How to align shape on a path

[Boroji]

Hello world,

Does anyone know how to align a these circles on a path or stroke ?

Thank you

[GarryP]

I think you are going to have to supply more information.
What, exactly, do you mean by ‘align’?
Should the circles be ‘aligned’ individually or in the configuration shown in your image?
Should the circles by rotated to coincide with the angle of the line at the point(s) of ‘alignment’, or not?
Should the centre(s) be on the line or below, or above?
Can you can give us a visual idea of what you want?

[Old Bruce]

I would copy one of the blue dots and then use the text on a path to paste it repeatedly. Depending on how you want them spaced you can then use Character Tracking or Paragraph Full Justification.

Tracking vs Justified.afdesign

 

[Boroji]

@GarryP I just wanted the circles to follow a certain path. As @Old Bruce mentioned I copied circles, and pasted them on a path, and adjusted the tracking. It really helped me out, thank you. Here are the results. I also attached the file.

I would suggest affinity to add a feature like that instead of using the text tool to align shapes. Just a thought

text-path-align.afdesign

[firstdefence]

you could also use a dashed stroke.

https://affinity.help/designer/English.lproj/pages/CurvesShapes/draw_linesAndShapes.html

[Boroji]

@firstdefence I didn't know that, wow sooo cool. thanks 

[GarryP]

If you don’t mind your circles being rasterised then you could try creating a Textured Image Brush (in Designer) which can be applied to an existing curve, or an Image Brush (in Designer or Photo), see attached video (textured brush on top). (Plenty of videos in the forum and on the web showing you how to do either.)

However, if I wanted to use plain circles then I would probably go for firstdefence’s dashed stroke method as it should be quicker to create and manipulate and is all vector-based.

Anyway, at least you have a few options now.

[firstdefence]

You can actually get a similar effect to Garry’s balls 🤔 still using the dashed line, you achieve this by using fx and in particular the 3D fx, unfortunately using fx will get the dashed line rasterised on export but still it’s a cool look.

[Boroji]

@GarryP  wooooooow i’m learning new skills every single second  how did you turn the circle into brush ?

i wish the circle didn’t rasterize tho

[Boroji]

@firstdefence thank you for teaching me. i do appreciate learning new skills  

how can i turn the circles into brushes in the first place ?

[GarryP]

firstdefence: That’s a great way to do it. I need to play around with that a bit more to see what else I can make that way, see attached image. Looks like it could have lots of potential for various things.

Boroji: As I said above, there are plenty of videos showing you how to do it. Just search for “Affinity Image Brush” or “Affinity Textured Image Brush”.

[Eddy-2]

Thanks to all for the new (to me) info.

Regarding Boroji's question about designing new brushes, the following video seems well explained...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhtrAOsYFGY

[Eddy-2]

I can do the attached quite easily in DrawPlus by creating a brush and applying it to a line but can't manage it in Design.

Is it possible?

[PixelPest]

Will this work or do you need any "Glyph" to be in upright position?

[Eddy-2]

Thanks PixelPest, I'll check it out.

My question, though, mainly relates to the process of creating and using brushes in Design. The video I linked to above is for Photo and the controls for brushes seem more flexible than those for Design.

It's not something I really need and can manage with DrawPlus if needs be but it was the original question and answers which had me trying things in Design.

[GarryP]

You can draw along a curve with a brush like that by using a Textured Image Brush in Designer (see the top version in my earlier video).
You need to create the brush with a gap at the side(s) to get it to work, and set it to Repeat, and there may be a bit of distortion depending on the curve, but it’s not too difficult.

[PixelPest]

Mmmh - Draw Persona or Pixel Persona in AD?

[PixelPest]

3 minutes ago, Eddy-2 said:

The video I linked to above is for Photo and the controls for brushes seem more flexible than those for Design.

Mmmh - Draw Persona or Pixel Persona in AD?

[PixelPest]

4 minutes ago, GarryP said:

a Textured Image Brush in Designer

Mine above is "vectorial". 😉

[GarryP]

Yeah, it’s nice, but Eddy-2 specifically asked about using brushes, which is why I gave a brush-related answer.

[Eddy-2]

Thanks Garry/PixelPest.

I can (sort of) create a brush but seem unable to assign it to a pre-drawn stroke in the same way I can in DrawPlus. Apart from getting a greyscale image, when I increase the Tail Offset to space the images, I get a continuous line in the background.

I've just had something happen which wouldn't happen before so I'll have to play about when I have a bit more time.

It's no great problem but it doesn't seem as easy doing it as it does in DrawPlus.

[PixelPest]

2 hours ago, Eddy-2 said:

Thanks to all for the new (to me) info.

Regarding Boroji's question about designing new brushes, the following video seems well explained...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhtrAOsYFGY

This all can be done in AD - except it don´t have "Intensity Brush" but "Textured Intensity Brush" category in Draw Persona.

[Eddy-2]

Thanks PP.

Unless I'm doing something wrong, I can't get the same DrawPlus effect with either Textured Intensity or Textured Image when applied to a line.

I don't get the colour and I get an unwanted background line when I try to increase the spacing. See attachment for what I do get. Intensity top, Image below.

Update: I might have sorted out the colour issue in the Swatches tab but not the background line.

Please don't waste any more time, I'll try a few more things.

[GarryP]

Here’s an example using a Textured Image Brush.
To get the brush, export the “Clock with margins” Slice (created from the “Clock with margins” layer), then create a Textured Image Brush, then edit the brush and set the brush to Repeat, then apply it to your curve.
(If you zoom in you can see distortion but it’s probably okay for some purposes.)

clock-brush.afdesign

[Eddy-2]

Thanks Garry.

There seems to be one or two things left behind in Serif's Plus office when they moved to their Affinity abode. Hopefully, these will be retrieved in good time.