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Accessing the Erase tool in AD while in the draw persona


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From what I can tell, you cannot directly access or use the shortcut for the erase tool in AD, while in the Draw Persona. Even though you can use the erase tool for both pixel and vector based objects. 

So my question is, how can I? Am I missing something? So my ultimate desire I guess would to be able to not only access the node tool directly from a pen or brush tool, but also be able to access the erase tool too.  Is this being planned? If not could you please add it.

Thank you.

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Okay, sorry again. Thinking about it too much. If you have your time lapse converted to a video file in an editor, you can save your changes to 3D-LUT and import those changes into your video editor too. I don't have a lot of experience with that, but there is a good tutorial by Affinity on it.

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crabtrem,

 

I believe the eraser tool only works in the Pixel Persona and only with pixel or raster objects, you can use it on objects that were created in the Draw Persona but it will turn them into pixels, not vectors. For some people that is okay but for others, people who want to use only vectors, it is not okay. I believe that they will add a true vector eraser at a later time (https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/10410-common-feature-requests-index/). I hope this helps. 

 

Hokusai

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I was actually looking through help, and the erase tool does work with vector drawings. It works. So what I was hoping would be to either be able to access the eraser from the Draw Persona, or have it selectable from within, say the vector brush tool. I was amazed to see it work on vectors too. Because I was thinking exactly what you were, but to my surprise.

 

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crabtrem,

 

Thanks, I wasn't aware of that, I was under the assumption that the erase tool only worked on pixels. The help guide's explanation is rather vague. While it does say that you can erase vectors (and you can maintain vector editing capabilities) it doesn't say that the end result will be a vector. Is it? From what I can tried, it will erase vectors but it still makes them pixels in the end. Yes, the vector is still there and still editable but whatever I have erased becomes pixels if I export it. Maybe I'm doing something wrong? I tend to stay away from anything that will be rasterised and so I don't use the eraser as it is. I'm looking forward to a true vector eraser.

 

Hokusai

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I didn't take a close look at the erased part. That is a good question. Since it makes the erased part a mask, I'm not sure what it does. I haven't tried deleting the mask to see what happens. I will try those options next, I hadn't even considered them yet, thanks. 

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  • 2 months later...

Considering that DrawPlus x6+ has included a vector eraser.. and this is anticipated as the product to continue on development beyond that line for windows soon... the lack of such basic features as this and contours are a joke.  We don't even have the ability to use a slider when cleaning up / smoothing curves to reduce nodes.

The only thing going for this product is PSD support.. take that away and i'd throw it in the trash vs its predecessor DrawPlus.

If the features from drawplus aren't Transferred into this product.. Serif are kidding to think people will buy into this.  Why would anyone want to downgrade to the newer version.. it should always be an upgrade!

Genuinely unimpressed!!

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  • 3 months later...

We don't even have the ability to use a slider when cleaning up / smoothing curves to reduce nodes.

 

I think this post is a little unkind. Personally, I can barely imagine how complex and difficult it must be to develop an amazing app like AD. But anyway, I would love to see some way come in to AD of intelligently reducing nodes. Right now, I do it manually. I'm sure a machine or algorithm with human guidance and correction could do it better.

 

I'd be interested to hear how others do this. Sometimes complex addition operations leaves scores of unneeded nodes that it's best to remove.

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I'd be interested to hear how others do this. Sometimes complex addition operations leaves scores of unneeded nodes that it's best to remove.

Since technically "erasing" part of a vector shape is equivalent to changing its path, I usually draw a new shape with the Pen tool outlining the part I want to remove & use the Subtract boolean operation to remove it.

 

But since this is a destructive operation what I sometimes do instead is to switch to the Pixel persona, use one or more of its selection tools to select the part to be "erased," invert that, & convert it to a mask. No only is this non-destructive, I can refine the mask in the usual ways to add things like a featured edge or paint out part of it or add to it with a pixel brush.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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Hi ianrobertdouglas,

Apart from the Smooth Curve command in the context toolbar for the Node Tool there isn't other "automated" way to reduce the number of nodes other than deleting them manually. If you are performing several geometric operations, you may want to try to perform them non-destructiveli pressing ⌥ (option/alt) while clicking on the respective geometric operation icon in the main toolbar. This will generate a compound object that have the same number of nodes (that come from the original shapes).

 

If you are expanding strokes then there's isn't yet any elegant solution available other than using the Smooth Curves command mentioned above.

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Since technically "erasing" part of a vector shape is equivalent to changing its path, I usually draw a new shape with the Pen tool outlining the part I want to remove & use the Subtract boolean operation to remove it.

 

Yes, I often do the same. But at other times its more complex. Recently I constructed a bird out of many overlapping ovals. It all worked out, but the end result included scores of nodes I had to remove by hand. Another possibility was just to create a new shape with the pen tool over the original. Sometimes I do that too. But I would love to take advantage of a tool for the purpose of reducing nodes. I really like the end result to have as few nodes as possible. I take it as part and parcel of producing a professional result. 

 

 

But since this is a destructive operation what I sometimes do instead is to switch to the Pixel persona, use one or more of its selection tools to select the part to be "erased," invert that, & convert it to a mask. No only is this non-destructive, I can refine the mask in the usual ways to add things like a featured edge or paint out part of it or add to it with a pixel brush.

 

I use artboards for versioning, so I'm not so worried about destructive operations. I also always need the output to be solely vector, so in general I don't touch the Pixel persona much at all.

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Hi ianrobertdouglas,

Apart from the Smooth Curve command in the context toolbar for the Node Tool there isn't other "automated" way to reduce the number of nodes other than deleting them manually. If you are performing several geometric operations, you may want to try to perform them non-destructiveli pressing ⌥ (option/alt) while clicking on the respective geometric operation icon in the main toolbar. This will generate a compound object that have the same number of nodes (that come from the original shapes).

 

If you are expanding strokes then there's isn't yet any elegant solution available other than using the Smooth Curves command mentioned above.

 

Many thanks. I haven't explored option/alt. I should do that. Yes, I think many or most of the extra nodes come from expanding strokes.

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Recently I constructed a bird out of many overlapping ovals. It all worked out, but the end result included scores of nodes I had to remove by hand.

Maybe I'm missing something but if all the ovals overlapped, did not the add operation remove all the interior nodes, leaving only the nodes forming the path of the outline of the combined shapes?

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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Maybe I'm missing something but if all the ovals overlapped, did not the add operation remove all the interior nodes, leaving only the nodes forming the path of the outline of the combined shapes?

 

I'll have to tell you the next time I do it, but this was also subtracting and dividing, but I think @MEB is right: the most "leftover" nodes come from expanding strokes, which I was also doing in that graphic. I think (just an impression) that AD has much improved in v1.5, by the way. 

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  • 2 months later...

I'd be interested to hear how others do this. Sometimes complex addition operations leaves scores of unneeded nodes that it's best to remove.

 

+1 on this. Struggling myself with removing extraneous nodes. Would love to read some article(s) and/or see video tutorials about this. 

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