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Power Duplicate in Affinity Photo


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I'm a charter member of the "Video?  Don't I need a camcorder for that?" club.  I'll see what I can do.

I should point out my 8 steps have the same number of duplications (3) as your 7.  The Help says it simply requires Duplicate, transform, Duplicate.  Ha.

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2 minutes ago, Lem3 said:

The Help says it simply requires Duplicate, transform, Duplicate.  Ha.

I think the Help is not considering a workflow where you're cutting a pixel layer apart, and power duplicating the new pixel layer. It is more commonly used, I think for working with vectors or complete pixel layers.

-- Walt
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32 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

I think the Help is not considering a workflow where you're cutting a pixel layer apart, and power duplicating the new pixel layer. It is more commonly used, I think for working with vectors or complete pixel layers.

That's a good idea: I'll make the recording(s) using a vector shape.  That eliminates possible issues with marching ants, pixel selections, etc.

Spoiler alert: It doesn't work there either.

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I don't think we need a recording.  Please load the attached .afphoto file, it is a single vector arrow in an empty layer.

[Reminder: Help says Duplicate, transform, Duplicate, done.]
To follow the Help instructions:
Duplicate the layer
Activate the Move tool, drag the object away from the underlying arrow.
Duplicate the top layer (should still be selected)
A third layer is created, but the third arrow is in the same place as the second one, no transform is performed.
Help instructions end here.

If you didn't move the third arrow and the Move tool is still selected:
Drag the third arrow some arbitrary distance from the second.
Duplicate the layer.
Voilà!!  A transformed copy!  Transformed copies will now be created with each layer duplication.

Something isn't right here.

arrow.afphoto

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1 hour ago, Lem3 said:

Something isn't right here.

I do not know what is wrong with your workflow but look at the History panel for this arrow with history.afphoto file -- for me it works exactly as expected with 3 steps to create 2 additional arrows.

We need to see a recording of what you are doing.

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12 minutes ago, R C-R said:

I do not know what is wrong with your workflow but look at the History panel for this arrow with history.afphoto file -- for me it works exactly as expected with 3 steps to create 2 additional arrows.

We need to see a recording of what you are doing.

I'll try to find time to produce a recording, although as seen in the attached (with history) .afphoto file I followed the steps in my post above exactly. Result: the third layer is the same as the second one. 

I haven't ruled out some sort of hardware/software incompatibility (Hello, OpenCL) to explain why only two people in the forums have experienced this but I have no idea what that could be.

arrow_with_history.afphoto

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How specifically are you performing the second step shown in the History panel (the Transform step)?

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17 minutes ago, Lem3 said:

"V" for Move tool, click and drag the object to the new position.

Does that duplicate object remain selected after the drag?

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14 hours ago, R C-R said:

I do not know what is wrong with your workflow but look at the History panel for this arrow with history.afphoto file -- for me it works exactly as expected with 3 steps to create 2 additional arrows.

We need to see a recording of what you are doing.

I am attaching two recordings.  In the first I follow the Help instructions for Power Duplication:
Duplicate the layer
Activate the Move tool, drag the object away from the underlying arrow.
Duplicate the top layer (should still be selected)

A third layer is created, but the third arrow is in the same place as the second one, no transform is performed.

The second recording starts at the end of the first with three layers but no successful transform for the third.
I drag the third arrow some distance, then duplicate that layer.
A fourth layer is created which reflects the second transform.  Additional layer duplications also work correctly.

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Thanks for the videos.

The only thing I can see that seems slightly odd to me is when you select the Move Tool the pointer is white instead of black like its icon in the Tools panel. On my Mac, the Move Tool is always black, but maybe that is different for Windows?

Regardless, except for that it looks like everything you are doing should produce a power duplicate on the second duplicate step.

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Must be Windows vs Mac, the Hand tool here is also white.

I only have Photo.  Looking through the forums for Power Duplication issues I've seen mention of the function in Designer.  Could you try the same steps there and see what happens?

I'm moving farther and farther away from "I must not know what I'm doing" towards "This is a bug".

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3 minutes ago, Lem3 said:

I only have Photo.  Looking through the forums for Power Duplication issues I've seen mention of the function in Designer.  Could you try the same steps there and see what happens?

