Transforming An Object Relative To Its Position

[bobthepanda]

Hello,

I've recently moved from Adobe Illustrator to Affinity Designer, and this is a wonderful software so far. A question I have is about transforming - it looks like Affinity Designer only supports exactly specifying the X and Y of an object relative to the document.

Illustrator had options where you could change both the coordinates relative to its current position, both in terms of X and Y (e.g. move +10X and -10Y from where you currently are), and in a sort of "polar" system (e.g. position this 10 units away from where I currently am at a 45 degree angle).

Does this kind of relative positioning exist in Affinity Designer? I'd rather not do trigonometry every single time I have to offset a line to be parallel at a certain angle.

Edited December 24, 2019 by bobthepanda

[firstdefence]

You can use the Point Transform Tool.

1. So draw a diagonal line
2. Duplicate it (Cmd+J)
3. Select the Point Transform Tool
4. Use the Transform Panel to accurately move the line 10 units on the X:
5. Note: Power duplicate doesn't work when using the Point Transform Tool for some odd reason???

You can also do the same thing with the move tool and in the Transform Panels X: input add +10 e.g (495.6px+10)

[GarryP]

Welcome to the forums bobthepanda.
In addition to the suggestion above, you can use expressions in a lot of input fields, see attached GIF.
More information is in the Help, right at the bottom of the contents under “Expressions for field input”.
I don’t know much about polar coordinates but there might be something there.

[Move Along People]

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[GarryP]

15 minutes ago, haakoo said:

+10 would suffice in this case Garry

I’ve just tried this and +10, in the X and Y fields X and Y moves the layer to the coordinate +10 position rather than moving it by 10.
Similarly, +10 in the W and H fields would give it a size of +10 rather than resizing it relatively.
However, +=10 would change the value relatively.

[Move Along People]

-

[GarryP]

Quite possibly.
If I was you, and that was the biggest mistake I was going to make today, I’d call that a win.

[Pšenda]

14 hours ago, bobthepanda said:

it looks like Affinity Designer only supports exactly specifying the X and Y of an object relative to the document.

https://affinity.help/designer/English.lproj/pages/Workspace/expressions.html

[Pšenda]

4 hours ago, GarryP said:

Enough "/2", it is not necessary to write "wh/2" for the WH field.

[bobthepanda]

6 hours ago, Pšenda said:

https://affinity.help/designer/English.lproj/pages/Workspace/expressions.html

That doesn't look like it supports trigonometry

So let me make this clearer about what I mean WRT relative positioning and polar coordinates (I don't know if polar coordinates is the correct term)

I say that I want to move an item 10 units 30 degrees (where 0 is just +Y and degrees go counter-clockwise). Based on this, AI is able to do trigonometric calculations and conclude that the equivalent translation is +5X and -8.66Y. More or less what this calculator does if you say "given a side and an angle".

Is that a thing I can do in Affinity Designer?

[Pšenda]

2 hours ago, bobthepanda said:

That doesn't look like it supports trigonometry 

Trigonometry is supported (function sin, cos, tan, ... ), but not supported is setting up both coordinates with one function.

[GarryP]

The only way I can think of, at the moment, to do this is to:
* draw a line with a length equal to the spacial movement required;
* rotate the line by the required number of degrees;
* set Snapping ON (Object Creation preset will do);
* move one corner of the line to the corner of the layer you want to move;
* move the layer to the other end of the line;
* delete the line (if you don’t need it for something else).
Not great but it works.

I tried to do this with the old SOH CAH TOA method but I can’t get the formula to work.
For example, to move something 2 units at a 30 degree angle the X distance change should be 1.732 which can be calculated from cos(30)*2.
However, when I try various formulas in the X field they do nothing (value remains as it was):
* cos(30)*2
* x+cos(30)*2
* x=x+cos(30)*2
* +=cos(30)*2
* +=cos(rad*30)*2
* +=cos(0.5236)*2 – Where 0.5236 is the radian equivalent of 30 degrees
* x+cos(0.5236)*2
* +=cos(0.5) – Where I missed out the extra multiplication
* +=cos(30) – Just in case
None of these does anything, that I can see (I tried using capitals too).

The Help doesn’t say what the t value is in the example for cos(t) etc. – radians or degrees? - and there is a “rad” constant which isn’t explained.

