Exclusive panel for Artboards

[Affitoom]

Can you designate an exclusive panel for what has to do with the administration of the "artboards"?, something like what illustrator has.

Just so you don't accumulate a bunch of "Artboards", each with its own layers (be it a few or a lot) in the layers panel.
Some way to show, in the layers panel, only the layers corresponding to the "Artboard" in which we are working, for greater order.

[loukash]

4 hours ago, Affitoom said:

something like what illustrator has

Well, I, for one, am happy not having to deal with an Artboard panel "like what illustrator has" anymore.
The Affinity workflow treating artboards as objects is a brilliant feature, even though it took me some time to get used to it after being brainwashed by Adobe's clunky "artboards" for a decade (even while being "happy" that they finally added multi-artboards years after they killed my beloved Freehand!)

So definitely a "-1" from me for this request.
(Nothing personal… )

Also, are you aware that you can convert any vector shape to an artboard, and vice versa?

 

4 hours ago, Affitoom said:

a bunch of "Artboards", each with its own layers (be it a few or a lot) in the layers panel.

Layers don't need to be inside an artboard in the Layers panel stack. You can set up artboards like pages in background, having a "floating" layer with all objects above all of them.

4 hours ago, Affitoom said:

Some way to show, in the layers panel, only the layers corresponding to the "Artboard" in which we are working, for greater order.

I don't understand this request. Can you please elaborate?

[dominik]

6 hours ago, loukash said:

Well, I, for one, am happy not having to deal with an Artboard panel "like what illustrator has" anymore.
The Affinity workflow treating artboards as objects is a brilliant feature

I, too, do not have the desire to see a seperate Artboard panel.

But ... if it were possible to visually filter the layers panel by certain criteria, e.g. 'only show Artboards' or even 'only show the current Artboard's childlayers' we could have a very powerful feature to work with.

d.

[Affitoom]

7 hours ago, loukash said:

Well, I, for one, am happy not having to deal with an Artboard panel "like what illustrator has" anymore.
The Affinity workflow treating artboards as objects is a brilliant feature, even though it took me some time to get used to it after being brainwashed by Adobe's clunky "artboards" for a decade (even while being "happy" that they finally added multi-artboards years after they killed my beloved Freehand!)

So definitely a "-1" from me for this request.
(Nothing personal… )

Also, are you aware that you can convert any vector shape to an artboard, and vice versa?

 

Layers don't need to be inside an artboard in the Layers panel stack. You can set up artboards like pages in background, having a "floating" layer with all objects above all of them.

I don't understand this request. Can you please elaborate?

Yes, all that is great,

what I request is to keep the layer panel more free. That only the layers of the "Artboard" in which you are working are shown. Example: if I am in an "artboard 1" the layers panel only shows the layers of that "artboar 1" and if I switch to "artboard 2" the layers panel shows me only the layers of "artboard 2" ".
I think all the features of the Afinitty artboards that you like shouldn't have to change at all. It is just so that there is more order in the layer panel and not so many layers accumulate that it makes its administration more difficult.

Thank you for your response and criticism.

[walt.farrell]

2 minutes ago, Affitoom said:

what I request is to keep the layer panel more free. That only the layers of the "Artboard" in which you are working are shown. Example: if I am in an "artboard 1" the layers panel only shows the layers of that "artboar 1" and if I switch to "artboard 2" the layers panel shows me only the layers of "artboard 2" ".

And what about the layers that are not in either Artboard 1 nor in Artboard 2, but overlap those artboards for some purpose?

[loukash]

16 minutes ago, Affitoom said:

Example: if I am in an "artboard 1" the layers panel only shows the layers of that "artboar 1" and if I switch to "artboard 2" the layers panel shows me only the layers of "artboard 2" ".

I got it.

That sounds like the "isolated mode" in Illustrator.
That would be useful.
(Although frankly, even in Illustrator I have rarely used it, even in most complex multipage layouts with literally hundreds of layers/objects/groups. But that's likely just me because I always keep my Layers panel painstakingly organized… )

16 minutes ago, Affitoom said:

It is just so that there is more order in the layer panel and not so many layers accumulate that it makes its administration more difficult.

The thing is that Affinity allows almost unlimited flexibility in the Layers panel, and that's by design. It's a feature, and then some. Apart from a bunch of bugs, that is… But you can nest/clip/crop objects as you see fit, regardless if it's layers, artboards, groups, symbols, vectors, fills, placed images, masks, adjustments, pixels, text, you name it. Artboards are just a container/object (it's a hybrid!) class amongst many.

