run into some very strange behavior in Affinity Designer 1.7.3 on macOS that I finally figured out was caused by how symbol instances handle rearranging (moving back/forth), which might be by design I guess, but have such strange and unpredictable consequences I'm considering them a bug: It seems that when using symbols and selecting once instance of the symbol and pressing the "Move to front" or "Move to back" rearrange buttons this somehow applies to all instances of the same symbol. I'm guessing that this is more or less never what the user intends when trying to move a single selected object back/forward and it's very unexpected. This is further complicated by the fact that the canvas isn't redrawn properly for the other instances of the same symbol when this happens, so you only see that they've been moved back/forward if you scroll or otherwise cause them to be redrawn. And as the final problem, the arrange can't be undone. The problems seem to be especially bad when the other layers being rearranged are also symbol instances. So, together this more or less means you currently can't use the arrange feature on symbols and instead you have to manually drag the layers in the layers panel to re-arrange them if you want different instances of the same symbol on different levels. ArrangeSymbolsBug.mov
  24. Hi all! I'll try to explain my doubt with an example and with my English limitations. Let's say we have a map where we want to place some Stop signals (a shape, then a Text with the word STOP). Until I know, both layers should be grouped and then, with the group selected, click on Create (Symbol Panel). We drag as many times as we need that symbol into our map and ready. But what if I want to change the symbol size? It doesn't work unless I select the layers inside the group. Is there a way to do it just selecting the Symbol Group? I hope it has sense. Thanks.
  25. Hi Everyone, This is the second time I have encountered this problem, I suspect its something to do with Symbol definitions I want all the content on these signs to be white, this is a file form another project and the content was light grey.. I have created a global colour "CONTENT-MAIN" and made it white and applied it to all the content... but only some displays the pure white,, the others remain grey despite being assigned the global colour. Any ideas very appreciated thanks test.afdesign
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