Joining open curves fails

[harrycallaghan]

Hi Guys. I have a series of open curves I need to join to complete an outline of a torso. The paths are spread across layers in the same group. I am failing to join the nodes in several places. 

I am using the move tool on my iPad Pro to select the two paths and then using the node tool and a one finger gesture to select the two nodes which are close together. The other ends of these two paths are far away. Then selecting the “join” option in the node tool contextual menu is not achieving a join. I also tried dragging one node over the other, and I do see the anchor/node turn yellow, but then selecting join doesn’t join the two paths.

I attach my file here.

Thanks.

JoinCurvesIssue.afdesign

[Alfred]

Welcome to the Serif Affinity Forums, Harry.

The problem is that you’re trying to join a ‘Curves’ object (note the ‘s’) to a ‘Curve’ object, but you can only join ‘Curve’ objects. Select the ‘Curves’ object, go to the Edit (‘...’) menu and choose ‘Operations > Separate Curves’ so that you have multiple ‘Curve’ objects (each having a single start node and a single end node) which the app will be able to join.

[harrycallaghan]

Thanks Alfred. I can confirm that what you say works. However, I like to fully understand things and searching for ‘Curve’ versus ‘Curves’ on the web or manual doesn’t lead me anywhere useful. Can you explain to me the difference between the two please?

Thanks!

[Alfred]

As I mentioned in my previous post, a ‘Curve’ object has a single start node and a single end node. In your file, the curves for the left and right sides of the torso share a layer with the curve for the groin area, so there are three start nodes and three end nodes on the same layer. Does that help at all?

[harrycallaghan]

Thanks, Alfred. Conceptually that makes complete sense. I’ll get my head around it in the morning in reference to my file. Thanks for taking the time to help!