Why is Affinity Designer so odd - join lines issue.

[Barrowman]

I really want to like Affinity Designer, but everytime I try to use it, it throws up just odd things.

I find being able to work with even the simplest of shapes and elements really frustrating. Be it joining two lines or extending a shape, I'm not sure why it can't just work simply.

I have no idea why these two "nodes" wont join, whereas the other two do. Any help on how to "fix" this, I don't want to have to redraw the lines to workaround it.

https://share.getcloudapp.com/geu4Axr2

[Alfred]

For the two objects that won’t join, is one of the ‘lines’ actually a closed shape (i.e. a line doubling back on itself)?

[Barrowman]

I had no way to tell, had to end up rebuilding the shape/line in the end.

[Alfred]

10 minutes ago, Barrowman said:

I had no way to tell, had to end up rebuilding the shape/line in the end.

It would be better if there were an indication of the ‘Closed’ status in the Layers panel, but the Node Tool options should tell you whether the curve can be broken at both of the end nodes (which won’t be possible if it’s any kind of open curve, including a straight line).

[Roqoco]

47 minutes ago, Barrowman said:

I had no way to tell, had to end up rebuilding the shape/line in the end.

Just enable the node editor and drag out the nearest node to each of the endpoints. Then curl z to undo. It’s easy to get somewhat misleading shapes with expand stroke, for instance.