New assets not installed universally

[DigitalStirling]

Hi

I bought a couple of assets and installed them into Affinity Photo, via the new direct account assets link feature. Easy, great stuff!

But then, I opened Affinity Designer and naively assumed that the ones that are compatible with Designer, those would automatically be shared and available in Designer too, since they are generic .afassets. For example Light Artefacts or Atmosphere by James Ritson. Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be the case. I can download them, but that would download a generic .afassets item a second time which seems really strange and a total waste of local HD space. 

Am I missing something or is this a bug?

Thanks for any help.

Kind regards

Phil 

[jmwellborn]

Welcome to the Forums @DigitalStirling 😊   No, this isn’t a bug.  It is just the way things are.   Since we may not wish to have each and every brush, or asset, or style, or palette in each app (Photo, Designer, and Publisher) it is a nice way to save disk space by not automatically replicating all these files.  This also prevents vector files from being stored in Photo, where they cannot be used but will take up disk space.  We can always export a brush category from one app and import it into another.  And hopefully, I remember to include a backup copy of every category in an “Affinity Brushes” or Assets, or Styles. Etc. file so I can easily import at will.   🤔

[Stepaan]

I also don't get it. It's discussed here regularly on the Forum. It is not a bug. Do you want to use Spray Paint Textures by MiksKS in all three apps? Go ahead and download 3 × 1GB of the same package...

[emmrecs01]

@DigitalStirling @Stepaan

Since all the apps have the facility for you to be working in one, e.g., Designer, but then to choose to, e.g., Edit in Photo (for a brush or asset that you only have in Photo) all these assets actually are available in all the apps even if they are not specifically "installed" in all the apps.

[walt.farrell]

18 hours ago, DigitalStirling said:

But then, I opened Affinity Designer and naively assumed that the ones that are compatible with Designer, those would automatically be shared and available in Designer too, since they are generic .afassets.

They have to be installed in each application where you want to use them, and yes, this multiplies the amount of storage that is used.

You can choose to have them automatically downloaded, or not. Or choose to have them automatically downloaded as determined by their size. Possibly you don't have those options enabled in Designer.

[Augusto Nouel Perera]

Good morning and excuse my ignorance.
1- I got wonderful Affinity Designer and downloaded (& supposedly installed) MiksKS pack*, which is include with the purchase of AffDesigner...
Now I'm looking how to use them... but I don't find them anywhere (Assets, Brushes, ¿?).

2- When trying to "Import Brushes" it pops up an "OSX Search window", not the one from the app that appears in the video tutorial.

3- BASIC brushes category is missing...
4- BRUSH EDITING pop up window doesn't have the options showed on the video tutorial
None of these options: General, Dynamics, Textures, Sub Brushes... Only STROKE (See attachments)

Is there something that I'm missing?
Please help.

Thanks.

____________________________________________________________________________________

* MiksKS pack:  Ink Stamp textures, Paint Roller textures and Spray Paint textures.

Are MiksKSs brushes included into these categories?
Assets... Stamp Textures... ¿?

In my brushes appear: "Acrylic, Dry media, Engraving, Gouaches, Ink, Markers, Oils, Pencils, Pens and Watercolours".
There's not BASIC brushes category

Edited April 4, 2021 by Augusto Nouel Perera
Text correction and adding screenshot.

[walt.farrell]

Welcome to the Serif Affinity forums, @Augusto Nouel Perera.

If you expand that category by clicking on the little arrow on the left, you will see that they are afassets, so you would look in the Assets panel.

[Augusto Nouel Perera]

OK I found it.
Just dragging the texture onto the art.
I though they could be used as brushes, probably creating a new brush from Persona... right?

And what about my questions?: 2-, 3-, and 4-

Thanks.

[walt.farrell]

1 hour ago, Augusto Nouel Perera said:

And what about my questions?: 2-, 3-, and 4-

2. What tutorial? And a screenshot of what you got might be useful?

3. Basics is a category in the Pixel Persona of Designer, not the Designer Persona.

4. Vector brushes and raster brushes have different characteristics, and different editing Windows.

[Augusto Nouel Perera]

Perfect.
You got it.
Thanks a lot!!!.
___________________________
As you can see, I'm a newbie... and have not used Designer "Persona".

