Jump to content
You must now use your email address to sign in [click for more info] ×

Recommended Posts

For perspective:

Illustrator's "isolation mode" did not appear until CS3 (2007). If it's such a 'deal breaking, bedrock essential basic' feature (just like everyone's pet feature request is), how did anyone use Adobe Illustrator for the two prior decades?

I paid $50 for Affinity Designer. You know how much money I spent on Adobe Illustrator prior to 2007?

My use of Illustrator's Isolation Mode is only occasional. And I certainly don't judge any program that doesn't have something like it "unusable."

JET

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My point is what I said, Luis: A bit of perspective.

I'm not attacking your feature request. I am saying that its "essential" claims are grossly over-stated. Practically everyone with a wished-for feature claims that theirs is "so basic to drawing programs that Affinity Designer is rendered useless without it." Yet I dare say most never even heard of "Isolation Mode" until Adobe called it that in 2007.

You've received replies from Serif on this. There's no need to "pile on" about it.

Quote

Isn't this the forum where we ask for features...

If that were all it is, it would just be an email direct to Serif. It's not just where we ask for features; It's where users of varying experience also discuss the merits of those features.

JET

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@JET_Affinity Sorry, still not following your point.

I created this thread because the isolation mode is something that is undoubtedly useful for me, and apparently to many other users as well.

Your goal is to enlighten us to the fact that feature is not essential, because Adobe only introduced it 12 years ago, and as such we should not request/discuss it?

Personal website - http://www.luispedrofonseca.com

Follow me on Twitter - https://twitter.com/lpfonseca
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

+1 for this fix. 

 

its very easy to work only IN a group only. and should exit group with double-click outside, or use specific button. 

and please keep the other element visible. not 'white' other object (in alt-layer click).

 

thanks dev. please follow up this thread :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 months later...

I've been among the very first buyers of AD when it initially released a long time ago yet always had to go back to illustrator when trying to really get into it as there was always something that demanded me to workaround a habit that just was in my veins. I understand that you can't just copy everthing from a competitor's product in order to really stand out, but there just are some things, like a layer panel, the position of a tools palette, artboards, that can please mean very fundamental demands for how an application works or just feel like the most intuitive way to get to a solution. 

When I once upon a time requested here, that the pen-tool should be adjustable while drawing by hitting the spacebar to reajust a path on the fly, someone of the mods answered in a way like this wouldn't be necessary and is just a very individual request. 
Still they added it ever since and for me it's like one major thing that would keep me from drawing anything inside AD as its way more precise and faster than drawing a wrong shape and correct it later. 

Same thing is the case here. The lack of the isolation mode is a much bigger deal to me. The abiilty to click through nested and overlapping elements is nice, but far from a solution. You don't have to call it isolation mode, but it's not even something that only illustrator does. You can find it in Cinema 4D as well and why shouldn't you? It opens the possibility to really focus working on a detail, be quicker with selection or generally see how an element would look like a separate object on the fly. There are many reasons that make such a mode kinda crucial and it somehow hurts to see how great AD has grown especially with 1.8.1, yet still I couldn't just work as fluid as in other applications due to details like this one. 

Again — I do understand that you don't wanna be some (nicer looking) AI clone. But especially on smaller screens (like the iPad) this would help so much. 
So I really just can fall on my knees and pray for this implementation at some point.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

sisyphus-copy.jpg

  • "The user interface is supposed to work for me - I am not supposed to work for the user interface."
  • Computer-, operating system- and software agnostic; I am a result oriented professional. Look for a fanboy somewhere else.
  • “When a wise man points at the moon the imbecile examines the finger.” ― Confucius
  • Not an Affinity user og forum user anymore. The software continued to disappoint and not deliver.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

Jesus how many years has this been going on?

I was also one of the first to buy Designer to support Serif and to this day the software is still unusable for me without isolation mode for groups.

Some people with a different workflow are presumptuous enough to think that since this is not a big deal for them it shouldn't be for others. This is a deal breaker for a lot of users that have a different workflow and that maybe are not doing the same type of work.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I’ve largely adjusted to the workflow of creating layers and toggling “edit across layers” on and off, but after jumping back into this thread... I have to agree that isolation mode was always a better solution. The thing is, layers are a flat hierarchy in Designer, while isolation mode is by nature hierarchical. You can use layers as a substitute, but you miss the benefit of naturally nesting groups within each other, and navigating up and down the tree. 

Alas, there are still half a dozen other higher-priority features I want to see in AD, but this probably ranks higher now than it once did. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 3/2/2020 at 7:40 PM, Jowday said:

sisyphus-copy.jpg

lol.  So, does this image inspire hope, or futility?  I can't tell.  If he got halfway up the incline, then that looks like hope.  But, I can't imagine that he can push a boulder that size up that incline, so that makes it futile.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Kuttyjoe said:

lol.  So, does this image inspire hope, or futility?  I can't tell.  If he got halfway up the incline, then that looks like hope.  But, I can't imagine that he can push a boulder that size up that incline, so that makes it futile.

!!

  • "The user interface is supposed to work for me - I am not supposed to work for the user interface."
  • Computer-, operating system- and software agnostic; I am a result oriented professional. Look for a fanboy somewhere else.
  • “When a wise man points at the moon the imbecile examines the finger.” ― Confucius
  • Not an Affinity user og forum user anymore. The software continued to disappoint and not deliver.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

There seemed to be an approach for an isolation mode, when it became possible to view shapes, groups or layers solo by ALT-clicking the thumbnail in the layers palette. I find it hard to understand why it's impossible to manipulate multiple objects in this view. This does only work with one shape layer at a time. If it works with one isolated shape, why not with many in an isolated group or layer?

