Why can't I select individual shapes in Designer

[Wahman]

I have some Adobe Illustrator docs I need to edit. The issue I'm having, besides being new to Affinity Design, is I'm not able to select individual things. For some reason, Affinity is grouping them.  The pieces in particular I'm unable to select and edit were transparent in Illustrator. Is that the problem? They are not grouped or masked in either program.

[R C-R]

1 hour ago, Wahman said:

For some reason, Affinity is grouping them. {...} They are not grouped or masked in either program.

Which is it?

[Wahman]

In Illustrator, they are not grouped or masked. But w hen I open in Affinity, they are "seemingly grouped," and won't let me select individually. There is no option to ungroup (since they aren't grouped), so my question is, why can't I direct select?

Thank you.

 

Edited April 19, 2020 by Wahman

[GarryP]

It sounds like you might have an embedded document (has a label “(Embedded document)” in the Layers Panel).
You can edit an embedded document by double-clicking on it on the canvas.
If that’s not what’s happening, we might need to see a full-screen screen grab including your Layers Panel showing that layer selected.

[R C-R]

7 minutes ago, GarryP said:

It sounds like you might have an embedded document ...

Or maybe the file has been rasterized?

[GarryP]

Rasterisation does seem likely given the ‘roughness’ of the example image.
It looks a bit like a thumbnail that has been enlarged (I’ve seen this before in other software when importing EPS files).
Once we can see the Layers Panel things should start to get clearer.

[Wahman]

Thank you! Yea, somehow in translation from ai to af, it looks to have been lo-rez rasterized. I wonder if this is because there were transparencies on the tubes. Wouldn't explain why the circles were grouped. Anyway, not a huge issue. I just wondered if there was a trick to the direct select node I don't know.  I am brand new — as in, 2 days in — with Affinity. I've been using CS for decades, this transition is going to take time. 

Thank you, RCR & Garry, for taking my question seriously and being kind and helpful. It's nice to know you are here for questions.  Next time, I'll screen grab with layers.

[GarryP]

You're welcome.