[walt.farrell]

You're welcome.

[Augusto Nouel Perera]

Good morning, Walt.
May I ask you something...?
After installing MiksKS Assets... (which seem to consume a lot of memory) I think I'm not going to need/use them anyway...
Can I unintall them?
How?

Thanks Walt.

[AgentWayward]

I have assets installed which work in Designer and Photo if you open the individual programs. The assets show up fine in the assets panel. 
However, if I open Publisher, then switch to Photo Persona, the assets I have loaded for Photo do not show up. 

Any ideas? 

[Patrick Connor]

@AgentWayward

Welcome to the Serif Affinity forums 🙂

The Photo persona in Publisher is not actually running Photo, so the asset panel is not "the same one". If you use the My account feature in Publisher it should additionally install the Photo assets too and they should appear in the Photo persona of Publisher. Is that not working for you?

[Patrick Connor]

On 4/6/2021 at 4:27 PM, Augusto Nouel Perera said:

After installing MiksKS Assets... (which seem to consume a lot of memory) I think I'm not going to need/use them anyway...
Can I unintall them?
How?

Thanks Walt.

in the My Account feature you can uninstall them also.

[AgentWayward]

5 minutes ago, Patrick Connor said:

@AgentWayward

Welcome to the Serif Affinity forums 🙂

The Photo persona in Publisher is not actually running Photo, so the asset panel is not "the same one". If you use the My account feature in Publisher it should additionally install the Photo assets too and they should appear in the Photo persona of Publisher. Is that not working for you?

Thanks Patrick, 

Looking in My account in Publisher, it does not list the Photo assets. I have tried the "re-synch library" option, no change. 

[AgentWayward]

Patrick, 

I may have found the issue, it appears that I may have two accounts. Publisher lists my account under one email address whereas Photo and Designer are listed under a different one. Could this possibly be the cause? 

[Patrick Connor]

Just now, AgentWayward said:

Could this possibly be the cause? 

Oh yes, well spotted. The registrations do not have to be on the same account as you purchased on. You can register them all on the same account, preferably the one where you have the downloadable content.

[AgentWayward]

1 minute ago, Patrick Connor said:

Oh yes, well spotted. The registrations do not have to be on the same account as you purchased on. You can register them all on the same account, preferably the one where you have the downloadable content.

When I go to "manage my account", it lists all three programs as being under that account.  
How do I proceed to get everything back in synch? 

[AgentWayward]

4 minutes ago, AgentWayward said:

When I go to "manage my account", it lists all three programs as being under that account.  
How do I proceed to get everything back in synch? 

To be clearer, 

all three program purchases,  are listed under manage my account, but only Photo and Designer are registered there. 

Can I re-register Publisher under the same email address as the other two? 

[Patrick Connor]

5 minutes ago, AgentWayward said:

Can I re-register Publisher under the same email address as the other two? 

Yes, just sign out of the My Account feature in Publisher and then sign in using the same email address as Photo and Designer.

[AgentWayward]

3 minutes ago, Patrick Connor said:

Yes, just sign out of the My Account feature in Publisher and then sign in using the same email address as Photo and Designer.

Great, that's now working, it's downloading the assets again. Thank you. 

As others have stated above though, and as a software engineer myself, I can't understand the requirement to have these assets in multiple copy form, in order to make them function in the different programs. Especially when you consider the otherwise excellent integration. Maybe that is something that you might condsider changing in the future. 

 

[walt.farrell]

4 minutes ago, Patrick Connor said:

Yes, just sign out of the My Account feature in Publisher and then sign in using the same email address as Photo and Designer.

That would allow downloading of the content, but it won't actually reregister Publisher so it shows up as registered under that account in the Store listing, will it?

For that I suspect one would have to reset the registration info via a Ctrl run-up, and then select the registration option.

[Patrick Connor]

14 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

For that I suspect one would have to reset the registration info via a Ctrl run-up, and then select the registration option.

No, signing into the store My Account feature is registering the app. They are one and the same thing.

[AgentWayward]

4 minutes ago, Patrick Connor said:

No, signing into the store My Account feature is registering the app. They are one and the same thing.

I can confirm that all three products are now listed under the same email address / account. Many thanks.