Shortcut to resize a rectangle to artboard or canvas size ?

[solved]

I am dragging way too much rectangles to fit the artboards dimensions in designer or to fit a canvas in Photo.

Draw a rectangle with the rectangle tool and then dragging the corners to snap to the artboards or canvas corners does work fine but it just takes too long. Is there a quicker way or a shortcut I am missing ?

Something like "fit to artboards size" or "fit do canvas size" ?

[GarryP]

Not that I know of.
If you are not using an artboard, while the rectangle is selected, you can type “spreadwidth” into the W field and “spreadheight” into the H field of the Transform panel and move the rectangle but that’s probably even more work.
You can draw the rectangle across the whole canvas/artboard by using snapping but, if you are using an artboard you need to not have the artboard selected to be able to snap to the first corner.
If you find yourself doing the same thing over and over again then you could think about using Assets, or Templates.

[solved]

Thanks for the response...

Interesting tip with the "spreadwidth", did not know that. And yes... still too much work;) 

Using Templates and Assets extensively,, but they just do not to solve this little "problem". Dragging and snapping is fine, just hoped there is a faster way to accomplish this task.

 

[GarryP]

You’re welcome.
It’s not something I need to do often so I’ve not put too much thought into it.
Maybe someone else has a good solution but this is the first time I’ve seen anyone request this sort of thing.
If you can explain what you are doing – why you are dragging out lots of rectangles to the artboard/canvas dimensions – then there’s a chance that someone has been down the same road and can advise further.

[R C-R]

6 hours ago, ed lazer said:

... or to fit a canvas in Photo.

In AP, have you considered using Fill layers for this instead of rectangles?

Also, why are you filling artboards or canvases with rectangles? 

[loukash]

8 hours ago, ed lazer said:

Something like "fit to artboards size"

Except for #1 & #6, the rest of this workflow should work 100% with keyboard shortcuts. You may need to assign some of them first, that is…

1. select the artboard object – e.g. click on the artboard name on the canvas with the Move tool
2. Edit > Duplicate – duplicates the artboard in place incl. content
3. Layer > Hide – hides the duplicate artboard temporarily because:
4. Select All – selects now only the content of the visible artboard
5. Edit > Delete – see above
6. click on the name of the empty artboard to select it again
7. Layer > Convert Artboard To Object – a rectangle!
8. optional: Layer > Arrange > Move To Front (or forward, whatever)
9. Select > Previous (or Next, depending on #8) – selects the hidden artboard
10. Layer > Show (or Show All if it was the only hidden object)

If you have an external macro utility, you can automate steps 2–5 and 7–10 as a keyboard shortcut sequence.
On Mac, that would be possible with Automator and AppleScript via System Events (the only method to script Affinity at the moment). Even easier with nifty macro utilities like Keyboard Maestro.

Edited April 29, 2021 by loukash

[loukash]

4 minutes ago, R C-R said:

why are you filling artboards or canvases with rectangles?

Good question, because an artboard being actually kinda hybrid container/object thingy, it can have a fill on its own!

[R C-R]

1 minute ago, loukash said:

Good question, because an artboard being actually kinda hybrid container/object thingy, it can have a fill on its own!

The only reason I can think of for filling an artboard edge to edge with a rectangle instead of just assigning a fill color to it is to use the stroke of the rectangle as a border.

It is possible to add a stroke directly to an artboard, but at least for me, it doesn't show unless I add a second stroke to it via the Appearance panel in AD, which I assume is a bug.

Check out this Stroked artboard.afdesign file. In the Appearance panel, either stroke can be hidden without it affecting the other stroke, but deleting either one causes the other to disappear.

[loukash]

2 minutes ago, R C-R said:

it doesn't show unless I add a second stroke to it via the Appearance panel

Brilliant workaround!

3 minutes ago, R C-R said:

I assume is a bug

Yeah.
I already noticed that an artboard can't have a stroke, but never considered trying to add the 2nd one then.

[walt.farrell]

Yes, I'm pretty sure that's a known bug.

[R C-R]

2 hours ago, loukash said:

I already noticed that an artboard can't have a stroke, but never considered trying to add the 2nd one then.

