How to Bend a Straight object at its center in affinity designer 1.8

[Plumcolor]

Hi everyone, I just wanted to know that how can one bend a straight object properly like a rectangle in the screenshot at its center so that it becomes curve-like. Please help! Thanks in advance.

[Alfred]

Do you want something like this example

or do you need it to be curved in the middle?

[Plumcolor]

12 hours ago, Alfred said:

Do you want something like this example

or do you need it to be curved in the middle?

I want it to be curved in the middle without a sharp bend.

[firstdefence]

26 minutes ago, Plumcolor said:

I want it to be curved in the middle without a sharp bend.

Change the node type to smooth and edit the nodes with the node handles to suit.

[lacerto]

(...)

 

[R C-R]

7 hours ago, Lagarto said:

The simplest way I can think of doing this would be first duplicating the existing rectangle (copy paste) to make it serve as a guide, then converting the copied object (now selected) to curves (Layer > Convert to Curves, or Ctrl + Enter / Cmd + Return), using the Node Tool (A) to add new nodes at exact mid points of the horizontal segments (here the original rectangle serves as a guide). Then select the two added nodes and convert them to smooth points using the Node tool context toolbar Convert To Smooth button and drag them to make the segments curved as desired, and finally delete the original rectangle. 

An alternative to using another rectangle as a guide is with the Pen Tool to draw a horizontal construction line from the middle of one edge of the rectangle to the middle of the other, which is easy to do precisely if "Snap to object bounding boxes" & "Include bounding box midpoints" is enabled in the Snapping manager. Next, rotate the line using Shift to constrain the rotation to 90°. Then do as above to convert the rectangle to curves, add the nodes, & so on, but use "Snap to object geometry" to add the nodes on the intersections of the line & the converted rectangle.

For me, it is visually a bit less cluttered & if I keep the construction line visible I can use it as a guide to change the amount of the bend easily, hiding the line only for the final output.

EDIT: To make this even simpler, forget drawing the horizontal construction line & rotating it. Instead, just draw a vertical construction line with the Pen Tool, starting on one of the horizontal edges of the rectangle -- with the above snapping options enabled, it will snap to the center of that edge when the Pen tool is near the center of that edge. Set its stroke width to zero (but don't set its visibility to zero) & lock it.

Then, after converting the rectangle to a curve object, using the Node Tool add the two nodes. With "Snap to object geometry" enabled, it should be very easy to add them to the center of the horizontal edges of the curve object using the vertical construction line as a guide -- even though that line is not normally visible, it will appear when the Node Tool pointer is close to it. It also will appear when dragging the two nodes up or down to snap them aligned vertically to the line.

It probably sounds more complicated than it is but it is really quick & easy once you see how it works.

[PixelPest]

Maybe like so:

[chillywilly]

I was trying to curve a group of rectangles today. Is there a way to adjust the handles of more than one node at a time?

[GarryP]

I'm fairly sure that there isn't.
If there was, I have no idea how the software would cope with the myriad of possibilities of user input.

[chillywilly]

8 hours ago, GarryP said:

I'm fairly sure that there isn't.
If there was, I have no idea how the software would cope with the myriad of possibilities of user input.

Like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjzAojE8hyY

[R C-R]

18 minutes ago, chillywilly said:

Like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjzAojE8hyY

Maybe I missed it but it looks like that only works for the handles of one object. Does it work the same way when two or more objects are selected, like in the group of rectangles you said you wanted to curve?

[firstdefence]

It isn't Adobe Illustrator doing this is Astute graphics pathscirbe plugin.

39 minutes ago, R C-R said:

Does it work the same way when two or more objects are selected, like in the group of rectangles you said you wanted to curve?

Yes it will work on multiple selections, if you have rectangles you would have to smooth the points to get both handles and then it will work on the rectangles as well as ellipses.

[chillywilly]

Something like that would be so helpful. Thanks @firstdefence.

[R C-R]

1 hour ago, firstdefence said:

... this is Astute graphics pathscirbe plugin.

Which apparently is part of a bundle of AI plugins ... that is available as a $139/yr subscription?

So maybe a bit much to expect the Affinity apps to offer anything like that as a built-in function?

[chillywilly]

1 hour ago, R C-R said:

Which apparently is part of a bundle of AI plugins ... that is available as a $139/yr subscription?

So maybe a bit much to expect the Affinity apps to offer anything like that as a built-in function?

That is a crap response, R-C-R.

[R C-R]

Just now, chillywilly said:

That is a crap response, R-C-R.

How so? I think the steep price of the plugin shows this is something that takes a lot of development effort, & that it is a plugin to begin with instead of a function built into AI shows it is not a 'mainstream' function that a whole lot of people would use.

[lacerto]

(...)

[R C-R]

2 minutes ago, Lagarto said:

A single feature was asked (ability to select and manipulate multiple handles and possibly on multiple objects). E.g. VectorStyler has that capability built-in.

But unless I am still missing something, it is a feature that not even any Adobe app supports natively, & VectorStyler is twice the price of any Affinity app.

[walt.farrell]

51 minutes ago, R C-R said:

VectorStyler is twice the price of any Affinity app.

And that license is only for 1 year of updates.

[R C-R]

26 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

And that license is only for 1 year of updates.

I wonder what they will charge for updates after a year. Maybe a reduced price for renewing the license for another year?

Anyway, I'm sure it is worth the price if there are enough features it supports that AD does not, but it starts to get pricey to get everything one might want, not the least of which is Affinity's close integration of its 3 apps.

[lacerto]

(...)

[chillywilly]

@R-C-R, do you speak for Affinity or are you a user? I want to know if the malodorous chip on your shoulder is representative of the attitude of Affinity.

Affinity products are marketed as replacements for Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. I bought them because of this. A "price comparison" is not a satisfactory response.

Affinty does things differently. I've had to relearn key modifiers and discover new ways of accomplishing tasks. When I hit a wall looking for a way to bend a group of rectangles, I thought maybe there was a way to grab multiple handles. It was honestly just an idea and a question. I never demanded anything, as R-C-R would have us believe. When GarryP expressed concern about the complexity of the task, I showed a video demonstration only to support the point that something like this is possible. Again, not a demand. I don't program this software, and if you are not programming the software I really don't think it's helpful to speak for Affinity.

So maybe I can't grab multiple handles in Adobe Illustrator without a plugin, but I can warp multiple objects. I needed to get something done in a new piece of software, so I came to the forum to see if I could find a solution. I asked politely. I hope I'll be able to bring more questions to the forum without being confronted by the question police again.

[R C-R]

2 hours ago, chillywilly said:

@R-C-R, do you speak for Affinity or are you a user? I want to know if the malodorous chip on your shoulder is representative of the attitude of Affinity.

I'm just a user. I do not have a chip on my shoulder; I just do not believe that this is a feature useful enough to enough users that it developing it should take precedence over quite a few other missing features that many users would find much more useful, day to day.

[chillywilly]

1 hour ago, R C-R said:

I'm just a user. I do not have a chip on my shoulder; I just do not believe that this is a feature useful enough to enough users that it developing it should take precedence over quite a few other missing features that many users would find much more useful, day to day.

Please consider why you think you know what many users find useful and the possibility that you should really only speak for yourself. It seems to me that you're worried that someone else's feature request might trump one of yours or something along those lines. Do you patrol the Affinity forum hoping to direct questions to the features you would like to see implemented? How about you just let this be a place where people can ask questions of how to get things done and make requests. Thank you.

[Fixx]

I would think free transform/warp/envelope tool would help here. It is also not available but it has been asked quite insistently.