Dynamically attach objects/lines

[vitaprimo]

Is there a feature that would attach line strokes to another object so when latter moves the line stroke deform/reshapes itself so the connection to the object isn't broken? More precisely: don't lose the location to where they are anchored/intersect with the object or its own stroke.

More or less like Microsoft Visio, what I want to replace. It's slow and janky andI have to use Affinity Designer to create the little shapes that don't look from the 1990s anyway.

I lose hours struggling with half a horrible diagram only to ditch it, start over and actually finish something beautiful, perfectly-spaced in AD in a fraction of the time.

It seems like there is but I can't find anything in the help. :/

 

[GarryP]

There are no diagram-specific tools in Designer.
Constraints will help you with some things, Groups are often useful, and there are alignment/distribution tools, but there’s no way to ‘connect’ the geometry of one layer to to the geometry of another.

[vitaprimo]

Thanks, at least I know now and don't look for something that don't exist. I've been reopening older documents and recycle objects from them. I think I'll create some sort of master template and ditch Visio entirely. If I knew how to keep the Assets panel in sync between computers I'd use that instead.

Constraints are useful (and super intelligent observation) but the minute you activate them your artboard becomes sort of tainted and nothing behaves the same again.

Designer has everything to replace and do a much better job than Visio except for keeping lines in place. I just learned though things from the Character Viewer [⌃⌘space] there's a Glyph Browser panel with so many more usable characters.

Thanks again !

[GarryP]

You’re welcome.

There might be a way to keep Assets synchronised between computers but any method to do so would go beyond how the software is supposed to work and, as such, may cause many more problems. There may be ways to periodically copy Assets from machine to machine but the precise method would depend upon the OS and you could end up getting into a mess if the method stops working. If you really want to do that then you could ask that as its own specific question/thread but be prepared for some potentially ‘nasty’ solutions.

Constraints are, from a user-perspective, always on; it’s just that usually we don’t know about it because the ‘defaults’ are used because we haven’t changed them. I’m not sure what you mean by “artboard becomes sort of tainted” but I suspect that you aren’t using them correctly. It may be helpful to remember that Constraints set to one layer define how that layer behaves in regard to the layer which contains it (and an artboard can be thought of as a layer). In other words, Constraints say how a layer is affected by its parent layer.

Unfortunately there is no Reset button for Constraints, so once you have changed them its difficult to reset them back to ‘normal’ without creating a new temporary layer and manually ‘copying’ the settings back to your ‘misbehaving’ layer. A request has already been made for a reset button in the Constraints Panel: https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/95559-reset-constraints/