Artboards feedback

[My Strawberry Monkey]

 You can also set you own custom View Points (both what you want to view and at what zoom level): go to the Navigator panel click on the menu on the top right and enable Advanced mode. In Advanced mode set the canvas view as you want then click on the cog icon on the bottom of the Navigator panel and select Add to save that View Point. You can also rename and remove them there.

 

Hi Miguel,

 

Is it possible to set shortcuts for the different view points?

 

 

Allan.

[MEB]

Hi Allan,

You can only set shortcuts to Move to Previous View Point and Move to Next View Point. Check Affinity Designer Beta ▸ Preferences..., then select View from the second dropdown and look for the entries i listed in the beginning of this post.

[My Strawberry Monkey]

Thanks Miguel.

 

 

 

 

Allan

[paolo.limoncelli]

 

This is a video about the solution I found "spontaneously" to solve the shared layer thing...

And it seems to work.

 

Thanks for this idea, Paolo, I tried my luck as well. But I still believe there’s a logical problem. As long as you hold fast onto the premise that layers “within” an artboard must be descendants (children, grand-children, …) of that very artboard in the layers hierarchy, there will always emerge a certain conflict with the current layers logic, when you start to introduce shared layers of the intended kind. That reminds me of another, earlier discussion:

 

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/14652-affinity-designer-customer-beta-1357/?p=65587

 

You will note, that you cannot clip any of the shared layers in your video to one of the artboards (or they “snap back” to an artboard, which means that they get children of that artboard and are no longer “shared” layers). The so-called “shared layers” reside on a different logical place in the layers hierarchy. They are not really “shared” among the artboards, but objects besides and independent of these artboards. So unfortunately, I don’t believe that this is a viable solution for the shared content problem …  :unsure:

 

Nevertheless all this is very interesting, and I am curious how artboards will be finally implemented …  :)

Cheers, Alex  

 

 

Yep I noticed that, but intended as a to-be-fixed thing.

Maybe this possibility will be removed from final release, maybe fixed in order to work.

And if there is room for such a feature I'm sure it will be highly appreciated.

Or at least I'll do...  :)

[A_B_C]

I would appreciate such a feature as well, Paolo … definitely …  :)

 

However, my imagination currently reaches only as far as the implementation of some kind of tag system, which would allow us to tag, select and manipulate different objects (layers) on different art boards at once. Perhaps there could be also an intelligent search-and-select system one day, which would allow us to select all layers named “_viewport,” for instance (I am referring to your illustration), and assign a custom shortcut to such a selection. I believe such options would come in handy very often …  :)

 

Cheers, Alex

[paolo.limoncelli]

I would appreciate such a feature as well, Paolo … definitely …  :)

 

However, my imagination currently reaches only as far as the implementation of some kind of tag system, which would allow us to tag, select and manipulate different objects (layers) on different art boards at once. Perhaps there could be also an intelligent search-and-select system one day, which would allow us to select all layers named “_viewport,” for instance (I am referring to your illustration), and assign a custom shortcut to such a selection. I believe such options would come in handy very often …  :)

 

Cheers, Alex

 

 

Yep... It would be wonderful...

Moreover... Imagine the possibility to export each artboard tree as a text file.

Using simple design guidelines (eg. name you layers using Bootstrap/Foundation classes...) your markup/css is done and you have things ready to prototype

:)

[viterzbayraku]

In Adobe Illustrator I am using all document area for save some not usable part of document (for continiusly constructing), and artboard for me it is part of final document. For example, I am adding artboard with A4 format and constructing some infographic here. All other part of document for me too very important. Hence, I do not like that the rest of the document after enabling artboard becomes unavailable and hiding by mask. And I too want to separate layers and artboard. For me artboards - it is good function for save parts of documents in fixed format but I want to save possibility to can select all layers by mouse after activating artboards. No need to hard integrate layers and artboards. And I want to see all area of document after activation artboards.

[VIPStephan]

Yep... It would be wonderful...

Moreover... Imagine the possibility to export each artboard tree as a text file.

Using simple design guidelines (eg. name you layers using Bootstrap/Foundation classes...) your markup/css is done and you have things ready to prototype

:)

That sounds very much like what MACAW is doing already.

[paolo.limoncelli]

That sounds very much like what MACAW is doing already.

 

 

Macaw is a very good WYSIWYG html/css editor for production code, but you need to design directly in it.

 

The approach I described above aims to be agnostic, aside the quick prototyping thing I could use it for HAML, Jade, Mustache, XML, JSON... Whatever developers in my team use.

It is up to my design strategy: no frameworks emebedded, only a design driven feature to speed up coding a bit.

 

A perfect example of what I mean is this plugin

 

http://www.webbsy.com

[Tim Gummer]

Having longed for artboards / pages for so long, I'm very underwhelmed with the artboards as layers approach.  I really can't see what the point is of this, what advantage it offers over the Freehand   / Illy approach.  I can't see why artboards wouldn't also function as pages - great that pages will come eventually but what is the advantage of an artboard that is a layer? I am so depressed about this  i haven't had the heart to try it properly but I will. In the meantime issues for me are:

• no default artboard to start with
• artboards are conceptually invisible within the app - they are 'secret knowledge'
• layers should absolutely be constant through artboards - otherwise why not just have separate files?
• any real world layers pallette* is already ginormous- don't want still more hierarchies and non-common layers to have to navigate through
• artboards palette is absolutely required - a one stop place to change artboard settings , switch between (in full page zoom) change order etc

AD peeps - if there's something we're missing here please just tell us what problem you were trying to solve by taking such a different approach from ai/fh  - but particularly Freehand, and what is the advantage of having an extra 'layer' of organisation that is a bit like pages but not pages?

 

 

 

* I think there's a world of opportunity out there for anyone who can find a way to make navigating the layers panel better - up until now.  AD's implementation was - until artboards came along : ( the very best yet - but it's still a fundamentally tricky piece of UI (dynamic thumbnail scaling/zooming anyone?)

[a3dmind]

I tend to agree with Tim Gummer.

 

I don't actually understand the concept of artboards in AD.

Creating a new document u are asked to state size, resolution etc. These settings should apply to an artboard and not the whole working area.

I like the way artboards work in Illustrator, and be able to display each artboard with its bleeds.

Also artwork clipping on the edge of an artboard could be an option.

 

When are we going to have any tutorials or documentation on artboards and bleeds usage? Most probably I'm missing something!

[MEB]

Hi a3dmind,

Welcome to Affinity Forums :)

The Artboards feature is still being finished/polished. Bleed preview for artboards wasn't implemented yet but it's coming.

There's an option in the New Document dialog that will create the artboard automatically for you. It's right below the Document Units dropdown.

There aren't tutorials yet since Artboards are not finished and are still subject to changes.

[nravenlock]

@a3dmind

 

There is a book dedicated to artboards in the Help. From the Help menu, select Affinity Designer Help. You'll find the dedicated book listed third from the top in the table of contents on the left. Alternatively, from the Help menu, search 'artboards' to bring up all the relevant topics.

 

Similarly, for information on bleeds, search 'bleeds' from the Help menu or from inside the Affinity Designer Help, from the table of contents, select the Getting Started book and select Document Setup topic.

 

Hope this helps.

 

As MEB has correctly identified, with Artboards currently changing so much, video tutorials would be out of date in a matter of days. There will be some coming though. 

[a3dmind]

Thanks for the answers. 

 

Great support there guys!