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Serious bug with grouping objects


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If I marquee-select a number of objects to group, sometimes Affinity will disperse some/all these objects, flinging them out from there positions before creating the group.

Undo fixes this, and re-selecting/grouping will achieve the correct result. Annoying, and persistent, and random, but not destructive.

However, if one of those objects is a symbol (I’ve only started using symbols a little for some projects), the “fling” and reposition *all* copies of that symbol and undo does not fix it, which *is* destructive.

Please help. This is not a new or infrequent bug; I just didn’t realise how ruinous it is if one of the objects is a symbol.

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Hi!

The bug is not predictable nor necessarily repeatable, but the next time it happens I can at least take screen shots of a typical result, and then undo the action and take another one to show how objects have moved while being grouped.

My experience of the bug is that it seems more likely to happen if I am marquee-selecting sets of objects and grouping them one after another and doing this relatively quickly using standard keyboard shortcuts. Which is to say that my sense is that what triggers it is the repetition and speed — as if the rapid selection and key-presses are part of the cause. To be clear about what happens: Affinity does group the objects, but instantaneously moves some of them apart, often off of the artboard. The bounding box of the group is visible, but is suddenly expanded, with some objects “flung” to new locations, usually out of view.

Ignoring the instance where this involved symbols (which really messed up the document), I can immediately undo the group action, which will bring all the objects back. I then simple de-select and re-select them; a second try at grouping them is almost always successful. However, there have definitely been instances where the bug does repeats, and in those I have sometimes undone the action and then ‘degrouped’ the objects that had been selected, which seems to reset Affinity, ready to correctly group them on the next attempt.

Anyway: I shall try to capture screenshots, and potentially video if I can do a screen recording and replicate the problem when it happens next.

Thank you for your reply!

Brett   

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Hi!

Can you view the attached screen capture?

There are 9 rounded hex shapes selected. When I attempt to group them using the keyboard shortcut, some of them fly off the artboard, creating the very large group object shown when I zoom out. When I undo, they return to their original positions. If I do not change the selection, I can repeat the group shortcut and see the exact same “flinging” re-occur (the incorrect position is the same each time; the positions are not randomised).

Sidebar: Although this document contains symbols, none of the objects selected in this example are symbols — I just happened to be playing around with a set of objects that had already been detached. And, in this example, I had not been a rapid set of selections and groupings, so that aspect of the experience I mentioned above doesn’t seem relevant after all. Note also that this is definitely not a new bug. Earlier versions of Affinity exhibited same/similar problems too (indeed, possibly every version I’ve used for the past 12 months or so). I should also say that I am hardly a power-user(!) and none of my documents are ever very complex, so it seems very unlikely that anything about the particular way I use the app or the kind of documents I create is either exceptional or extreme. Other users must have also encountered the same bug in some form.

If you have any more questions, let me know!.

Brett

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Hi Brett,

Thanks for the screen capture and the updated description of the issue. Do you know if there are any specific patterns in the objects that get flung? For example - does it always affect a specific layer in the selection? Do these items have a fill / or just a stroke? It will help with trying to create a clear method of reproduction.

If you could upload your current file to this dropbox link I could take a look for you: https://www.dropbox.com/request/b9hSMKhHAbKlCEIASKVJ

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Thanks for the reply. I have now uploaded a version of the file seen in the capture. It wasn’t saved the moment after I did the capture, but it contains the objects that exhibited the problem.

You ask about layers: I am not very regimented about use of layers/groups. As I say, I’m not a power-user and don’t have a process around how I organise complex documents.

In this specific case the objects that were “flung” at the time had a stroke, but no fill — but this is definitely not something that is common to other occasions when I have experienced the same issue. It’s certainly happened with collections of objects which have had both fills and strokes, or just one or the other!

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Hi Brett,

Thanks for the extra info and for sending me the file. It's way more organised than you made it sound.

I managed to reproduce this while working on my own project last night. It only happened when an icon that I dragged onto the canvas from Assets was then modified. If this icon was on a higher layer when I grouped it to some text - the icon was thrown off the canvas. If it was on a lower layer than the text when I grouped them - the text was thrown off the canvas. 

