Measurements - so close but yet so far

[JacquesMiov]

Seems like some welcome improvements all round... and a welcome bundle - so well done!

However in Designer the new measurement tool:

"Measurements are not permanently displayed, are non-printable and are not saved with your document."

So close and yet so far!! Please make them permanent and graphically customisable, + angle measurements + secondary units (ie -mm and inches)

Thanks in advance,

[Rashaad Sallie]

I agree, Its amazing how designers of the app don't seem to ask these questions "What if we had an option to make it permanent and the ability to print" - pffffft

[fde101]

I think these are two different tools.  The ability to temporarily measure something is the equivalent of using a ruler on a physical page.

The ability to add it as an element of the document is more of a CAD feature, and while it would be nice to have that, it is not really the right type of application for it, so I can see how the priority for that would be a bit lower than some of the other things that have been requested.

[Rashaad Sallie]

I disagree hey. why add the feature in the first place. This is a CAD like feature so why not do it properly or not at all. Im not sure if there was tons and tons of people asking for a tool that can measure something, when the dimensions are already there. 

All I am saying is if a tool is introduced - do it properly.

[gabriel_komorov]

Exactly, why even bother with adding measure if it's nonpersistent. 90% times when you need to measure something is to show the client / contractor what exactly they dealing with.

So far it's the biggest dissapointment in 2.0

[Rashaad Sallie]

To me V2 feels like a change of icons, improved speed and non essential tools and asking for more money. We work on 4K monitors and are stuck with a ONE PANEL tool set. 

[Thomas Geist]

11 minutes ago, fde101 said:

...

The ability to add it as an element of the document is more of a CAD feature, and while it would be nice to have that, it is not really the right type of application for it, ...

I think the issue is that there are many graphics designers out there who have to work with this kind of data but getting a (decent) extra tool for this can be prohibitively expensive. Especially when you see it in the light of Affinity's own price point (which of course is awesome and hugely appreciated).

Many decent CAD packages are pretty high priced subscriptions.

[Mithferion]

Hopefully, V 2.0.0 won’t be the last release of this suite.

Best regards!

[fde101]

29 minutes ago, Thomas Geist said:

Many decent CAD packages are pretty high priced subscriptions.

Pointlessly so - there are also low-cost and even free options out there, such as QCad.

[jussi]

well, I worked with many CAD / BIM packages and the measurement tool does not create permanent entity. unless, you used a tool called dimension. so I guess, that's what you ask.

[fde101]

10 minutes ago, jussi said:

well, I worked with many CAD / BIM packages and the measurement tool does not create permanent entity. unless, you used a tool called dimension. so I guess, that's what you ask.

Correct, which is what I was trying to explain earlier.  They have provided a measurement tool, and even named it that.  They have not (yet?) implemented a dimension tool, which is what the OP is actually looking for.

[JacquesMiov]

 

2 minutes ago, jussi said:

well, I worked with many CAD / BIM packages and the measurement tool does not create permanent entity. unless, you used a tool called dimension. so I guess, that's what you ask.

Correct jussi - I appreciate that this is a niche use case for this product - but I have this use case - since the V2 highlights the 2D CAD import/export + measurements - for me the addition of a simple (but complete) and aesthetically customisable dimensioning tool would be useful - does not have to be as feature rich as HotDoor CADtools..

[Aammppaa]

+1 for the ability to make measurements permanent.

It really does feel like all the work has been done, barring the last step!

[valeriogallo]

I have been waiting for the possibility to draw and print the measurements. For me, this functionality alone it would be worth upgrading to version 2. Without it, I will probably stay with 1

[Lightw00d]

I am so annoyed! Today I read in my news that Affinity Designer has a new tool for measuring, which I missed so much in version 1. So I immediately bought it and then read that "Measurements are not permanently displayed, are non-printable and are not saved with your document. I use Designer to draw blueprints for my hobby workshop and to create milling templates for my Shaper Origin.

WHY PLEASE do you from Affinity do this?!?!?

[WatcherJoshua]

I came to the forum today to re-suggest this exact same thing. There was a suggestion thread for V1.x to get this update as well.

