Boolean operations not working, just delete all curves

[ronanski]

The boolean operations do not seem to work hardly ever now. I just want to add some simple shapes together, and I cannot get it to work. There doesn't seem to be any consistency when it does and doesn't work either. Sometimes the same. I have checked all shapes are closed with no stray nodes. Any help or workaround much appreciated. And any fix on the horizon as I have noticed this problem has been reported since a while back with no solution. Did try adding to that thread first but no reply. 

snowflake.afdesign

[Gear maker]

2 hours ago, ronanski said:

The boolean operations do not seem to work hardly ever now. I just want to add some simple shapes together, and I cannot get it to work. There doesn't seem to be any consistency when it does and doesn't work either. Sometimes the same. I have checked all shapes are closed with no stray nodes. Any help or workaround much appreciated. And any fix on the horizon as I have noticed this problem has been reported since a while back with no solution. Did try adding to that thread first but no reply. 

The problem is that each of the current curves is made up of multiple items and some of those items are confusing it.  If you click on the first layer it's being called (Curves), it contains multiple curves.  3 to be exact.  If after selecting that layer you do a divide or Separate curves.  It will split into the 3 separate layers.  If you double click on the icon of each you will find one to be a triangular one that doesn't show anything.  You'll notice the zoom at the top of the page is 275 million %.  I'd ignore that one as it could only confuse the issue.  The other two, a circle and a leaf.  The circle needs to be subtracted from the leaf.  Repeat this on all the leaf layers in your design.

Now if you select all the leaf layers (again marked as Curves), ignore the triangles.  Hit add and it will combine it into 1 layer.

I attached the file after I did that.  I didn't delete the triangles, which probably would be best as I think they are the main cause of your problem.  I was using the Designer Beta, so I hope you have it as this file may not be openable by the released version.

snowflake1.afdesign

I hope that helps.

 

[ronanski]

Im confused, because before I do the divide function it is only one curve. I had already combined it into one shape. And the circle has already been subtracted from the leaf shape as you can see the whole in the shape when it has a fill. And where did the triangle come from? that seems to have only appeared after performing the divide function. So I am still confused why it doesn't work. But thanks for the tip, this did work although very long winded, not sure I would have been able to do that if it were a more complicated design.

[Gear maker]

37 minutes ago, ronanski said:

Im confused, because before I do the divide function it is only one curve. I had already combined it into one shape. And the circle has already been subtracted from the leaf shape as you can see the whole in the shape when it has a fill. And where did the triangle come from? that seems to have only appeared after performing the divide function. So I am still confused why it doesn't work. But thanks for the tip, this did work although very long winded, not sure I would have been able to do that if it were a more complicated design.

Without having the earlier shapes I can't say definitively where the problem shapes came from.  In your attached drawing the individual layers are made up of multiple curves, that's why it shows them as Curves instead of Curve.  Was this imported into Affinity from AI or another software?

Were each leaf half (2/3's) drawn as one shape or are they the results of combining several shapes?  If the latter then the triangle might be an infinitesimally small remnant left over from some geometric manipulation where the shapes did not quite match up EXACTLY.  We are talking about something that at 275 million % zoom is still too small to show on the screen.  Something like a flea on a dog's back photographed from the space station.  All this is just a guess without having the earlier shapes in hand.

Glad that worked for you. 

[ronanski]

No I made it in Affinity. They were the result of combing about 5 or 6 shapes but once combined shouldn't it then be one curve? And as for things not matching up exactly, everything was snapped to place, but not sure why that should matter anyway as they were all added not subtracted apart from the circle which is clearly within the lines of the larger shape so cannot see how it is possible for the triangle to have been created. And I don't get why I had to subtract the circle, divide it and then subtract it again, shouldn't the original subtraction have done it? But also does that then mean you cannot combine groups of shapes? Cos that wasn't a problem in illustrator. Cos I made all these as symbols so I could see how it would look without having to keep copying and pasting and deleting etc. So to combine them all do you always have to go through ungrouping and dividing them all first before combing them again?! Luckily this symbol was only repeated 12 times, but if it was say a background pattern then something that should take 1 second would suddenly take about half an hour! That's ridiculous!

[Sean P]

Hi Ronanski,

It sounds like it may have been the 'Divide' operation that has caused some bad geometry in your file which is giving you issues as Gear maker has described. This is something we're aware of and is with development to be fixed.

[ronanski]

Well no thats what I was saying, the extra curves weren't there until I divided. But then why didn't it work initially as I had previously tried? I hadn't used divide at that point.

