AD 2 macOS: Contour tool removes original element

[tersmuse]

When I do an outline (contour tool), the original disappears.

A simple example: I draw a circle with a diameter of 50 mm. I choose the Contour Tool with + 5 mm. I now see two circles in the preview. But when I switch to the Move tool, the origin 50 mm circle disappears.

This was already the case in version 1. That's why I never used the contour tool. Surely I'm doing something wrong?

How do I get an outline contour without losing the original?

[GarryP]

The only way that I know of is to duplicate the layer before using the Contour Tool on it (or the duplicate).
As you say, the Contour Tool has worked like this since it was first introduced.
There have been various requests for it to work differently.

[tersmuse]

Mmhhh, I wonder what the developers were thinking. This makes no sense at all. A contour is not a contour when the element which surrounds the contour is missing.

Then I do it as in ver. 1 with "Expand Stroke", which works without deleting the source element. # # # I know it's not deleted, I can change the distance. But for the eye it is deleted.

[firstdefence]

There is an option to to hold down Alt/Option on Mac, probably Ctrl on windows, to clone the object you are contouring but it has never worked and they have not removed that option or actually got it working, a pretty lame half-hearted affair IMHO, and it really needs to be sorted because it should work or not be in a professional vector app.

[R C-R]

7 hours ago, tersmuse said:

Mmhhh, I wonder what the developers were thinking.

Just guessing but I think they are thinking that applying a contour should be non-destructive -- IOW, unless it is baked in, it can be adjusted or removed at any time, so it is simply an object that can have a positive, zero, or negative radius path contour.

[stokerg]

On 11/22/2022 at 10:34 AM, firstdefence said:

There is an option to to hold down Alt/Option on Mac, probably Ctrl on windows, to clone the object you are contouring but it has never worked and they have not removed that option or actually got it working, a pretty lame half-hearted affair IMHO, and it really needs to be sorted because it should work or not be in a professional vector app.

Thats a bug.  I've updated the report with a link back to this thread  

@tersmuse As @GarryPhas pointed, currently you'd have to duplicate the shape before the applying the Contour to keep the original shape.  Once the bug to Clone the shape when using the Contour tool has been fixed, that step won't be needed.  If you have any suggestions to improve this tools, please do post them in the feedback section of the Forums