Ability to set line width as a variable

[Raven_H]

Hello! First and foremost, I'm new to the forums so apologies if this has already been suggested, I didn't quite see it at a first glance. I'm also not currently aware of this being a feature, but if it is, fantastic!

I would like to suggest the ability to set the stroke width of an object to a variable, rather than inputting the actual width. This would make it a lot easier to adjust the line width on MANY objects if you're working on a project where you may not know what to set the line width at, or if you unknowingly used a line width too small. The variables could even hold other types of data, like color, opacity, etc. There could be a variables panel where you can add a variable, select what kind it is, and input the current value of the variable. Maybe it could even be based upon other variables if you always wanted to make sure VarA was always twice as big as VarB, in terms of sizing.

If something doesn't quite make sense, feel free to ask questions as sometimes I can miss details. Thank you for taking your time to read this!

Edited May 11, 2020 by Raven_H
Wanted to add a thank you note :)

[dominik]

4 hours ago, Raven_H said:

Hello! First and foremost, I'm new to the forums so apologies if this has already been suggested, I didn't quite see it at a first glance. I'm also not currently aware of this being a feature, but if it is, fantastic!

I would like to suggest the ability to set the stroke width of an object to a variable, rather than inputting the actual width. This would make it a lot easier to adjust the line width on MANY objects if you're working on a project where you may not know what to set the line width at, or if you unknowingly used a line width too small. The variables could even hold other types of data, like color, opacity, etc. There could be a variables panel where you can add a variable, select what kind it is, and input the current value of the variable. Maybe it could even be based upon other variables if you always wanted to make sure VarA was always twice as big as VarB, in terms of sizing.

If something doesn't quite make sense, feel free to ask questions as sometimes I can miss details. Thank you for taking your time to read this!

Hello @Raven_H,

welcome to the forum. This is an interesting idea and at least I haven't seen this before. But the forum is huge and no one can know it all 🙂

In all Affinity apps you can type in mathematical calculations in fields. And you can refer to certain values with a shortcut.

• E.g. if you select a single object like a circle you can type in the transform panel into it's width field 'h*2' and hit enter. This will set the object's width to double the size of it's height.
• E.g. if you select a single line and type into it's width field '*3' the line width becomes three times as wide. Of course this also works with '50%'.
• You can select multiple objects and set 'Transform Objects Seperately' (in the context tool bar) and do the same to width, height, line width, rotation and shear.

There is a whole article in the online help file about expressions for input fields:

https://affinity.help/designer/en-US.lproj/index.html#

Once you get the hang of it this might be in the direction of your suggestion.

Cheers,
d.

[Raven_H]

1 hour ago, dominik said:

Hello @Raven_H,

welcome to the forum. This is an interesting idea and at least I haven't seen this before. But the forum is huge and no one can know it all 🙂

In all Affinity apps you can type in mathematical calculations in fields. And you can refer to certain values with a shortcut.

• E.g. if you select a single object like a circle you can type in the transform panel into it's width field 'h*2' and hit enter. This will set the object's width to double the size of it's height.
• E.g. if you select a single line and type into it's width field '*3' the line width becomes three times as wide. Of course this also works with '50%'.
• You can select multiple objects and set 'Transform Objects Seperately' (in the context tool bar) and do the same to width, height, line width, rotation and shear.

There is a whole article in the online help file about expressions for input fields:

https://affinity.help/designer/en-US.lproj/index.html#

Once you get the hang of it this might be in the direction of your suggestion.

Cheers,
d.

Oh! I was unaware of that feature, thank you for letting me know! While I've used Affinity Designer a little bit I definitely haven't learned the half of it, and my Illustrator experience only helps as far as the basics in terms of what you can do in general with vector art. I'll for sure be looking in to this, and while it may not be 100% the level of control I want it'll definitely help a lot, so thanks @dominik!

[dominik]

4 minutes ago, Raven_H said:

and while it may not be 100% the level of control I want it'll definitely help a lot

Hi @Raven_H

glad to give you a starting point. I do support your suggestion to make this even more powerfull.

d.