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Joining nodes - will it ever be working properly?


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I've been reading all posts about merging, joining etc. and there's no clear answer and no one shows how to make it working. I've been strugling with this two years - why two nodes are not joing when we click JOIN ACTION? It's more like roulette, sometimes it is working, sometimes not.
Is it a bug or is it intentionally to work like that?

 

Edited by jacek007g
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I've been having the exact same problem and so have  -I think-  a lot of other users.

Joining nodes is a nightmare. Indeed sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. 

I found that usually it works on the first nodes you try to join, but all the next times within the same object don't.

This issue  has been around since the beginning, high time someone at the devs looks into it seriously.

 

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Join Curves just joins two or more selected open curves, joining them at their nearest pairs of end nodes, so there is no point in selecting any specific nodes in any of them -- that will be ignored. It also will not work when only a single curve is selected -- a curve is already joined with itself, so that also will be ignored. Close Curve will only close open curves -- it has no 'join' capabilities.

So to join 2 open curves to make a single closed curve, both Join Curves & Close Curve must be done, & in that order.

One of the problems with this is there is no specific 'weld nodes' feature that reliably will convert two coincident end nodes into a single node -- sometimes dragging one node away from & then back on top of the other does this, & sometimes it does not. 😕

Note: in this context 'end node' means the node at either end of an open curve, not the first or last node drawn.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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Thanks for explanation.

So in the end Affinity Designer 1.7 it still can't join nodes. I know it can be hard to code but honestly - it's the basics of working on bezier curves. Is there a hope to make it better in 1.8 or can someone from Serif say for example: "we're working at that" / "it's not possible" / "we'll make it in 1.8"?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzXG2tpqhnc

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  • 1 month later...

Okay, so this seems to be the latest post on the topic, right? Searched the forum and read through a couple of threads. This seems to be an old issue.

Is there maybe a "How to" on that from Affinity? How would one just join to curves? Is @jacek007g doing something wrong in his videos above?

There a plenty of tools and functions that are missing in Affinity's products, I can kind of live with that. But not being able to join to curves is... strange to say the least. 🤷‍♂️

@R C-R: you seem to be very involved in the topic (at least your name popped up a lot ;) )... are you saying that it is currently not possible? i sure need this. a lot. as in: "all the time". :)

 

thanks for the help.

 

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2 hours ago, LeG said:

@R C-R: you seem to be very involved in the topic (at least your name popped up a lot ;) )... are you saying that it is currently not possible? i sure need this. a lot. as in: "all the time". :)

What specifically are you asking about? You cannot join a closed curve with anything since it is already joined with itself, so to speak, but you can join open curves.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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Hi @R C-R and sorry for the late replay.

I guess, with me it's the usual "but in software xyz it works that way and that's what i am used to, why doesn't this work in Affinity". sorry for that. 😁 Just have gotton used to Adobe Illustrator too much in the last years. Am still using CS6, as graphics are not my main business and getting a Cloud licence for all employees wouldn't be worth the money. That being said, I'm very interested in using Affinity more during my projects and often enough just don't have the time for completely different approaches. Although Affinity is clearly based on the Adobe suite.

Staying on topic:

From what I understand in @jacek007g last post, he should have selected the nodes he wants to join, right? (same in AI) And to do that both curves have to be selected as well (different from AI). Then one can join them with the "Join Curves" command (not Close Curves).

What worked best for me so far regarding the snapping of points, I use "Snap: Align to nodes of selected curves". The snapping is indicated in yellow. (But only the node should be yellow, not the entire curve, as it might result in two nodes getting connected by a line.)

Still feels like a lot of work to get two curves connected, to be host. but it does the job and everybody can adjust their workflow (unless they are 90 already). :)


 

 

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5 minutes ago, LeG said:

From what I understand in @jacek007g last post, he should have selected the nodes he wants to join, right? (same in AI) And to do that both curves have to be selected as well (different from AI). Then one can join them with the "Join Curves" command (not Close Curves).