Technically, it can have a single stroke -- the Stroke & Appearance panels show it & allow it to be adjusted. It just doesn't show up in the artboard unless it has two (or more) strokes, even if all but one is hidden.

[loukash]

1 hour ago, R C-R said:

the Stroke & Appearance panels show it & allow it to be adjusted.

100% Artboard art:

Note the blank dummy stroke.

Edited April 29, 2021 by loukash
see below

[R C-R]

3 minutes ago, loukash said:

Note the blank dummy stroke.

I am not sure what I am supposed to note about this. My comment was about artboard with single strokes (IOW, just one stroke), not ones like in your example with lots of them.

[Pšenda]

4 hours ago, R C-R said:

which I assume is a bug.

As for the bugs/peculiarities related to artboards, after selecting the artboard in the Layers panel, you can choose fx. You can set anything here (for example an outline, blur,.. ), but none of it will be done (not even the fx icon will be displayed). But the fx parameters are still remembered and can be reset. If fx does not work, then why is this function/button not disabled?

It's a pity, while Adjustments on artboards work.

[Pšenda]

16 hours ago, R C-R said:

I am not sure what I am supposed to note about this.

[loukash]

1 minute ago, R C-R said:

I am not sure what I am supposed to note about this.

Fair enough, now it seems to do something. There was a moment when it appeared as if the composition needed one blank stroke to work, but that's not the case.

3 minutes ago, R C-R said:

your example

Heeey! That's not just "an example". That's a piece of Art!

4 minutes ago, Pšenda said:

none of it will be done (not even the fx icon will be displayed). But the fx parameters are still remembered and can be reset.

Přesně tak.
I noticed that too while building my Art.

[R C-R]

2 minutes ago, loukash said:

Fair enough, now it seems to do something. There was a moment when it appeared as if the composition needed one blank stroke to work, but that's not the case.

Do you mean one blank (0 pt) stroke plus another greater than 0 pt stroke for the >0 pt one to appear, or something else?

[solved]

18 hours ago, R C-R said:

In AP, have you considered using Fill layers for this instead of rectangles?

Also, why are you filling artboards or canvases with rectangles? 

Perfect, thank you very much, this solves my little problem in a very elegant (and non destructive) way and saves me a lot of time. I just did not know that they exist. Now I do and I will  use them for quick background color changes, create gradient overlays or mask them with a white brush stroke or stamp etc. And all that non-destructive because they are vector based, nice. Just what I needed. At least in Photo this makes my "fit to canvas" point superfluous. 

[solved]

18 hours ago, loukash said:

Except for #1 & #6, the rest of this workflow should work 100% with keyboard shortcuts. You may need to assign some of them first, that is…

1. select the artboard object – e.g. click on the artboard name on the canvas with the Move tool
2. Edit > Duplicate – duplicates the artboard in place incl. content
3. Layer > Hide – hides the duplicate artboard temporarily because:
4. Select All – selects now only the content of the visible artboard
5. Edit > Delete – see above
6. click on the name of the empty artboard to select it again
7. Layer > Convert Artboard To Object – a rectangle!
8. optional: Layer > Arrange > Move To Front (or forward, whatever)
9. Select > Previous (or Next, depending on #8) – selects the hidden artboard
10. Layer > Show (or Show All if it was the only hidden object)

If you have an external macro utility, you can automate steps 2–5 and 7–10 as a keyboard shortcut sequence.
On Mac, that would be possible with Automator and AppleScript via System Events (the only method to script Affinity at the moment). Even easier with nifty macro utilities like Keyboard Maestro.

Interesting approach, thank you for taking the time putting this together. I appreciate that. The Fill-Layers solved my problem for now, but one day I might have a more advanced problem for your advanced solution here. 

[solved]

18 hours ago, loukash said:

Good question, because an artboard being actually kinda hybrid container/object thingy, it can have a fill on its own!

Thank you again, another feature I was not aware of. Solves most of the issues in Designer I had with my question. In this case, a "fit to Artboard" function or Photos approach with Fill-Layers still would be a nice thing for some situations. 

[solved]

Still amazes me how well this forum works. Thanks to everyone for contributing!