Surface Dial Shortcuts

[Jason Gibbins]

Affinity Designer will not accept keyboard commands from my Surface Dial. For example, CTRL+' (toggle grid)

It's an odd one because, all my other programs accept these and Affinity Designer will accept them from my keyboard and mouse (using custom buttons)

So how come not from the Dial? Part of the reason I purchased this software is because it supports Surface Dial. I simply want to be able to zoom and toggle grid with it. 

I have tested the Dial features that are already there, however opacity and tilt (and the others that are available) are not useful to me in my workflow.

PLEASE can we add either:

1. Allow keyboard commands from Surface Dial.

2. Add zoom and toggle grid to the integrated Dial functionality. 

 

Thanks, Jason.

[Gabe]

Hi @Jason Gibbins,

We don't currently support Custom Shortcuts. So, it's not a bug, but a limitation. I have moved this to feature requests

[Jason Gibbins]

Hey, thanks for your reply. Although I am still confused by this, would you be kind enough to elaborate a little, please? 

I don't understand why it works perfectly with my Logitech mouse but not the Surface Dial.

So it seems as though Affinity Designer actually DOES support custom shortcuts. Or why would it work with the mouse? 

AD also accepts these shortcuts from a few other devices I tested too. Also when I try to use the custom shortcuts in other software using my Surface Dial, they all work as expected.

So please explain, why is it different if a keyboard command comes from one device or another? Or why would AD only accept certain keyboard commands but not all?

Thank you, Jason 👍

[Mark Ingram]

@Jason Gibbins, how have you configured the keyboard shortcuts for the Dial? Is the problem that the keyboard doesn't appear on the Dial, or that it doesn't do anything when you select it? 

[Jason Gibbins]

In Windows setting you can assign a keyboard command to be output from the Dial when clicked or rotated. So in this example I set the Dial to output CTRL+' when clicked. This is all done in windows/settings/devices/wheel.

Then I do the same for my mouse but instead using Logitech Options. Here I assign the same CTRL+' to one of my custom mouse buttons.

Then I open AD and click the Dial, nothing happens...….then I click the mouse button and it successfully toggle the grid.

When testing in other software, for example Ableton Live. The Dial's keyboard command gets accepted and functions as expected.

So far I have only noticed Affinity to not accept the keyboard commands from the Dial.

 

[Jason Gibbins]

 Did that answer your question? 😁 I hope so...….

Thanks for replying 👍

[Jason Gibbins]

On 2/5/2020 at 11:21 AM, Mark Ingram said:

@Jason Gibbins, how have you configured the keyboard shortcuts for the Dial? Is the problem that the keyboard doesn't appear on the Dial, or that it doesn't do anything when you select it? 

Hey, I have not heard anything back from you. Would you please take a look at this for me? 🙏

Is there anything else I can do to help with it?

Many thanks 🙂

[Mark Ingram]

22 hours ago, Jason Gibbins said:

Hey, I have not heard anything back from you. Would you please take a look at this for me? 🙏

Is there anything else I can do to help with it?

Many thanks 🙂

I think the reason for this is that we override all Dial behaviour (i.e. the Click action we use for cycling through available options on the Dial, based on the currently selected tool). I'm guessing that the other software works with the keyboard shortcut because it doesn't offer any custom Dial behaviour.

I think that in order to offer a solution that would be usable by you, and also by people who don't want to add shortcuts to the Dial, would be to offer a way of customising the behaviours in our Preferences (similar to customising keyboard shortcuts).

[Jason Gibbins]

Yes, I noticed that all dial behaviour seemed to be overridden. Not even the zoom will work properly.

Maybe it would be better to override the dial only if the user has the preference turned on in the settings?

If you are able to add any functionality to the list of dial features, please try to add the following:

1. Zoom

2. Toggle grid (dial click)

3. Move X and Y 1 pixel at a time.

 

Thanks for your reply 

[Jason Gibbins]

On 2/12/2020 at 10:39 AM, Mark Ingram said:

I think the reason for this is that we override all Dial behaviour 

If the preference in the settings for Dial support is turned off, then why is the Dial behaviour overridden?

