Remove duplication from [ALT]

[Heres Johnny]

Currently if we hold [CTRL] and drag an object, Affinity will drag a copy of that object. Great.

Why the need for the exact same behavior with the [ALT] modifier key? It is often in conflict with temporarily overriding snapping. We are forced to move an object a little bit first before being able to press and hold [ALT] to simply override snapping. Otherwise, it creates a duplicate of the selected object.

Please fix this. Let [CTRL] stay for duplication, and [ALT] for overriding snapping (if active).

[Old Bruce]

Personally I like the current implementation. I can begin dragging something and turn off snapping for this one time by holding down the option key. Or I can think, oh I actually need a copy and then hold down the Command (I am on Mac) key and bang, I now have a copy being dragged. I can hold the option key down and begin dragging and have a copy which I want to have snapped to something I can just let go of the option key and my copy now has snapping on.

I really don't see a downside to this functionality (once I figured out the options available).

[Heres Johnny]

Thanks Bruce, I appreciate your answer but I'm struggling to find anything positive about it to be honest. The problem is that you must move the object a little bit and let Affinity snap it to something, and only then you are allowed to hold ALT to override snapping and move the object back to where you want it to be. In my humble opinion you should be able to override snapping right away, and if you want the object to be duplicated you should be able to combine it with another modifier responsible for its own dedicated action - CTRL to copy. That's one thing I actually think Illustrator does better and I really cannot see a good reason for the way Affinity currently does it.

[Old Bruce]

Select the object, release the mouse, hold the Option key down click and drag. This gives me a copy. Snapping is off for as long as I hold down the option key. for no copying I just select and click drag then hold down the option key, this turns off the snapping and does not copy.

[Heres Johnny]

Yes. But if you want to slightly nudge it without snapping, you have to drag it much further only to be allowed to disable snapping with ALT. But seriously, why the need to have the same action assigned to two modifier keys?

[Jowday]

5 hours ago, Heres Johnny said:

Currently if we hold [CTRL] and drag an object, Affinity will drag a copy of that object. Great.

Why the need for the exact same behavior with the [ALT] modifier key? It is often in conflict with temporarily overriding snapping. We are forced to move an object a little bit first before being able to press and hold [ALT] to simply override snapping. Otherwise, it creates a duplicate of the selected object.

Please fix this. Let [CTRL] stay for duplication, and [ALT] for overriding snapping (if active).

Hear hear. I made a lot of copies by mistake because of this. I use snapping and [ALT] a lot. 

[Pšenda]

7 hours ago, Heres Johnny said:

Please fix this. Let [CTRL] stay for duplication, and [ALT] for overriding snapping (if active).

Yes, the current behavior is wrong, and contrary to what is stated in the Status bar. Ctrl has ensure duplication of the object, and Alt has only turn off snapping. The fact that when Alt is pressed before selecting the mouse object, and not after selecting when it works properly, is the wrong behavior - Alt has nothing to duplicate the object.

[Old Bruce]

42 minutes ago, Pšenda said:

Alt has nothing to duplicate the object.

Blame it on the Mac method of using Option to copy things when dragging with the mouse.

[Pšenda]

6 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

Blame it on the Mac method of using Option to copy things when dragging with the mouse.

I'm sorry, but I'm not interested in MacOS at all - me and OP are talking about Alt (Windows).

[walt.farrell]

8 minutes ago, Pšenda said:

I'm sorry, but I'm not interested in MacOS at all - me and OP are talking about Alt (Windows).

Given the desired operational consistency between the  Mac and Windows versions of the Affinity applications, there will be such effects, and it doesn't really matter whether we Windows users care about it or not. We're affected in any case

[Pšenda]

1 hour ago, walt.farrell said:

Given the desired operational consistency between the  Mac and Windows versions of the Affinity applications,

Given the numerous and much more serious inconsistencies between the versions, it would be really strange to pay attention to the consistency of this unnecessary, and even undocumented (see Status bar) function.

[Heres Johnny]

1 hour ago, ErrkaPetti said:

But, hav’nt we nudge objects directly with the cursor/arrow keys?

By a fixed amount. That's the whole purpose of overriding snapping to adjust stuff freely and quickly.

[Fixx]

Gotta say alt-key is used for duplication in so many softwares that giving it up makes no sense.

[fde101]

Personally I wish they would cause the "clone" function with the command key (evidently control on the other platform) to create something more like a symbol, leaving the option key feature (your 
"alt" key) to do what it is doing now.

The "clone" would be like a symbol in that its properties would be linked to the one it was cloned from, but would not necessarily show up on the Symbols panel.

[solowing]

The issue for me is simply that they have two commands that do exactly the same thing, and one of them is undocumented.  I don't care whether they make it ctrl or alt, or whatever, but I only need one command.  Pick one and update the status bar accordingly.