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Mirror/Symmetry + Intersect Snapping


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I've noticed there's a couple of features that prevent me from using Affinity Designer instead of illustrator. When I'm making a logo or illustration for that matter a lot of the time it calls for symmetry. Illustrator has a mirror tool that makes it easy to accomplish, though I think it can still be improved upon. I was hoping that you guys would consider making a 'live symmetry' mode. Similar to your 2 window mode split mode (one outline and one regular). I know I'll probably get people telling me you can accomplish this using a longer method but the fact of the matter is when I do it never lines up perfectly. Especially considering you can't flip on an axis.

 

Now the intersect snapping to me is EXTREMELY important. You guys claim to be the most precise out of all the software which I would almost say is true but you're missing a key feature that I absolutely need. When I have two shapes that overlap I'd like to be able to add a node at the intersections between them. By that I mean I want control on which intersections to add the nodes instead of using the: Minus Front, Intersect, etc. tools.

 

Let me know what you guys think! I really think with those features I could finally see myself using this as my tool of choice. I think you guys should look at the Astute Graphics tools (for illustrator) as well and try to mimic some of that behaviour in Affinity Designer. They have tools for making shapes that make everything way more accurate and precise.

 

I hope you'll consider adding these features. Thanks!

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  • Staff

Hi nightshade,

Welcome to Affinity Forums :)

Thanks for your feedback. We are still in the first version of Affinity Designer. It wasn't possible to include/cover all functionality you find in other programs right from the start.

If you take a look at our roadmap for next months, there's still plenty of features to add.

Although a symmetry tool isn't listed there yet it is probable that will end up being added too at some point. It was already requested by other users. Regarding snapping, there will be improvements soon, one of them being able to snap to intersections.

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  • 5 months later...
  • 2 years later...

Hi everyone.

I believe I'm having the same challenge described above.

I have 2 different lines (black and red ones on the image) and I want to create a point based on their intersection. Wasted half an hour already without any solution until I found this post from 2015 where @MEB said:

On 8/15/2015 at 9:29 PM, MEB said:

Regarding snapping, there will be improvements soon, one of them being able to snap to intersections.

Just bought Affinity Designer 2 days ago and am forcing myself to design a full project on the app for the first time so I can get a grip but confess is not being simple until now. And now I found this limitation that could definitely make me go back to Illustrator where this simple task is a breeze.

From 2015 until did any change happen related with intersection snap?

Appreciate your help.

Screen Shot 2018-09-05 at 17.31.55.png

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Hi yesitsme,
Welcome to Affinity Forums :)
Go to menu View ▸ Snapping Manager... and make sure Snap to object geometry is ticked (and snapping is enabled). Then select the Pen Tool and move it to the intersection of the two lines - you should see them highlighted in yellow. Click on the intersection to start a new line from there.

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Thank you for your quick reply.

If I understood correctly from your instructions I should draw a new line, is that it? But what I want is to select the curved one (red) and create a middle point on it based on the intersection with the black line.

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  • Staff

Hi yesitsme,
In that case, select the line to which you want to add the node, change to the Pen Tool and move it to the intersection until you see both lines and the intersection 
highlighted in yellow then press and hold ⌘ (cmd) to switch temporarily to the Node Tool and click to add the node to the line you previously selected.

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Hi yesitsme,
This is working as designed - currently the Node Tool is not able to detect intersections (only the Pen Tool) - so it's not really a bug but a feature request. In any case I've passed this to the dev team. It's up to developers to decide if/when to implement it.

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  • Staff

Hi yesitsme,
Just a note to add that this will be available in v1.7 along with several more improvements to snapping, guides etc etc. You can already try the processes described above in Affinity Publisher Beta as it contains both the Pen and Node Tools with those improvements in case you are interested in try them.

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