That all said, I definitely wouldn't oppose a few more options for artboards in particular, like Zoom To Active Artboard keyboard shortcut (I know I can click, but I'm a shortcut guy).

13 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

And what about the layers that are not in either Artboard 1 nor in Artboard 2, but overlap those artboards for some purpose?

Coincidentally, we're just having a somewhat related discussion overhere:

 

[Affitoom]

1 hour ago, walt.farrell said:

And what about the layers that are not in either Artboard 1 nor in Artboard 2, but overlap those artboards for some purpose?

Well, good question. I suppose that there could no longer be layers that were not associated with some "Artboard", not with this feature or workflow that I propose.

Thanks for the question walt.farrell

Edited May 28, 2021 by Affitoom

[Pšenda]

As stated in the forum rules, it is a good idea to search for existing threads with requests (add your comment to them if necessary), and not recreate more and more of the same requests.

https://www.google.com/search?q=Exclusive+panel+for+Artboards+site%3Aforum.affinity.serif.com

For example:

 

[IngeFromHolland]

+1
 

Yes, a panel just like the guides manager, to make it easier to resize or rearrange the artboards, would be awesome!

[Pšenda]

4 hours ago, IngeFromHolland said:

Yes, a panel just like the guides manager

I don't understand the context with the Guide Manager. Do you mean the one in the View\Guides Manager menu?

 

4 hours ago, IngeFromHolland said:

to make it easier to resize or rearrange the artboards

If you use Collapse Selection (context menu), then only Artboards will be displayed in the Layers panel - ie their reorganization/rearrange, or changing the size and position using the Transform panel, is very easy.

[loukash]

7 hours ago, IngeFromHolland said:

to make it easier to resize or rearrange the artboards

Why? This is not Illustrator with its clunky "slapped-on-but-coming-15-years-too-late-to-the-party" artboard "concept" (or rather the lack thereof).
Affinity artboards are objects. Use the Move tool or the Artboard tool, as well as the Transform, Layers and Appearance panels, and edit, resize and rearrange as you see fit.

[IngeFromHolland]

On 6/9/2021 at 7:14 PM, loukash said:

Why? This is not Illustrator with its clunky "slapped-on-but-coming-15-years-too-late-to-the-party" artboard "concept" (or rather the lack thereof).
Affinity artboards are objects. Use the Move tool or the Artboard tool, as well as the Transform, Layers and Appearance panels, and edit, resize and rearrange as you see fit.

I am doing that now, and this works very well indeed if you have a few 'artboards', but if you have heaps of them, I think it will be easier to rearrange rows and/or columns with a few clicks rather than doing each row/culumn seperately. The more time you can save by clicking and dragging less, the better.

[IngeFromHolland]

On 6/9/2021 at 5:03 PM, Pšenda said:

I don't understand the context with the Guide Manager. Do you mean the one in the View\Guides Manager menu?

I can see that this is very unclear... I guess I was pleasantly surpised by this panel, it seems quite organized, so I mean a panel like that...

 

On 6/9/2021 at 5:03 PM, Pšenda said:

If you use Collapse Selection (context menu), then only Artboards will be displayed in the Layers panel - ie their reorganization/rearrange, or changing the size and position using the Transform panel, is very easy.

Is this what you mean? Otherwise I'm a little lost...

[Pšenda]

13 minutes ago, IngeFromHolland said:

Is this what you mean? Otherwise I'm a little lost...

This is "Context Toolbar".

 

"Context menu" (right click on Layers panel) is this.

[loukash]

18 minutes ago, IngeFromHolland said:

Quote

If you use Collapse Selection (context menu), then only Artboards will be displayed in the Layers panel - ie their reorganization/rearrange, or changing the size and position using the Transform panel, is very easy.

Is this what you mean?

What he means is context menu in the Layers panel.
For example:

1. Select > Select All > Artboards (selects all artboard objects in the Layers panel)
2. right-click one of the selected artboards in the Layers panel
3. Collapse Selection

[IngeFromHolland]

Thanks @Pšenda!! Yeah, I usually have them collapsed indeed, I just click the little triangle left of the artboard.

[loukash]

28 minutes ago, IngeFromHolland said:

but if you have heaps of them

Unlike Illustrator, you can place artboards into other containers just like any other objects.
So you can use layers, groups or other "master" artboards to organize artboards logically in the "vertical" dimension of the Layers panel. When using nested artboards, add e.g. a background fill:

Frankly, there are a few quirks and somewhat unexpected behavior at times, but generally it works. If you're using artboards a lot, you will get a "feeling" for them eventually…

See also a similar recent post:

 

[IngeFromHolland]

Interesting! Thanks, will give it a try!