No, Join Curves ignores any selected nodes & just joins open (important!) curves at their closest ends.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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31 minutes ago, R C-R said:

No, Join Curves ignores any selected nodes & just joins open (important!) curves at their closest ends.

but in my video above it works, doesn't it? what am i missing?

i think the wording is a bit confusing "join curves", "close curve", "merge curves"... so you are saying:
join curves - connects two endpoints of two separate open curves (sounds a bit useless as a function by itself?)

close curve - connects the ends of a single open curve

Geometry > merge curve  - just turns two curves into an object (AI: Compound Path)

so, how would I merge two end-nodes (regardless if it's a single open curve or two open curves)? I am confused 🤷‍♂️

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7 minutes ago, LeG said:

but in my video above it works, doesn't it? what am i missing?

You joined 2 open curves where their end nodes were closest because you dragged one onto the other. That's why they were joined there, not because they were the two nodes you selected.

11 minutes ago, LeG said:

join curves - connects two endpoints of two separate open curves (sounds a bit useless as a function by itself?)

It connects any number of selected open curves at their nearest end points. That may or may not be what you want.

14 minutes ago, LeG said:

so, how would I merge two end-nodes (regardless if it's a single open curve or two open curves)?

For a single open curve, what usually works is to just drag one end node over the other with snapping enabled, pause a moment (important!) for the round yellow snapping indicator to appear (as in your video), & release the mouse button. Prior to the 1.8.x versions this was hit or miss (the two nodes sometimes merged into a single one, closing the curve; & sometimes the two nodes just were snapped to the same point without merging or closing the curve). This seems to be fixed in the 1.8.x versions -- at least I cannot get it to fail on my Mac.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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Quote
4 hours ago, LeG said:

but in my video above it works, doesn't it? what am i missing?

You joined 2 open curves where their end nodes were closest because you dragged one onto the other. That's why they were joined there, not because they were the two nodes you selected.

ah, you're right. got it, thanks. (one could argue that the buttons are a bit misleading then - from a UI point.)

 

Quote

For a single open curve, what usually works is to just drag one end node over the other with snapping enabled, pause a moment (important!) for the round yellow snapping indicator to appear (as in your video), & release the mouse button. Prior to the 1.8.x versions this was hit or miss (the two nodes sometimes merged into a single one, closing the curve; & sometimes the two nodes just were snapped to the same point without merging or closing the curve). This seems to be fixed in the 1.8.x versions -- at least I cannot get it to fail on my Mac.

same on my windows version. thanks! (although I don't quite get, why the process for merging nodes of the same or different open curves have to be so different.)

but how do I keep the transition from being smooth? meaning: original orientation of the bezier-handle for both connecting points. 50% of the time you might want "pointy".

 

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1 hour ago, LeG said:

(although I don't quite get, why the process for merging nodes of the same or different open curves have to be so different.)

If you mean dragging one end of an open curve over the other end of the same open curve to merge those two nodes into one (closing that curve), how could that same procedure work with two different curves which might be of different shapes?

1 hour ago, LeG said:

but how do I keep the transition from being smooth?

I don't think you can.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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22 minutes ago, R C-R said:

If you mean dragging one end of an open curve over the other end of the same open curve to merge those two nodes into one (closing that curve), how could that same procedure work with two different curves which might be of different shapes?

Well, the exact same way. Why would the shape matter? (Although I prefer having more control over what nodes are connecting and so far prefer the AIllustrator way of handling nodes by far.)

But since that's not how it works now and this is not a feature request thread, I just have to work with what I got. Maybe it'll make sense one day to me too. (:

Thanks anyway for the infos. Getting more and more comfortable with Designer. 👍

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7 minutes ago, LeG said:

Well, the exact same way. Why would the shape matter?

What I mean is how could it work on both curves at the same time (since you can only drag nodes onto one end node of one curve, no matter how many nodes you are dragging).

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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1 hour ago, LeG said:

was talking about what I did at 0:28. It could have merged the nodes already, as it would have done for a single open curve. 🤷‍♂️

Sure, but not everybody would want that to happen, for example if they intended to leave the curves open so they could be joined with other open curves later.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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13 hours ago, R C-R said:

not everybody would want that to happen

Exactly! I sure don't want it for a single curve to happen, either. Hence my above comment. 😉

15 hours ago, LeG said:

(Although I prefer having more control over what nodes are connecting and so far prefer the AIllustrator way of handling nodes by far.)

I just didnt get, why the ways of merging would be different for single and multiple curves.

But again, we have to leave this argument for another day. We might just work differently with the software.  ☺️

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