Select object in front on drag

[RikerT]

Hi hi. I'm so frustrated with this, it feels like it should be so easy, but i've poured through the preferences and I can't fix it. so any help would be hugely appreciated. So, this isn't about the illustrator-esque option of selecting by overlapping a marquee selection (which can be solved by selecting the Tool preference 'Select object when intersects with selection marquee).

I have an object selected and I drag it somewhere. I want to now drag another object in front of it. In other software, i simply drag on it to move it. I'm really used to that workflow, and I find it really speedy & efficient for how I design. Instead in Affinity, the only option is to select it first in a separate, discrete, independent step, and then drag it. If I don't do that, then Affinity simply maintains the original object selected, which is incredibly frustrating, because it adds an additional step - an additional click.... to basically every single motion I do.

So it sounds like such a tiny and trivial thing, but for me, it adds up massively so it's making Affinity impossible to use. I'm so keen to switch to it, but I can't like this. Any way this can be fixed please let me know! 

 

[Pšenda]

I probably don't understand exactly what you want to do, but that's how it works for me.
What application? What OS? Screen capture?

Edited December 23, 2021 by Pšenda

[RikerT]

Hi hi. Affinity Designer 1.10.4, running on Mac OS Mojave 10.14.5

screen recording. I start by selecting the grey box and dragging it over to the left. I now want to drag the green box which is in front of it, however, just dragging on click does not recognise a new selection (the object on top, the green box), it maintains the original selection (the grey box)

I would like the new drag to recognise a new selection. 
 

[RikerT]

Ah gosh, so sorry. I'm new here, I thought attaching the screen capture in my previous reply would embed it but.... it did just added it as an attachment. 

[Old Bruce]

Click on the green rectangle/box outside of the lines showing the still selected grey rectangle/box.

[RikerT]

Sure yes, absolutely, that could work in this case, but as you can imagine, very often there are not be any areas of the object in front (smaller objects) outside of the lines showing the original selected object. 

[RikerT]

It feels like it should be just an easy preference. I just downloaded Amadine out of curiosity, and Amadine behaves the way I'm used to - new drag recognises a new selection and selects the object at the very front. Affinity does not do this. I really don't understand why Affinity works differently and I can't find anything in preferences or any of the forums. 

[WKansepa]

3 hours ago, RikerT said:

Hi hi. I'm so frustrated with this, it feels like it should be so easy, but i've poured through the preferences and I can't fix it. so any help would be hugely appreciated. So, this isn't about the illustrator-esque option of selecting by overlapping a marquee selection (which can be solved by selecting the Tool preference 'Select object when intersects with selection marquee).

I have an object selected and I drag it somewhere. I want to now drag another object in front of it. In other software, i simply drag on it to move it. I'm really used to that workflow, and I find it really speedy & efficient for how I design. Instead in Affinity, the only option is to select it first in a separate, discrete, independent step, and then drag it. If I don't do that, then Affinity simply maintains the original object selected, which is incredibly frustrating, because it adds an additional step - an additional click.... to basically every single motion I do.

So it sounds like such a tiny and trivial thing, but for me, it adds up massively so it's making Affinity impossible to use. I'm so keen to switch to it, but I can't like this. Any way this can be fixed please let me know! 

 

Having trained in and worked with the mainstream graphic design software for more than two decades, I also used to experience the same frustration that you have highlighted during my early days with Affinity software.
I tasked myself to be open-minded in order  to "master" Affinity software and I had to unlearn some of the habits inherited from my previous experience with other software. In so doing I discovered that Affinity's approach was different. They had broken away from the traditionally "accepted " way. A lot of thought was injected in the way they wanted their revolutionary software to operate. They introduced a lot of streamlined functionality, most of which you will pick up along the way as you use the software. Practice is the key.

Take for instance the issue of selection that you have raised. There is an advantage in this type of selection behaviour:
1. I am assured of not making accidental selections
2. Most of the time I bypass extra steps of locking / hiding objects
3. Selected objects can be moved / transformed / edited to satisfaction while they are underneath other objects

I am now so used to this new selection method from Affinity such that whenever I use Adobe Illustrator I now find its selection approach to be awkward.

[RikerT]

I appreciate this, and certainly i can see the advantages of it. And I'm logging on here and asking because I love what Affinity is trying to do overall. I can also adapt to many other changes because they're not critical to *how* I work and design. For me, it's like a sketching process and very intuitive/improvisational so I try lots of little things instinctively. I use lots of different software that do things differently and am always happy to adjust unless... it really is critical. This issue is really a big deal for me and the reason I'm posting here to ask about it is that it is genuinely a dealbreaker. To work the way I do is not better or worse, it just reflects how my mind/creativity works, that's all so, again, it feels trivial but it really feels like someone constantly blocking me on *every* *single* *click*. Dealbreakers are important and I bet there are dealbreakers out there for everyone which is why people end up using a whole range of software & so MUCH software exists all with their own dedicated user bases, who compromise on other stuff. 

This feels SO MUCH like it could easily be an optional Preference, which then, actually I then might electively choose perhaps later in my workflow when that 'sketching' process is over. (Similar to the "Select object when intersects with selection marquee" preference where Affinity wants to do things differently, but has the option for people who need to work that way, giving users the option to experiment.) 

So like, because you're saying "adapt" as my only option, ... it looks like there is no preference option for this. In which case I may log a feature request for it? And bin Affinity until it they implement. Really very frustrated/upset by this because I love so many other things about Affinity: Designer and really wanted it to work. 

If anyone has any suggestions of what program I could use instead for the Mac? Amadine seems somewhat limited? My favourite software is Xara, and my least favourite is Adobe Illustrator. Thanks so much for any help. 

[Old Bruce]

I can select the different items quite easily, one thing I may be doing differently from you is a short click to select the green horizontal bar and then a Click + Drag to move the now selected green bar. Took me a while to figure out that you are click + Drag while the grey post is still selected, let go of the mouse button and click again + drag. You are basically selecting to drag the already selected grey post.

[RikerT]

So... yes @Old Bruce, this is specifically what i'm asking about. Other software allows for new drag (new hold-down) selects new front-most object with no additional short-click. I'm always letting go of the mouse button between objects of course, but I do not want to have another short click required to select the new object, i want to simply start that long-drag-click on my new object. As i said before, sounds like no big deal, but because I work like this v intuitively additional short clicks on a gazillion tiny placements/movements means it adds up hugely, and the software becomes impossible to use for me. 

[orangefizz]

I feel the same way. I'm so used to the ease of selection in Photoshop/Illustrator that everything in Affinity software seems difficult and needlessly complicated. In PS/IL you can differentiate between *object* selection and *point/line* selection, but in Affinity it's one pointer type that you [apparently?] can't do much else with but select entire objects/layers. For example: I have a page full of differently-grouped shapes (some in subgroups), but located in separate corners. When I drag a box around the objects in one corner, it also selects the other grouped items in the opposite corner, and it's evidently impossible to change this behavior. I just want the objects I dragged the box around, why is this so difficult? I'm not asking to ungroup them, just let me SELECT them to move/hide/whatever.

Maybe there's a very simple function/feature to accomplish this that I just don't know about, but there's the problem: over and over again all these *basic* functions need re-learning...and are obviously not intuitive or I wouldn't be here writing posts like this.

Very, very frustrating.