It would be great if you could make it so that, when the dial support is off, it just functions like any other keyboard shortcut.

Obviously when Dial support is then turned on it will be overridden and function only as the software dictates.

 

Did you manage to make any progress with this issue? It is driving me crazy. haha.

The whole reason I purchased a Dial was to use zoom in AD, and as AD claimed it supported the Dial, I thought great.

But to be honest, it only allows rotate and undo, which is very limited.

It's sitting here like a very expensive paper weight, haha.

Please help me!

[Mark Ingram]

@Jason Gibbins, if Dial is disabled in Preferences then we don't do anything and it _should_ function the same as in any other app (we only add our custom behaviours when that is enabled). I don't know why custom shortcuts aren't being delivered. We'll have to check that behaviour and see if anything can be improved there.

Dial is actually a lot more useful in Affinity Photo rather than Affinity Designer, as it supports all sorts of adjustments and filters. Other things that Designer supports too are the Shape tool and Select tool (for changing object visibility and blend mode).

[Jason Gibbins]

Thank you so much for checking, it's appreciated!

 

Try this, open AD and do not click anything at all. Use the Dial, notice how the zoom works perfectly. Now click anywhere in the software, now the Dial stops functioning.

 

Fingers crossed, you can sort it, cheers.

[Jason Gibbins]

On 3/4/2020 at 12:28 PM, Mark Ingram said:

@Jason Gibbins, if Dial is disabled in Preferences then we don't do anything and it _should_ function the same as in any other app (we only add our custom behaviours when that is enabled). I don't know why custom shortcuts aren't being delivered. We'll have to check that behaviour and see if anything can be improved there.

Dial is actually a lot more useful in Affinity Photo rather than Affinity Designer, as it supports all sorts of adjustments and filters. Other things that Designer supports too are the Shape tool and Select tool (for changing object visibility and blend mode).

Hey, did you manage to find any success with this?

I would still love to have the Surface Dial send the normal keyboard commands to AF........OR..........have zoom and toggle grid added to the list of built in functions.

Please & Thanks 🙏

[Mark Ingram]

On 6/25/2020 at 9:35 AM, Jason Gibbins said:

Hey, did you manage to find any success with this?

I would still love to have the Surface Dial send the normal keyboard commands to AF........OR..........have zoom and toggle grid added to the list of built in functions.

Please & Thanks 🙏

Hi Jason, unfortunately I don't have access to the Surface Dial to test with right now, as I'm working remotely, and the device is secured in our office. We'll have to pick this back up again towards the end of the year I suspect.

[Jason Gibbins]

OK, thanks for letting me know 👍

[Phillippe]

Has Surface Dial support been added to Affinity?

Has Sarif looked at adding support for Surface Dial support Affinity apps?

[walt.farrell]

As far as I know, no changes have been made beyond what the FAQ describes:

 

[Jason Gibbins]

On 6/26/2020 at 10:38 AM, Mark Ingram said:

Hi Jason, unfortunately I don't have access to the Surface Dial to test with right now, as I'm working remotely, and the device is secured in our office. We'll have to pick this back up again towards the end of the year I suspect.

Hey Mark. Any update on this? Thanks

[Mark Ingram]

On 6/24/2021 at 2:24 PM, Jason Gibbins said:

Hey Mark. Any update on this? Thanks

Hi Jason, our office is still closed, and we're all working from home still. Thanks for your patience.

[Jason Gibbins]

That is a shame. But thank you for the reply. Hopefully things will get back to normal for you all. Maybe I should post you mt Dial? 😁🤣

[Jason Gibbins]

Mark, would you be able to take a look at this please? I would really appreciate it. 🙏

[Jason Gibbins]

On 6/28/2021 at 11:03 AM, Mark Ingram said:

Hi Jason, our office is still closed, and we're all working from home still. Thanks for your patience.

If the office is still closed, I can post you my Dial to test with? I am desperate to get this working, as it would be a real workflow improvement for me and part of the reason I bought the software in the first place was because it said it supported Surface Dail.

Please let me know, thank you.