waitepb Posted August 14, 2020 Share Posted August 14, 2020 Hi,I have been trying to switch from DrawPlus to AD for my business for a while and every time I give it another try I find another annoying aspect of it that makes me wonder if it's worth bothering.Today I needed to import a number of Adobe Illustrator files that a client supplied and convert them into work product that I can use.For every file, immediately after importing, I had to go change the default units from pt to mm - in order to see how big the client wanted the items. Every file.This has nothing to do with creating a new document, where there seems to be some support for default units.Why can't I control how I want stuff to be presented - where does it say "Thou shalt work in Points"?What am I missing? Is there a way to force units to mm for files I open (rather than files I create)? Jowday 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
walt.farrell Posted August 14, 2020 Share Posted August 14, 2020 You're not missing anything. Files you open will be in px (or possibly pt, for some purposes) by default. Quote -- Walt Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases PC: Desktop: Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Laptop: Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU. iPad: iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard Mac: 2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thomaso Posted August 14, 2020 Share Posted August 14, 2020 7 minutes ago, walt.farrell said: Files you open will be in px (or possibly pt, for some purposes) by default. Sure? I experience an Affinity document being opened in the unit I did save the file before, regardless of the app or persona I use to open it. So, either the AI files of the OP were saved in Points, or Affinity ignores or doesn't recognise their unit when converting them. Quote macOS 10.14.6 | MacBookPro Retina 15" | Eizo 27" | Affinity V1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
walt.farrell Posted August 14, 2020 Share Posted August 14, 2020 7 minutes ago, thomaso said: Sure? I experience an Affinity document being opened in the unit I did save the file before, regardless of the app or persona I use to open it. The OP is not opening Affinity documents. You're right, that if one Opens native Affinity document formats (.afdesign, .afphoto, .afpub, .aftemplate) the units that were set up with the document are remembered. Often, though, users are opening other kinds of documents, as in this case. Quote -- Walt Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases PC: Desktop: Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Laptop: Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU. iPad: iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard Mac: 2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
waitepb Posted August 14, 2020 Author Share Posted August 14, 2020 Thanks both. What I'm still missing is the "why?". Opening 20.ai files equals having to change the units every one of those 20 times. Why no choice of default units? Fixx 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeW Posted August 14, 2020 Share Posted August 14, 2020 My guess? At least as far as PDF and AI files--with AI files, Affinity applications can only open the embedded PDF portion--is that Affinity applications use the measurement units in the file. In the case of PDF/AI files, that unit is always points. thomaso and lacerto 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lacerto Posted August 14, 2020 Share Posted August 14, 2020 (...) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeW Posted August 15, 2020 Share Posted August 15, 2020 Thanks for the specificity, Lagarto! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
waitepb Posted September 9, 2020 Author Share Posted September 9, 2020 I fully accept that points are perhaps the correct default units. but no-one is justifying why I cannot make AD always switch to mm when I open an Adobe Illustrator file. It wouldn't be illegal, it would make life easier for me....who "wins" by not allowing me to do it? Jowday and Fixx 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jowday Posted September 9, 2020 Share Posted September 9, 2020 1 hour ago, waitepb said: I fully accept that points are perhaps the correct default units. but no-one is justifying why I cannot make AD always switch to mm when I open an Adobe Illustrator file. It wouldn't be illegal, it would make life easier for me....who "wins" by not allowing me to do it? If Affinity should decide to hire a user experience designer (UX) this person would have plenty of work to do. Getting one too late was never ideal. The quickest way of changing document units for the active document that I found is to press Z and then change units from here: ... Quote "The user interface is supposed to work for me - I am not supposed to work for the user interface." Computer-, operating system- and software agnostic; I am a result oriented professional. Look for a fanboy somewhere else. “When a wise man points at the moon the imbecile examines the finger.” ― Confucius Not an Affinity user og forum user anymore. The software continued to disappoint and not deliver. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thomaso Posted September 10, 2020 Share Posted September 10, 2020 8 hours ago, Jowday said: The quickest (...) I found is to press Z No need to press Z – use any tool to right-click the ruler's unit in the upper left corner. Fixx and R C-R 1 1 Quote macOS 10.14.6 | MacBookPro Retina 15" | Eizo 27" | Affinity V1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jowday Posted September 10, 2020 Share Posted September 10, 2020 8 hours ago, thomaso said: No need to press Z – use any tool to right-click the ruler's unit in the upper left corner. Plenty of need to press Z! I never have the ruler enabled - almost - so there. That is why I gave @waitepb a fool proof tip. Quote "The user interface is supposed to work for me - I am not supposed to work for the user interface." Computer-, operating system- and software agnostic; I am a result oriented professional. Look for a fanboy somewhere else. “When a wise man points at the moon the imbecile examines the finger.” ― Confucius Not an Affinity user og forum user anymore. The software continued to disappoint and not deliver. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
telemax Posted September 10, 2020 Share Posted September 10, 2020 I hope the unit selection will be added to the transformation panel. lepr and Frozen Death Knight 2 Quote Non-destructive Mask https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/150439-non-destructive-mask/Image layer & Pixel layer https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/146720-image-layer-and-pixel-layer/Brushes | Stars https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/135202-brushes-stars/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fixx Posted September 10, 2020 Share Posted September 10, 2020 40 minutes ago, Jowday said: Plenty of need to press Z! I never have the ruler enabled - almost - so there. That is why I gave @waitepb a fool proof tip. What pressing Z should do? It does nothing in my system. If it is to display rulers it is CMD-R. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
waitepb Posted September 10, 2020 Author Share Posted September 10, 2020 This is all good, yes it's easy to manually switch to mm, but I want the *default* to be mm...for me. It is clearly possible to do, there just isn't the user choice to make it happen. Jowday 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thomaso Posted September 10, 2020 Share Posted September 10, 2020 11 minutes ago, Fixx said: What pressing Z should do? It does nothing in my system. Z-oom tool in the zoo of tools Fixx 1 Quote macOS 10.14.6 | MacBookPro Retina 15" | Eizo 27" | Affinity V1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jowday Posted September 10, 2020 Share Posted September 10, 2020 49 minutes ago, Fixx said: What pressing Z should do? It does nothing in my system. If it is to display rulers it is CMD-R. Activates zoom tool and its options shown above. Quote "The user interface is supposed to work for me - I am not supposed to work for the user interface." Computer-, operating system- and software agnostic; I am a result oriented professional. Look for a fanboy somewhere else. “When a wise man points at the moon the imbecile examines the finger.” ― Confucius Not an Affinity user og forum user anymore. The software continued to disappoint and not deliver. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fixx Posted September 10, 2020 Share Posted September 10, 2020 2 hours ago, thomaso said: Z-oom tool in the zoo of tools I reverted kbd shortcuts and it started to work. Don't now why it was removed... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jowday Posted September 11, 2020 Share Posted September 11, 2020 4 hours ago, Fixx said: I reverted kbd shortcuts and it started to work. Don't now why it was removed... I have seen reports about lost shortcuts after updates in here a few times. And worse. Quote "The user interface is supposed to work for me - I am not supposed to work for the user interface." Computer-, operating system- and software agnostic; I am a result oriented professional. Look for a fanboy somewhere else. “When a wise man points at the moon the imbecile examines the finger.” ― Confucius Not an Affinity user og forum user anymore. The software continued to disappoint and not deliver. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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