I think I could do with a tutorial showing me how to use these kinds of things because there’s not enough information.
Has anyone had much luck in using this sort of thing? Am I doing it wrong or does it not work for everyone?

[Wasp11b]

 

Hi GarryP,

Been playing around with this. Try x+cos(30)*2 where x is a specific number in the x (or y) transform panel, say 5.

Like you, could not get +=cos(30)*2 to work - probably a bug.I agree that there is a need for better documentation with examples.

[GarryP]

Thanks for confirming that Wasp11b.
Your first example was one of those that I had tried with no effect.
Can anyone else confirm or deny that this is happening to them?
I’m using Windows 10, so is this just a Windows thing or OSX / iPad too?
My attached GIF shows what’s not happening.

[Gear maker]

Garry, on my mac I tired leaving the original setting "2 in" then added the cos so it read 2 in +cos(30)*2 it resulted in still being 2.  I also tried 2+cos(30)*2 and still resulted in 2.  Likewise x+cos(30)*2 still resulted in a 2.  Upper case no change.  Mike

[Wasp11b]

Just to clarify, on Windows 2+cos(20)*2 in the x transform box gives a result of 3.88 as expected. Same for retail and beta.

[Pšenda]

15 minutes ago, Wasp11b said:

on Windows 2+cos(20)*2 in the x transform box gives a result of 3.88 as expected.

For me (Windows 10) don't work - input field stay unmodified.

What document units do you use?

[walt.farrell]

13 minutes ago, Wasp11b said:

Just to clarify, on Windows 2+cos(20)*2 in the x transform box gives a result of 3.88 as expected. Same for retail and beta.

Doesn't work for me on Windows. 

[firstdefence]

Has zero effect on Mac too.

[Wasp11b]

Here's a gif - not worked with gif and uploads before so might not work.

 

If I have not done anything silly, then the question is why it's working here if it's not working elsewhere?

 

[v_kyr]

 

 

1 hour ago, Wasp11b said:

If I have not done anything silly, then the question is why it's working here if it's not working elsewhere?

Probably since you used mm inside the field edit at end etc. Though works with px too, as far as the units are left inside a field edit at the end of an expression (expr+space+unit). Leaving a unit too inside the text field is mandantory here for the whole to work at all for the text field input parser in this case!

[Gear maker]

That seems odd that the units have to be left at the end of the statement.  But it does work on my mac also.  "2+cos(30)*2 in" works where "2+cos(30)*2" does not.

[GarryP]

I’ve just done a few more experiments and created the attached table from the results.
In each case I started with a new A4 document – with no artboard – and a different Unit Of Measure (UOM).
I drew a randomly-sized rectangle, added guides snapped to the left and bottom of the rectangle and moved the origin to the bottom-left of the rectangle, so I could more easily see what was happening (if anything).
For the four UOM I tried, when entering each different equation in the “X” field, I only got movement when including the UOM but, strangely, not when I also included the “x” field name at the start of the equation (first two columns of the table).
Obviously this isn’t an exhaustive test but, to me, it shows there’s a problem somewhere, either with the calculations made by the software, or how I have entered the equation, or maybe something else. If the problems is with how I have entered the equation then I need more help on what I should be doing, and a reason why I should be doing it that way instead of what feels natural.

[v_kyr]

43 minutes ago, GarryP said:

...strangely, not when I also included the “x” field name at the start of the equation (first two columns of the table).

The first colomn (B) misses the UOM thus won't work. Further the line parser doesn't handle x or y etc. variables, so you have to use number values instead. With that, your column (C) should work with {x = 1, 2, 3, 4 ... integer or float/double values} instead.

The Affinity line expression parsers have their weaknesses here, as has the documentation, which is pretty minimalistic if not to say bad for those specific things!

[GarryP]

The parser handles the variable names well in some other instances – see my first post in this thread where I use “x+10” and “w/2”, and some Help examples – just not, it seems, when some other expression fields are also used.
I’ve tried a few more examples using spaces and extra parentheses – e.g. “(x + cos(30) * 10) mm”, and others - and can’t make it work that way either. However, other things, such as “x+fraction(2.5)” (without UOM) do work, so some things work and others don’t; it’s a coin toss that the user can’t rely on.
Unless there’s a specific way that these things have to be used, a way that isn’t documented or easily guessed, then I would say that this functionality is broken.