I work in the sign/printing industry. I have to show customer what sizes the signs/prints are on art proofs, and sometimes I have to provide vendors detailed drawings for fabrication.

CorelDRAW has had this feature for over a decade, but Adobe Illustrator never added it. One of the biggest frustrations of switching to Illustrator was that we have to manually draw all of the dimensions. I pay an annual subscription fee to a third party for an add-on to make Illustrator do this, and it's still a little unintuitive.

The measuring and area tools Affinity V2 has are excellent. We just need a button to convert them to objects in the drawing and the ability to draw more than one measurement on the screen at a time.

EDIT: I wrote "intuitive" instead of "unintuitive" the first time. 🤦‍♂️

Edited November 10, 2022 by WatcherJoshua

[nolamike]

Just another vote for a dimension tool (that is, a way to make measurements persistent and printable). It seems such an obvious add-on to the excellent work done so far, I suspect it is on the way and will debut in a few months. But if it is sitting in a list of "maybe" features, a strong encouragement here to put it in development. 

If you go to the What's New in Affinity Designer v2 video on YouTube, it just seems wrong that the guy is shown copy-dragging regular text objects and sticking them next to double-arrow lines to complete the dimensions on his drawing. 

[kboone]

It's almost as if the developers ran out of time to finish this. Let's hope permanent dimension lines get added soon - please.

[mdriftmeyer]

For those injecting this is a useless feature you don't do much technical publications. For you, just deselect that option. For the rest of us that find it useful and don't want to load a CAD program, but want to integrate these features into complex Designer creations we'll leave it on.

[mdharrington]

4 hours ago, mdriftmeyer said:

For those injecting this is a useless feature you don't do much technical publications. For you, just deselect that option. For the rest of us that find it useful and don't want to load a CAD program, but want to integrate these features into complex Designer creations we'll leave it on.

Agreed.

I do CAD and 3d and would use this feature almost daily at work to mark up simple photos/sketches without having to go full 3d. Right now I’ll be manually adding them.

An angle measurement would also be welcome.

[Dieter Mauer]

I quickly installed V2 and was deeply disappointed, since the dimension lines aren't available finally, despite of being announced. It might be interesting to measure objects, but it's really necessary to have permanent lines with automatically written numbers and units on them. Just look at a technical or architectural drawing. Then you know, what we mean.

So I enjoy having the scales as at least a step in the right direction. But, please, introduce the new line type with automatic numbering printable as soon as possible. Then I may finally leave my old program having these things. I have been waiting urgently for the dimension lines in this new version.

[Aammppaa]

Dreaming into the future, it would be really nice to have the ability to anchor nodes to other objects. This would be useful for speech bubbles and other call outs, flow diagrams etc.

Plus it could integrate with the measurement tool so that measurements remained live and would update as the target object / distances were modified!

But let's start with angles and permanent measurements please Serif 😉

[reutmanx]

I create technical text documents and not always there is an initial CAD-file. Sometimes we make simple drawings right into Designer. Just having the dimension feature would be a nice addition. Canvas Draw has it in a more CAD manner, but even tiny Graphics (macOS) has a simple "label" to lines where you can choose "Dimension" or "Text". For me it just would be helpful to finally use one application...

[Lightw00d]

That's exactly what I mean... I would like to do everything with Affinity Designer because it works so well. Everything I have to draw I can do with it. It's only for the dimensioning that I have to feel like I have to click 50 times, even though everything would actually be there.

[Paul Martin]

On 11/9/2022 at 12:52 PM, fde101 said:

I think these are two different tools.  The ability to temporarily measure something is the equivalent of using a ruler on a physical page.

The ability to add it as an element of the document is more of a CAD feature, and while it would be nice to have that, it is not really the right type of application for it, so I can see how the priority for that would be a bit lower than some of the other things that have been requested.

This is where I say that I have to keep my old copy of Serif Drawplus X8 (2015) going because all my house plans have saveable, printable dimension lines created in that lovely little programme. I'm just grateful that we at last have word count in Publisher 2, aeons after PagePlus.

It does help that v2 looks attractive and has very slightly eased v1's "crowded" feel. Of course, my screen is only 24", so maybe all you guys out there on your cinema-sized Macs don't have this problem... 😀