When you crl + c and then crl + v (crl + J) with only part of a layer selected, it should only copy that part

[HuniSenpai]

So this is annoying. I want to copy letters from the logo on top so I can make this graphic. The RAINBOWSIX SIEGE text is all one curve. When I select only part of that curve, press crl + c followed by crl + v, I wish the program would only copy that part onto the new layer. Instead, the program foolishly copies the entire RAINBOWSIX SIEGE text again. So, if I want to copy the S out onto its own curves layer, I have to first duplicate the RAINBOWSIX SIEGE text, and then remove everything except the S. That is extraordinarily annoying and time consuming.

 

[G13RL]

Select the text for Layer 1, "Layer", "Geometry", "Separate Curves". Then select only the letter you want to copy.

[GarryP]

I don’t think there’s a quicker way of doing what you want while leaving the original as it is – I’d be glad to be proved wrong – but I would say that there could be a reasonable argument for being able to do what you want to do, up to a point.

For example, when we select some text and copy and paste, only the selected text is duplicated, not the whole text frame.
Also, when we have a pixel selection and copy and paste, only the selected pixels are duplicated, not the whole image.
So why can’t we select some nodes and duplicate just those selected nodes?

It sounds like a decent suggestion to me, although there may be problems when the nodes do not trace a complete curve.
For instance, have a look at my attached video. If I copied just the selected nodes, what would the pasted layer look like? There are no ‘joins’ between the nodes so all we might have are just some ‘disconnected’ nodes.
This may, or may not, be a problem. Further discussion is probably necessary.

[HuniSenpai]

10 hours ago, G13RL said:

Select the text for Layer 1, "Layer", "Geometry", "Separate Curves". Then select only the letter you want to copy.

Thank you! I didn't know about that. That certainly would have saved some time last night. 

I still do believe that there should be some way to just copy selected nodes onto another layer, though. The Rainbow Six Siege logo has a lot of touching letters, so the "separate curves" wouldn't have worked on those ones. It worked on the S, but it would not have worked on some other letters. Thank you nonetheless, this will come in handy!

[G13RL]

@HuniSenpai, 

Thanks for the feedback, the problem is certainly the fact that the text has been converted into a single curve. I agree with you, it should be possible to copy only the selected nodes, even in this kind of case.

[HuniSenpai]

11 hours ago, GarryP said:

I don’t think there’s a quicker way of doing what you want while leaving the original as it is – I’d be glad to be proved wrong – but I would say that there could be a reasonable argument for being able to do what you want to do, up to a point.

For example, when we select some text and copy and paste, only the selected text is duplicated, not the whole text frame.
Also, when we have a pixel selection and copy and paste, only the selected pixels are duplicated, not the whole image.
So why can’t we select some nodes and duplicate just those selected nodes?

It sounds like a decent suggestion to me, although there may be problems when the nodes do not trace a complete curve.
For instance, have a look at my attached video. If I copied just the selected nodes, what would the pasted layer look like? There are no ‘joins’ between the nodes so all we might have are just some ‘disconnected’ nodes.is may, or may not, be a problem. Further discussion is probably necessary

I thought about the same thing. I believe there are two ways to get around it:

1. Just allow us to have single points in space. Maybe you could add a feature to delete loose points, too, just in case someone places down a few. This could be saved in .afdesign files, i'm not sure about other vector files. Since a single point in space doesn't do anything unless there is a stroke on it, I would just not save these points into other file formats (and if it has a stroke, I would expand stroke behind the scenes just to export to other formats). Blender 3D allows users to have single points in space and it does not pose any problems. There's a "delete loose" feature in the "clean up" section that deals with them.
2. The other option is to count the number of vertices and the number of edges in the selection. Let "edges" be the integer tallying the number of edges in the selection, and "vertices" be the tally of vertices in the selection. 
   1. If(edges - 1 == vertices || edges == vertices) { copySelection(selection) }
   2. else { copyWholeCurve(curve) }  
   3. // In other words, it would copy just the selection if there are an appropriate number of edges for the given vertices. Now, these edges and vertices would be considered on their own curves. If a user selects two curves -- perhaps two that are overlapping -- that could throw off the count of edges vs vertices. Behind the scenes, it would separate these curves first before tallying up the number of edges and vertices for the two curves, in two separate operations. Additionally, Designer would not allow you to select an edge without selecting 2 vertices-- that's typical in vector software. "Curve" and "Selection" are some kind of data type, I don't know how AF Designer is programmed though. You get my point.

The problem with option 2 is, of course, deciding where the start and end of a line are. This isn't a problem, of course, if you've happened to have selected the start of the curve in AD, but that won't be the case most of the time. To get around it, you could look at each point in the copied result and find proximity to the starting point of the source, and choose the vertex that's closest. If they are all an equal distance then it's either a circle or all of the points are in the same spot. In these cases, maybe just arbitrarily choose a start and end point at either end of the curve. 

To be clear, AD already has to make decisions about what end becomes a start point and what end becomes an endpoint. This happens every time you "break curve" on a red node.