Bugs with Add and Divide geometry operations

[Fernan]

Hi guys, I have found some issues while doing some basic geometry operations.

This image is from 2 squares (and 2 examples) with a different rotation, after being Divide and then merged together again with Add operation:

As you can see there are some edges that are overlapping. I made the same procedure several times and sometimes the result was different, but always problematic.

I also found a very weird thing while using Divide operation in a more 'complex' geometry (4 circles). I was trying to follow along with an Adobe Illustrator tutorial about the Shape Builder tool (which is pretty neat), but this was  the result 😔

As you can see the Divide command gone insane. I have separated the resulting parts for you to see the problem more clearly; I ended up with more than 100 objects while expecting just 13 (most of them, in the form of tiny lines in the middle of the circles).

Sorry if my english is not perfect. Thank you.

[Jowday]

4 hours ago, Fernan said:

As you can see the Divide command gone insane. I have separated the resulting parts for you to see the problem more clearly; I ended up with more than 100 objects while expecting just 13 (most of them, in the form of tiny lines in the middle of the circles).

Divide in Affinity Designer is next to unusable. Faulty. You experienced just that. We have been waiting for years for it to be fixed. Apparently Serifs priorities lies elsewhere. Whatever responses that will follow here from forum loyalists and whoever, the state of divide in the year of 2020 is: what you just experienced. 

Sometimes it works. But when it doesn't...

Vector is not Affinity Designers strong point. (!)

[Sean P]

Hi Fernan,

This is something we're aware off and is something that needs reimplementing. I will pass your comments on to devleopment.

Thanks for letting us know.

[Fernan]

14 hours ago, Jowday said:

Divide in Affinity Designer is next to unusable. Faulty. You experienced just that. We have been waiting for years for it to be fixed. Apparently Serifs priorities lies elsewhere. Whatever responses that will follow here from forum loyalists and whoever, the state of divide in the year of 2020 is: what you just experienced. 

Sometimes it works. But when it doesn't...

Vector is not Affinity Designers strong point. (!)

Oh man, this is kind of disappointing to read...

I was not aware this software have these kind of issues. Geometry operators are TOO IMPORTANT in ANY vector program, so that is a pretty big problem 😔

To be honest I have never experienced anything like that in any other software (CorelDRAW, Illustrator). Even in Inkcape (open source), which I really dislike, these operators work just as they should.

[Jowday]

16 hours ago, Fernan said:

Oh man, this is kind of disappointing to read... I was not aware this software have these kind of issues. Geometry operators are TOO IMPORTANT in ANY vector program, so that is a pretty big problem 😔

To be honest I have never experienced anything like that in any other software (CorelDRAW, Illustrator). Even in Inkcape (open source), which I really dislike, these operators work just as they should.

It is depressing. Geometry operators are exactly essential and critical in vector software. Letting customers waiting years for fixes of geometry operators tells a lot about Serif. Don't buy into the hype or marketing. Believe what you see and get.

Anyway. After a mounting number of customer (!) complaints Serif did improve some of the algorithms (fx expand stroke) and released the improvements in release 1.8 a few months ago. With disastrous bugs and issues though. Kind of funny though. Their marketing of fixes of algorithms that performed as poorly as you experienced with divide like "Massive expand stroke improvements was far out! "Get incredibly accurate results with far fewer nodes than before" Yeah, incredibly they managed to get it to work after years. That is what I call city market marketing - "Get incredible motorics by not being piss drunk" ...

Release 1.8.0 was almost unusable. That tells a lot about their testing efforts and hints to a rushed release. Finally in release 1.8.3 things improved. Still, we are waiting for improvements to divide and perhaps they will come in release 1.9? Perhaps not? After waiting for years it is impossible to mobilise serious optimism. Its hard to put faith in the future of Affinity Designer and Serif when the program has so few vector features - and the fundamental ones wasn't even implemented professionally. 

I like working in Designer a lot. But only for hobby use. I worked professionally with boolean operators in other design programs since 1996 and privately since 1990? Serif made their first vector software in 1993. It is interesting that they are still struggling with boolean operators and algorithms 27 years later.