[Ad 1.10.5] Cat Tool is not working as expected/before [SOLVED]

[MmmMaarten]

Yesterday I upgraded Affinity Designer to 1.10.5, but to my surprise since version 1.10.5 the Cat Tool isn't working as before. I'm not sure if this is intentional, but it's not drawing a cat anymore.

I clearly understand not everybody is using the cat-tool and I know the tool started as a gimmick by Serif, but I find this tool quite useful to use in projects as kind of a Lorem Ipsum image in new (prototype-)designs I sent to clients to give them an impression. The cute cat was perfect for that and had the perfect aspect ratio! But for some reason it's not that cute cat anymore and it now has a much wider aspect ratio than before too. Also the cat it is drawing now isn't as nice. It's more like some preditor animal now while it was such a cute kitty before I was happy to send to clients in prototype designs. I'm sure that influences the whole feel of a design.

Because of this change in the tool I now need to either replace all existing cute cats in designs I was already working on in the previous version of Affinity Designer, or I have to re-install the previous version of Designer. Both are not ideal. Well, I could also copy the cat from the designs as a workaround, which is fine, but that's not ideal and doesn't solve the issue long term.

Please Serif, could the cat tool please be restored to the same image as before?

I include the Affinity file as an attachment, just in case you might want to use it to investigate.

Thanks in advance!

testfile.afdesign

[Alfred]

Er … perhaps you haven’t noticed, but it’s April Fool’s Day today!  

[MmmMaarten]

33 minutes ago, Hens said:

Hier het is Maarten,
Hier zijn ook assets met de oudere versie(s)

Thanks, I just downloded them so I don't need to downgrade Designer.

33 minutes ago, Alfred said:

Er … perhaps you haven’t noticed, but it’s April Fool’s Day today!  

I think it's pretty weird of Serif to expect from its users that the function of the Cat Tool may change depending on the date. That 'suddenly' a tool changes its function for whatever reason. What's next? Rectangles drawing Santa's on Christmas? Hope not. So still hope they can change this. IMO Affinity Designer should work the same every day of the year and independent of date, country, religion, whatever. Thank god I'm not having a deadline today!

[edit] I just did a test by changing the system date in Windows and restarted Designer and even the PC, but that didn't help 😭 Glad that I now have the original shape downloaded! Nice workaround for now!

[walt.farrell]

38 minutes ago, Alfred said:

Er … perhaps you haven’t noticed, but it’s April Fool’s Day today!  

Perhaps it is, but my 1.10.5 cat tool does not look like that today. I still have:

[MmmMaarten]

4 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

Perhaps it is, but my 1.10.5 cat tool does not look like that today. I still have:

 

4 hours ago, Hens said:

Mine does like the normal cat too

@Alfred @Hens @walt.farrell

Yes!! Here it's working too now! I finally found the issue!, well it wasn't really an issue, but a new feature. I accidentally bumped into the solution actually; there is a new settings panel especially for the cat tool and in there the tool seemed to be set to 'Southern Cheetah' here.

Obviously Serif mad it possible to select a custom cat/feline now. Which is actually great to have and very useful! I'll definitely use it for future projects, but for now I'm glad I found the reason! So guess this one is solved now!

Here you'll find the settings in case yours is checked to custom cat too (or you'd like to select a different feline):

Edit --> Preferences --> Felines

 

There for some reason in my setup the checkbox 'Use custom feline' was checked after installation and 'Southern Cheetah' was currently selected in the custom cats list. That's why I didn't draw the 'normal' cat, but saw a Cheetah instead.

 

 I've now unchecked the checkbox and I got the cute cat again in the latest version of Designer! Cool 😀

Thanks for the help guys! Glad that this one is solved now!

Have a nice weekend!

 

[walt.farrell]

On 4/1/2022 at 12:26 PM, MmmMaarten said:

Obviously Serif mad it possible to select a custom cat/feline now. Which is actually great to have and very useful! I'll definitely use it for future projects, but for now I'm glad I found the reason! So guess this one is solved now!

Here you'll find the settings in case yours is checked to custom cat too (or you'd like to select a different feline):

Edit --> Preferences --> Felines

I do not have that Preference on my system. I wonder if it's only available on "special" days?