Can anyone explain why a "bite" get's taken out of the border of a vector object?

[stepfull]

I've spent literally days designing something using a series of vector ellipses, each rotated 137.5 degrees from the prior. The ellipses are placed in a group, which has 3-4 subgroups of 6-8 objects. Each group of ellipses are a different length. These are created in CMYK using a registration black border. The background is transparent. (I doubt the foregoing matters, but I've included it in case it does for some reason.)

Here's the problem: As an entire group of these ellipses are scaled up or down, their borders appear to have "bites" taken out of them - "bites" that disappear, then reappear in different locations, and appearing in different shapes & sizes. It's bizarre. I thought it was just some visual anomaly, but when I export the group to a .png file (changing the color model from cmyk to rbg), I see that those "bites" taken out of the border are part of the exported image. 

I'm going to have to scrap the project I've been working on for untold hours entirely if there's no solution. See the attached image.

[stepfull]

I'm going to say "nevermind". I've made a new master, and I'm not able to replicate this behavior. Not sure what happened with the original that I'd been working from. Ugh, now I get to repeat the work I've been doing for the last few weeks and hope things behave. 

[stepfull]

I spoke to soon - this is still a problem. My new master looks perfectly fine in Affinity when I view it at actual size. When I export to PNG, "bites" are taken out of the borders. I'd appreciate some guidance, though I think I'm going to just end up switching applications if I can't find a quick way around this problem.

[stepfull]

I've worked out that it's something in the rasterization process. Unfortunately, I can't export to a different file format. Rasterizing and doing touch-ups isn't a viable option.  If there's a solution for preventing this, I haven't found it. I guess I'm just going to have to abandon weeks of work and cut my losses.

[carl123]

First switch off hardware acceleration in Edit > Preferences > Performance (it can do weird things sometimes)

If not cured, then uploading the document to the forum may yield some further insight into what is going on

 

[thomaso]

6 hours ago, stepfull said:

when I export the group to a .png file (changing the color model from cmyk to rbg), I see that those "bites" taken out of the border are part of the exported image. 

I'm going to have to scrap the project I've been working on for untold hours entirely if there's no solution.

In case you need .png export only (no vector): Do the bites resist if you rasterize the layers?

And do the bites behave different in the layout when you zoom in/out? And what in a PDF export?

[stepfull]

1 hour ago, carl123 said:

First switch off hardware acceleration in Edit > Preferences > Performance (it can do weird things sometimes)

If not cured, then uploading the document to the forum may yield some further insight into what is going on

 

Acceleration was already turned off, but thanks for the tip.

[stepfull]

56 minutes ago, thomaso said:

In case you need .png export only (no vector): Do the bites resist if you rasterize the layers?

And do the bites behave different in the layout when you zoom in/out? And what in a PDF export?

I've tried rasterizing before exporting to png. The result is the same as what I see when exporting to .png without rasterizing first - chunks taken out of shape borders. The bites do behave differently in the layout when I zoom in and out. 

Exporting to PDF isn't an option - the service I'm using for printing won't accept PDF files. (Using a different service is likewise not a viable option.)

I found a really ugly workaround. It requires selecting the group of vector objects, copying and pasting them into an image viewer, then saving from there as PNG with transparency. Unfortunately, that means anywhere I use white in the image requires reimporting to Affinity to refill those areas, and exporting again. It's going to lengthen the process considerably.  Of course, copying and pasting from Affinity means I get an image with different dimensions and dpi, but the same total pixels. I assume that's something to do with the Clipboard in Windows, rather than an issue with Affinity. 

I use vector objects because of a disability that has robbed me of the ability to draw by hand. If I can't export to a raster format without this issue, then I'll have to settle for doing nothing but nonrepresentational abstract work. 

[thomaso]

25 minutes ago, stepfull said:

Exporting to PDF isn't an option - the service I'm using for printing won't accept PDF files. (Using a different service is likewise not a viable option.)

I still wonder if the gaps would also occur in an exported PDF. If not, maybe re-importing that to Affinity possibly is an option.

Also I wonder if grouping influences the issue, or maybe a different layer hierarchy?

Can you upload that elements for a closer look?

[DWright]

Is it possible for you to post a copy of your .afdesign file for me to test.

[stepfull]

15 hours ago, thomaso said:

I still wonder if the gaps would also occur in an exported PDF. If not, maybe re-importing that to Affinity possibly is an option.

Also I wonder if grouping influences the issue, or maybe a different layer hierarchy?

Can you upload that elements for a closer look?

I've replicated the problem when exporting to PDF, though it's less noticeable. 

[thomaso]

You still don't want to upload a sample document with such elements?

[JimmyJack]

While we patiently wait for an example 🤣. 😇

My money is on a broken node(s) with a Butt Cap with the end handle facing the wrong way.

 

[thomaso]

Such artefacts are known, aren't they? Not only with open curves or odd handle positions but also width certain stroke types / widths.

But the OP seems to have 'simple' generic shapes …

On 8/11/2022 at 11:14 PM, stepfull said:

a series of vector ellipses

[JimmyJack]

34 minutes ago, thomaso said:

But the OP seems to have 'simple' generic shapes …

Yeah, I saw that.... I'm gonna choose to think maybe they're not. 😉 🤠

[stepfull]

2 hours ago, thomaso said:

You still don't want to upload a sample document with such elements?

Sorry I haven't been speedy enough for people. I don't monitor the forum 24/7 and I don't get notifications when someone replies. While people have been speculating about my alleged reluctance to upload a file, I've been busy trying to figure out what changed between yesterday and this evening, because I'm no longer seeing this problem at all  now with my latest effort to create a working master file, from which I'll create other images by changing the colors. There's nothing that makes me crazier than intermittent problems that suddenly appear and disappear for no discernable reason.

Unfortunately, I've already trashed the old nonworking files now that I have a new working master, so can't upload them.

But since you've asked, here's a file. Maybe someone else can replicate what I can't now. 

Also, I probably won't be back on the forum again until sometime tomorrow. 

Master20.afdesign