How does this thing actually work?

[th_studio]

Hi guys!

I hope you're so excited to have the newest stable update of Affinity software. However, I was going through this page and couldn't really understand this part (see attachment please).

Anyone can explain how does it actually work?

Many thanks!

[walt.farrell]

Once you have created a compound (See the Help for how to do that), if you look at the Layers panel you'll see an icon on the upper layer of the compound. Clicking on it will give a drop down, and if you navigate between the choices you'll see a preview of the result on the canvas or artboard.

[th_studio]

@walt.farrell thanks a lot for the explanation. Now it makes sense 😀

[th_studio]

@walt.farrell one more question. How does this work? I've already tried but failed  Could you please clarify?

[walt.farrell]

From a forum search for "square bracket":

 

[th_studio]

@walt.farrell hmm... We've to assign the shortcuts manually. Thanks for sharing the post!

[walt.farrell]

You're welcome.

[Fixx]

18 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

Once you have created a compound (See the Help for how to do that), if you look at the Layers panel you'll see an icon on the upper layer of the compound. Clicking on it will give a drop down, 

Does that mean that compound paths are non-destructive, so you can edit component paths and change boolean at will?

[th_studio]

@Fixx sort of. But if you convert the compound path to regular curve then you'll no longer have access to the primary components.

[walt.farrell]

21 hours ago, Fixx said:

Does that mean that compound paths are non-destructive, so you can edit component paths and change boolean at will?

Yes, as long as it remains a Compound object. This non-destructive nature is covered in the Help I referenced, if I remember correctly.