Dashed line endpoint/corner alignment

[ra.skill]

Currently in all Affinity products when creating a dashed line there is no simple way to create even endpoints or corners. Yes, there is the option to change the "phase" but it very rarely gives the result you want and yes you can spend a LOT of time adjusting the dash size and spacing until you get something perfect... but none of these things are a good workflow... if I then need to adjust the shape the dash alignment goes off again and back to square one.

I hate saying this but....
In Illustrator there is a very simple button to toggle between retaining the exact dash length and therefore corners or endpoints are not the same and stretching the dash between corners/endpoints therefore making them all the same (see image below).

We need this in Affinity!
It's a big time saver, improves workflow and offers the best of both worlds depending on the desired outcome.  

[lacerto]

(...)

[ra.skill]

36 minutes ago, Lagarto said:

In InDesign alignment to corners and even distribution of the dash shapes (gap scaling) is automatic,

Nice comparison @Lagarto

As you said this will not improve without actual implementation of the feature… I feel it’s fairly important so hope to see it soonish…..

[GarryP]

Is replicating the functionality of something like Illustrator the best that can be done?
I’m not saying that this sort of thing shouldn’t be implemented at some point – it’s clearly useful – but are the options given in Illustrator really the best that we can have?
This could be an opportunity to request something better than what is already available elsewhere.
I have no idea what could be better – I don’t use dashed lines enough for it to matter much to me – but we have a chance to ask for what we really want rather than just ask for what we already know about.
To put that another way, if the developers put the time and effort into implementing ‘something’, why not ask for that ‘something’ to be ‘best-in-class functionality’ rather than just a copy of what someone else has done?
It would be a shame if the opportunity was missed.

[ra.skill]

I hear you @GarryP

And I know that’s kind of Affinity’s prerogative… “let’s not copy but improve and think outside the box”… and I think this is great and what makes Affinity an interesting product. 
 

But honestly… this particular function has no more to it than just making corners/end points even, easily, quickly and precisely, there’s really nothing else to expand on. I mean it’s such an incredibly basic function that I’m surprised I’m even asking for it. 

[GarryP]

If the functionality in something like Illustrator is all that is wanted then that’s absolutely fine and dandy by me. Just thought I’d mention it in case anyone had any good ideas as I’m not a frequent user of dashed lines.

One caveat I might mention is that whatever is requested needs to be translatable, in an expected way, to vector file formats such as SVG, EPS, and PDF.
For instance, say we request that some ‘embellishments’ are added to the corners of the shape. If those embellishments cannot be replicated in, for instance, SVG, then the exported SVG might not look and/or act the same as in the original document and that could cause extra problems further down the line.
Or, to put that another way, it’s all well and good asking for ‘fancy stuff’ but if that ‘fancy stuff’ doesn’t work outside of the application then that’s probably not good for anyone.

Anyway, maybe someone comes up with an amazing suggestion that will make things much better.

[dReas]

I fully support a revamped

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  🙃      🙃      🙃      🙃      🙃      dashed line style

 

[AdrianB]

Just added my voice to an older request, but I'll repeat it here as well: +1 on better dashed corners. 

[guidelagui]

Request by users here add my voice and 135 more in the office.

[miasma]

yes pleeeeeeease!!!!

[AdrianB]

Just checked in Designer V2 and as far as I can tell, there are no improvements to the dashed corners. 😢 (But hey, we did get new blurry icons!)

[bjorg]

I agree!

I'm just waiting for this feature so that I can leave Illustrator and thereby Adobe. When post processing architectural drawings it is essential to have strokes and not gaps at corners and endpoints in order to have readable drawings. It has been a feature in illustrator for a long time and in AutoCAD forever (at least since r12). 

It seems difficult to only use the API for SVG 2.0 to create nice dashed corners. The only way I found to do this is to divide objects into their line segments (straight and arcs), calculate their lengths and adjust the phase and/or gap size for each segment and then group the line segments together. I would gladly accept only keeping editability in Affinitys format and the choise of reverting to "simple dash" or exploding dashes to lines when exporting to .svg or .pdf.

A lot of other nice things in version 2 though! 🙂

[Ash]

Hi All - I'm pleased to say we have now added the ability to create balanced dashed lines and this is available to test in the latest beta. There are more details in the post below and it would be great if you wanted to try it out in the beta and let us know what you think - you can sign up to the beta program here.