I think, everybody needing an isolation mode would be happy, if it would just be possible to work with mutiple shapes (i.e. groups and layers) in this solo view mode.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...
  • 6 months later...

I still come back here from time to time (for years now!) to see if it has been implemented. The main reason (of two, the other being sloppy snapping) i'm not using Affinity Designer (which i own, as well as Publisher) and sticking with Illustrator. How design app developers don't understand this workflow is beyond me.

Isolation mode allows for precision, hierarchical use of symbols and groups, safety (preventing accidental nudges of background objects). Isolation can allow for more intentional snapping. Pure visual UX improvement (with the rest of the canvas faded). All the control without endlessly digging trough hundreds of similarly named objects in the layers panel. Double click, edit, exit. Go hierarchy higher or lower. Yet it's missing in Adobe XD (to a full extent), it's missing in Affinity apps, it's missing everywhere. For someone like me, who edits complex geometric designs with many symbols and groups, many w-i-p versions within the files, this is a dealbreaker.

This shouldn't be an overly complicated thing to implement, and it's great value. I'll happily throw $30 towards an update if it's there. Even if i don't end up using the app for other reasons – of which are few, and there are plenty of reasons to prefer AD.

St.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 3/28/2020 at 6:49 PM, pier said:

Jesus how many years has this been going on?

I was also one of the first to buy Designer to support Serif and to this day the software is still unusable for me without isolation mode for groups.

Some people with a different workflow are presumptuous enough to think that since this is not a big deal for them it shouldn't be for others. This is a deal breaker for a lot of users that have a different workflow and that maybe are not doing the same type of work.

From and including: Tuesday, 7 October 2014
To and including: Thursday, 19 November 2020

Result: 2236 days

It is 2236 days from the start date to the end date, end date included.

Or 6 years, 1 month, 13 days including the end date.

Or 73 month, 13 days including the end date.

  • "The user interface is supposed to work for me - I am not supposed to work for the user interface."
  • Computer-, operating system- and software agnostic; I am a result oriented professional. Look for a fanboy somewhere else.
  • “When a wise man points at the moon the imbecile examines the finger.” ― Confucius
  • Not an Affinity user og forum user anymore. The software continued to disappoint and not deliver.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Hokusai said:

Jowday,

Just to be fair from January 1987 to April 2007, there was no isolation mode in Illustrator.

So that would be a result of roughly 7,300 days with no isolation mode, or 20 years and 4 months or so. 

Hi @Hokusai,

well, to be fair you should also mention that from January 1987 to at least January 2005, AI was distributed on physical media (floppy drives, later CD/DVD, which was a form of copy protection - you had to have to get the physical media to use and update/upgrade sw), there were no digital downloads of the product and the development was quite slow at the time, mostly one major version per a year or two.

Also, you had way more time to get your job complete compared to today, when nearly every customer wants you to finish the task in the instant.

Next, somebody had to invent the isolation mode, since back in the day, vector illustrations were mostly way simpler than nowdays, thus such feature wasn’t necessary until those got complex enough 😉.

Next, in AI, you have a working (global) layer system (compared to Affinity Object=layer system) and functional lock and hide element/layer feature that we could use before isolation mode got implemented...

Tl;dr Thrown out of context, it seems Adobe was so slow developing Illustrator for many years without adding such features we use today, but that is in fact unfair argument considering software and hardware needs at the time, different distribution model at the time and feels like comparing apples to oranges... thus kinda out of the place this time.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Hokusai said:

Jowday,

Just to be fair from January 1987 to April 2007, there was no isolation mode in Illustrator.

So that would be a result of roughly 7,300 days with no isolation mode, or 20 years and 4 months or so. 

Yeah, kinda. 

The constant comparison with Adobe is not great though. Comparing software development from 1987 with 2020 is like comparing the first moon landing with the next somewhere in the future. It will NOT be the same.

As I said elsewhere:

Quote

 

But Adobe invented and created a lot of their tools themselves from scratch since version 1 of Photoshop. Was - and is - the mother of many tools and concepts. Other companies - Serif especially - simply didn't do this. Didn't invent much - rather copied/built upon tons of existing stuff and established practices. Includes tons of libraries and open source code components. How many of the features in Photo do you REALLY think Serif made from scratch themselves? Getting as much as they can from open source libraries, Windows and OS X. (RAW demosaic fx). Probably smart in most cases. If the results are great. Not always.

So... comparing the speed of development between Adobe and Serif is simply so amazingly ridiculous.

 

The copycat (thus Serifs love of cats?) and active user of licensed libraries and open source code is in no way facing the same challenges as the pioneer. 

If we should compare the two then Serif is way behind on any scale. They made a essentially vector-tool-less vector drawing program in six year with some 25+ years in the business. Look at the sad, simple contour tool they brought us just in time for Christmas.

Upscale! Upscale! Tiny teams make small increments. Slow.

  • "The user interface is supposed to work for me - I am not supposed to work for the user interface."
  • Computer-, operating system- and software agnostic; I am a result oriented professional. Look for a fanboy somewhere else.
  • “When a wise man points at the moon the imbecile examines the finger.” ― Confucius
  • Not an Affinity user og forum user anymore. The software continued to disappoint and not deliver.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Guidelines | We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.