I frequently use Power Duplicate with all three Affinity apps. For me, it works the same in all of them.

Also, the View (hand) Tool is always white on Macs; the Move Tool always black; the Node Tool always white.

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  • 11 months later...

Using the View tool means the Transform panel is inactive when you first duplicate the object. So the duplicate is also not active in the transform panel until you choose another tool.

Not a bug just a wrong tool choice.

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I have never mastered color management, period, so I cannot help with that.

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You must select Move Tool before duplication starting - Move Tool. select object/layer, Duplicate, Transform, Duplicate.

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7 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

Not a bug just a wrong tool choice.

Nevertheless, it "bugs" me that AP defaults to opening or creating new files with the View Tool active. I would much rather that it worked like AD so that the default was the Move Tool.

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6 minutes ago, R C-R said:

Nevertheless, it "bugs" me that AP defaults to opening or creating new files with the View Tool active. I would much rather that it worked like AD so that the default was the Move Tool.

As I’ve indicated elsewhere, it seems to me that a simple way to please everybody would be to make the top tool the default. Then all the user would need to do is customize the tools so that their preferred default tool occupies the top spot.

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2 minutes ago, Pšenda said:

You must select Move Tool before duplication starting ...

Even with the View Tool selected, you can duplicate a layer if you right-click on it in the Layers panel & choose "Duplicate" on the contextual menu that pops up, so if the Transform panel was active for a layer selected in the layers panel when the View Tool was selected, you could power duplicate without switching tools by using the Transform panel instead of the Move Tool to move/rotate/shear the first duplicate.

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10 minutes ago, R C-R said:

Even with the View Tool selected, you can duplicate a layer if you right-click on it in the Layers panel & choose "Duplicate" on the contextual menu that pops up, so if the Transform panel was active for a layer selected in the layers panel when the View Tool was selected, you could power duplicate without switching tools by using the Transform panel instead of the Move Tool to move/rotate/shear the first duplicate.

I would expect that it is obvious to everyone that this is a "Power Duplicate" function (see Topic Title), i.e. a duplication with the execution of a previous transformation, not a simple duplication of an object/layer. And if the duplication is to work including the acceptance of the previous transformation, the Move Tool (or Tool for object manipulation, for example Shape tool and Text tool) must be selected so that the Transform panel - and therefore the "transformation" - is active.

Edited by Pšenda

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1 minute ago, Pšenda said:

I would expect that it is obvious to everyone that this is a "Power Duplicate" function, i.e. a duplication with the execution of a previous transformation, not a simple duplication of an object/layer. And if the duplication is to work including the acceptance of the previous transformation, the Move Tool must be selected so that the Transform panel - and therefore the "transformation" - is active.

It is still just a duplication, so it should not matter if the transformation is done with the Move Tool or directly in the Transform panel (which after all is usually the better choice for precision work!). There is no good reason why the Transform panel could not be active for any layer selected in the Layers panel, even if the View Tool is selected in the Tools panel. The View Tool does not transform anything in the document itself so there is no conflict.

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5 minutes ago, R C-R said:

It is still just a duplication, so it should not matter if the transformation is done with the Move Tool or directly in the Transform panel (which after all is usually the better choice for precision work!). There is no good reason why the Transform panel could not be active for any layer selected in the Layers panel, even if the View Tool is selected in the Tools panel. The View Tool does not transform anything in the document itself so there is no conflict.

So you have to request it as significant improvement (in the suggestions section). For me, selecting the Move tool before doing the transformation is a natural and logical step, so I have no problem with it at all.

P.S. As is often the case - Help would need to be supplemented, because the current description of Power duplicate does not mention the need for the Move/Transformation tool in any way, and it can be quite confusing for many users.

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3 hours ago, Pšenda said:

For me, selecting the Move tool before doing the transformation is a natural and logical step, so I have no problem with it at all.

Wouldn't it be just as natural & perhaps even more logical to do the transform in the panel with that name? 

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2 hours ago, R C-R said:

Wouldn't it be just as natural & perhaps even more logical to do the transform in the panel with that name? 

Yes, with Move Tool isn't problem. 

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23 minutes ago, Pšenda said:

Yes, with Move Tool isn't problem. 

But what makes that any more natural or logical than doing the transform in the Transform panel????

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