[Sean P]

7 minutes ago, ronanski said:

Well no thats what I was saying, the extra curves weren't there until I divided. But then why didn't it work initially as I had previously tried? I hadn't used divide at that point.

Divide in your case will separate all the objects into individual curves as Gear Maker as said (notice the Layer name changes from Curves to Curve). This is where you see that really small curve that is confusing the Add operation, possibly along with a series of coincident nodes.

Doing a Merge Curves operation with the two remaining objects will also put the hole back in the snow flake correctly without the need to subtract again. I've attached a video showing this process.

Unfortunately an operation much earlier in your creation has caused this to appear and without knowing what that was we cannot give any advice!

[ronanski]

Hi, didn't entirely follow the video tbh, was abit quick for me. When you say merge, is that different to add? Well the only opperations I used were add and subtract so cannot fathom how the extra curves got created that weren't attatched  Oh well I know kinda how to rectify it if it happens again, just quite a nuisance. But even if the shape was infinitely small, shouldn't I still be able to see a stray node somewhere?

[Sean P]

Merge Curves will literally take two seperate curve objects and combine them into one (maintaing the composition of each curve and making no modifications to them). If the curves overlap then you will may get gaps appearing (for example in the video above, its how the hole re-appears after merge). Please note this is expected behaviour from overlapping curves and can be controlled using a mix of Fill Modes and altering the direction of the curve. I would suggest checking the documentation for more information on these fill modes and curve directions.

Add Curves will combine both curves into 1 object and alter the shape of the curves to make them a single curve.

[awakenedbyowls]

I just had problems with the Boolean operation attempting to add some shapes comprising a letter 'S' I was working on today for a logo. I used two overlapping S shapes and the resulting shape I wanted was made up of one or two subtractive Boolean operations, and some deletion of nodes but when I went to add them all together into one shape it instead started creating more shape layers rather than less, and adding fill where I didn't want it 😒 

[awakenedbyowls]

Every other day seems to be some new problem with this software!

Not a new one. Boolean operations not working again. 

I'm trying to add all my layers into one layer - which in itself is a time consuming task but not least when certain layer just point blank REFUSE TO ADD!!!!

Tried all manner of workarounds for this. File attached. Help anyone please.

not add_.afdesign

[NotMyFault]

26 minutes ago, awakenedbyowls said:

Every other day seems to be some new problem with this software!

Not a new one. Boolean operations not working again. 

I'm trying to add all my layers into one layer - which in itself is a time consuming task but not least when certain layer just point blank REFUSE TO ADD!!!!

Tried all manner of workarounds for this. File attached. Help anyone please.

not add_.afdesign 58.14 kB · 3 downloads

Hi, sorry to hear.

which Affinity release are you using? 1.10.3?

It might make more sense to open a new issue, and adding the link to the old one if you assume a regression.

This post related to version 1.9 has been moved to a section of the forum for archiving purposes and will probably not monitored any more by Affinity staff.

[awakenedbyowls]

3 minutes ago, NotMyFault said:

Hi, sorry to hear.

which Affinity release are you using? 1.10.3?

It might make more sense to open a new issue, and adding the link to the old one if you assume a regression.

This post related to version 1.9 has been moved to a section of the forum for archiving purposes and will probably not monitored any more by Affinity staff.

Whatever the latest version is.

I'm getting there with it - by duplicating layers and deleting certain nodes and adding again it seems to work eventually. But there are still two layers left that are refusing to add.

I'll post up another thread later, but honestly this is doing my head in. How can I make any progress when I'm spending all my time fixing bugs? Time to look elsewhere maybe.

[MEB]

Here's the fixed file: not add_MEB.afdesign

You have couple a situations where several nodes overlap the shape itself causing a mess. Select the Node Tool and the shapes and check the red nodes (not all have issues, some just mark the start of a shape cleanly and those are correct), drag them and you should see where the problems are. See video below for a couple examples:

[awakenedbyowls]

11 minutes ago, MEB said:

Here's the fixed file: not add_MEB.afdesign

You have couple a situations where several nodes overlap the shape itself causing a mess. Select the Node Tool and the shapes and check the red nodes (not all have issues, some just mark the start of a shape cleanly and those are correct), drag them and you should see where the problems are. See video below for a couple examples:

Ah right cheers. I wondered what the red nodes were all about.

I try to sketch these outlines first with the vector brush tool and the solid pen with pressure sensitivity but it's hard to get the curves nice and neat and there are always imperfections to iron out.