Designer: Selecting and deleting Objects and Extending Objects?

[big smile]

I switched from Adobe CS6 to Affinity over a year ago, and I love it. One of the most important things I learned is that Affinity is not a 1:1 recreation of CS6. Affinity has its own way of doing things and if you learn these ways, you can often get work done more easily and efficiently. 

However, I keep on finding myself going back to Illustrator CS6 for vector work and it's because there's basics things that I can't seem to do in Designer. Because these tasks are so basic, there must be a way of doing them. However, I've watched many tutorial videos and still haven't grasped it, so perhaps someone can explain it to me. Here are the tasks I am struggling with:

 

1. Selecting and Deleting Objects 

In Illustrator, it's super easy to remove unwanted objects. Just select them with the white arrow tool and then hit delete, as shown in this clip:

However, if I try this in Designer, it will only select one node of the shape. I then have to click around selecting all the nodes, which isn't as convenient, especially in complex shapes. 

2. Extending objects

In Illustrator, it's super easy to extend a shape. Just select the relevant area of the shape  with the white arrow tool and then drag select to extend the shape as shown in this clip.

 

However, if I try this in Designer, it will again only extend one node of the shape. So again, I then have to click around selecting all the nodes, which again isn't as convenient, especially in complex shapes. 

Is there an easier way to do these tasks in Designer? Thanks!

 

[Gear maker]

1 hour ago, big smile said:

Here are the tasks I am struggling with:

Sorry you are having a problem.  In the first AI example you select the shape then delete it.  But in the AD example you add some nodes before trying to delete the shape.  This is where your problem starts.  When the shape is first selected none of the nodes will be selected (all nodes will be hallow), and if delete is hit with no nodes selected then all nodes are deleted.  If any nodes are selected then only the selected nodes will be deleted.  If you have nodes selected then you can press esc to deselect all nodes, but you shouldn't have to if you do exactly as shown in the AI example.

In the second one the I don't understand what is happening.  It's showing that you have selected the nodes, but then when you grab one node only that node is selected.  Could you be double clicking that node?  Are you pressing any modifier key at the same time as that last node is grabbed?  Oh I see after selecting the nodes, you are not grabbing a node, you are grabbing between the nodes.  You need to grab a node to move all the selected nodes.

Give those a try.

[loukash]

1 hour ago, big smile said:

1. Selecting and Deleting Objects 

In AI you may sometimes need to option-click to select the complete object with the white arrow.
Not necessary with the Node tool in Designer. It works slightly differently than AI's white arrow.

1 hour ago, big smile said:

2. Extending objects

Make sure to check out all of the Node tool options in the context toolbar:
affinity.help/designer/English.lproj/pages/Tools/tools_node.html

Also helpful:
affinity.serif.com/en-gb/tutorials/designer/desktop > search for "node tool"

[big smile]

@Gear maker and @loukash Thanks for your help.

 

For issue 1: It does seem I was double clicking with the tool and that was causing the issue.

 

For issue 2: I just don’t seem to be able to extend objects (like the pencil in my example) no matter what I do. I've read the docs, but still no joy. 

[loukash]

6 minutes ago, big smile said:

extend objects (like the pencil in my example)

It's the Transform Mode button in the context toolbar that should do what you want.

Also – much like I do in Illustrator, nota bene – with at least one eye I'm constantly observing and selecting objects via the Layers panel rather than just looking for them on the artboard. That gives me full control over the hierarchy of objects.

[Gear maker]

4 minutes ago, big smile said:

For issue 2: I just don’t seem to be able to extend objects (like the pencil in my example) no matter what I do. I've read the docs, but still no joy. 

When you are grabbing the selected nodes, make sure one of the selected nodes is actually under the cursor.   If not then you will add a new node, which will deselect the other nodes and that will be the only moved node, as the video seems to show.

Also when you select the nodes, have you previously selected all shapes that contain nodes these nodes.  Otherwise depending on your preferences you will only get the shapes that are fully contained in the selection box you draw.  After selecting the nodes take a look at your layers panel to see if it got every layer selected.  If you want this changed, in Preferences> Tools>Select object when intersects with selection marquee can be checked.  AD doesn't use the rule AI does when selecting with a left drawn marquee vs a right drawn marquee.

The transform Mode wouldn't really be necessary in the instance of the pencil.  Unless you want to change the ratio of the node spacing.

[big smile]

2 hours ago, Gear maker said:

When you are grabbing the selected nodes, make sure one of the selected nodes is actually under the cursor.   If not then you will add a new node, which will deselect the other nodes and that will be the only moved node, as the video seems to show.

Also when you select the nodes, have you previously selected all shapes that contain nodes these nodes.  Otherwise depending on your preferences you will only get the shapes that are fully contained in the selection box you draw.  After selecting the nodes take a look at your layers panel to see if it got every layer selected.  If you want this changed, in Preferences> Tools>Select object when intersects with selection marquee can be checked.  AD doesn't use the rule AI does when selecting with a left drawn marquee vs a right drawn marquee.

The transform Mode wouldn't really be necessary in the instance of the pencil.  Unless you want to change the ratio of the node spacing.

Thanks! Enabling intersects with selection marquee worked. It's still not exactly as streamlined as illustrator. Because Illustrator you could just use the white arrow tool to make a selection and then drag the pencil out. Here, in Designer, you have use the white arrow tool to activate the nodes, and then use the tool to select them again before dragging. But it's great to be able to finally perform the operation!

Thanks again to both @Gear maker and @loukash for your help!

[Gear maker]

@big smile Glad it worked.  I almost forgot to mention it as I'm used to not having intersects enabled.  The habits we get into...