I want to check if this is what you are experiencing as it will narrow this down and also provide a workaround for you. Can I ask you some questions about the objects that you are having this issue with please?

  • Are your rounded hex shaped objects images that you drag in from the asset panel - if so do you modify them in any way once on the artboard?

I am changing the background fill colour on my icon and that seems to be the cause. If I don't change anything on the icon it doesn't happen.

 

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Hey!

I can answer that quite simply: I have never used the Asset panel! :)

create objects directly on the artboard, and if I want copies of them, I copy and paste. That’s as complicated a process as I used! As I mentioned, I am only just starting to get my head around using symbols as a way to streamline the handling/editing of duplicate objects.

In the example in the screen capture, the rounded hex was a shape I’d created in the document earlier. I didn’t bring it into the document from another source. It’s fill/stroke colour would have been modified multiple times, and the object copied multiple times, I think, before I reached the moment shown in the capture.

My own ‘workaround’ when this happens is to undo the group action, deselect the objects, and select them again. If that doesn’t work, I probably default to a blanket “ungrouping” of the selected objects — I sometimes lose track of how objects are grouped, or how that grouping is nested, and I my assumption based on experience is that this is a factor. Which is to say: I am trying to group a set of objects, some of which are themselves groups/nested groups, and that all becomes too confusing for Affinity(!)... so the answer is to de-group *everything* and then start grouping again from a baseline. The problem is that this workaround is effectively destructive since it removes some of the work I’ve done to meaningfully organize/group objects in my document. And this was part of the bigger issue when I encountered the bug using symbols (which were themselves groups), since de-grouping destroyed the symbol link and there was no way to recover that while escaping the bug.

Does that make sense? Happy to answer any other questions you have! 

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Hey @55cards I've identified the issue you are experiencing and the development team are aware of it. I have also passed them the details from this thread.

It was my experience that the offending item stopped being an issue if I moved it down lower in the layers and this may be why your ungrouping and re-grouping solves the problem.

You don't have to be a power user to use the assets panel but I do recommend having a look. If you go to View > Studio > Assets it is very simple to make your own assets library. You could store an instance of each of your objects pre-formatted in the colours / shapes that you need. You can then just drag in the required object when needed. No editing is required. If you can, I would definitely aim to reduce down the number of nested groups that you are using.

There is a tutorial on using the Assets Panel here. I've found it pretty useful for speeding up my workflow.

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Thanks for the reply and pushing this issue over the development team.

I had a much more persistent instance of the same problem again today, while working in a different file. Even de-grouping some of the grouped objects did not fix it. When I selected a all of the objects (there were around 10) that I was working on I tried fixing the issue by shifting them all to the front or back (using the toolbar action), but this created more confusion, and instead of flinging the objects, *re-ordered* them (front-to-back), even though there were all being shifted at the same time while being group-selected. In the end I cut all of the selection and re-pasted it, and this seemed to fix it. Maybe a glitch in the way z-axis layering is being assigned to items (or grouped / nested-grouped items) is part of the issue??

I understand how the Assets panel can be helpful in workflows with lots of pre-designed elements, but that’s generally not how I work. However, I am finding using Symbols helpful, now that I’ve adapted to the paradigm (and began to train myself not to accidentally ungroup a symbol and detach it accidentally). Often I work on documents that need to use many instances of a single object, but I want to maintain edibility during the process (those objects aren't defined *first* and then used; it’s more iterative). Hence Symbols seem much more useful than Assets! :)

Thanks again!

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  • 3 years later...
  • Staff

The issue "Objects move unexpectedly when grouped" (REF: AFD-2602) has been fixed by the developers in internal build "2.2.0.1857".
This fix should soon be available as a customer beta and is planned for inclusion in the next customer release.
Customer beta builds are announced here and you can participate by following these instructions.
If you still experience this problem once you are using that build version (or later) please reply to this thread including @Serif Info Bot to notify us.

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