Jose Alvarez Posted November 29, 2022 Share Posted November 29, 2022 Hi! I wish to apply a stroke to the contour of a group (formed by some objects). There's a way to do it without creating a merging object with all the grouped objects and moving it back (indeed, that's the way I'm doing now...) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
debraspicher Posted November 29, 2022 Share Posted November 29, 2022 23 minutes ago, Jose Alvarez said: Hi! I wish to apply a stroke to the contour of a group (formed by some objects). There's a way to do it without creating a merging object with all the grouped objects and moving it back (indeed, that's the way I'm doing now...) If there are enough paths available to create the fill you need, you could merge a duplicate group to create the shape needed to apply a stroke. There wouldn't be a group then, just the final curve and then you can turn off the fill. If you don't have the paths, you may have to create them by duplicating those objects & use "Convert to Curves" option. https://affinity.help/designer/en-US.lproj/index.html?page=pages/ObjectControl/join.html?title=Joining objects Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aammppaa Posted November 29, 2022 Share Posted November 29, 2022 You might get away with an Outline effect applied to the group. https://affinity.help/designer2/English.lproj/pages/LayerFX/layerFX_outline.html 1. Group the objects that you want to outline. 2. Add Outline effect to the group, via the Layer Effects button in the Layers Panel. Jose Alvarez 1 Quote Win10 Home x64 | AMD Ryzen 7 2700X @ 3.7GHz | 48 GB RAM | 1TB SSD | nVidia GTX 1660 | Wacom Intuos Pro Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jose Alvarez Posted November 29, 2022 Author Share Posted November 29, 2022 2 hours ago, debraspicher said: If there are enough paths available to create the fill you need, you could merge a duplicate group to create the shape needed to apply a stroke. There wouldn't be a group then, just the final curve and then you can turn off the fill. If you don't have the paths, you may have to create them by duplicating those objects & use "Convert to Curves" option. https://affinity.help/designer/en-US.lproj/index.html?page=pages/ObjectControl/join.html?title=Joining objects Thanks, Debra, but this is the solution that I'm using right now and the one I want to avoid ;). debraspicher 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jose Alvarez Posted November 29, 2022 Author Share Posted November 29, 2022 20 minutes ago, Aammppaa said: You might get away with an Outline effect applied to the group. https://affinity.help/designer2/English.lproj/pages/LayerFX/layerFX_outline.html 1. Group the objects that you want to outline. 2. Add Outline effect to the group, via the Layer Effects button in the Layers Panel. Thanks Aammppaa, that's just I was looking for! Aammppaa 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
loukash Posted November 29, 2022 Share Posted November 29, 2022 1 hour ago, Jose Alvarez said: that's just I was looking for! Just be aware that the outline will be a bitmap effect, not a vector stroke. Quote MacBookAir 15": MacOS Ventura > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // MacBookPro 15" mid-2012: MacOS El Capitan > Affinity v1 / MacOS Catalina > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // iPad 8th: iPadOS 16 > Affinity v2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
loukash Posted November 29, 2022 Share Posted November 29, 2022 For a non-destructive and editable outline , I'd go this route: Quote MacBookAir 15": MacOS Ventura > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // MacBookPro 15" mid-2012: MacOS El Capitan > Affinity v1 / MacOS Catalina > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // iPad 8th: iPadOS 16 > Affinity v2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
loukash Posted November 29, 2022 Share Posted November 29, 2022 The above vector workflow can be made completely interactive by using Symbols: create your vector objects and select them Layer > Create Compound (don't worry about temporarily losing any individual object attributes, they are not lost) create your outline stroke on the Compound layer (remove the fill if you don't need any) create a symbol of the Compound layer (i.e. click the Create button in the Symbols panel) duplicate the new Symbol layer in the Symbols panel, disable the Sync button select the Compound layer inside the cloned Symbol layer Layer > Release Compound (there, all your original attributes of individual objects should be back select the parent Symbol layer of the released objects enable the Sync button again group both Symbol layer instances to keep them aligned It's important to create a Symbol from the compound first and then release the duplicate compound unsynced to get your fill attributes back. The other way around the symbol sync wouldn't work. Now when you select the nested objects inside either Symbol instance, they will move or change shape in sync. Only their fill and stroke attributes are detached via the Compound layer as marked by the vertical dashed line in the Layers panel. ade_ade_vector_outline_on_group_as_symbols.mp4 EricP and Jose Alvarez 2 Quote MacBookAir 15": MacOS Ventura > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // MacBookPro 15" mid-2012: MacOS El Capitan > Affinity v1 / MacOS Catalina > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // iPad 8th: iPadOS 16 > Affinity v2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jose Alvarez Posted November 30, 2022 Author Share Posted November 30, 2022 12 hours ago, loukash said: The above vector workflow can be made completely interactive by using Symbols: create your vector objects and select them Layer > Create Compound (don't worry about temporarily losing any individual object attributes, they are not lost) create your outline stroke on the Compound layer (remove the fill if you don't need any) create a symbol of the Compound layer (i.e. click the Create button in the Symbols panel) duplicate the new Symbol layer in the Symbols panel, disable the Sync button select the Compound layer inside the cloned Symbol layer Layer > Release Compound (there, all your original attributes of individual objects should be back select the parent Symbol layer of the released objects enable the Sync button again group both Symbol layer instances to keep them aligned It's important to create a Symbol from the compound first and then release the duplicate compound unsynced to get your fill attributes back. The other way around the symbol sync wouldn't work. Now when you select the nested objects inside either Symbol instance, they will move or change shape in sync. Only their fill and stroke attributes are detached via the Compound layer as marked by the vertical dashed line in the Layers panel. ade_ade_vector_outline_on_group_as_symbols.mp4 1.54 MB · 0 downloads Nice solution, Loukash, I take note! Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
loukash Posted November 30, 2022 Share Posted November 30, 2022 2 hours ago, Jose Alvarez said: Nice solution, Loukash Thanks. But frankly, it's still more of a "complex workaround" rather than an easily applicable workflow. It could be made easier if Affinity had an option for groups, whether to apply certain attributes on a group layer to each of its children individually (current method), or as a kind of overlay, i.e. by creating a hidden compound object "on the fly" (which is more or less what layer effects do, only that those are bitmap, not vector). Either that, or a new category called Vector Layer Effects would be handy. Quote MacBookAir 15": MacOS Ventura > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // MacBookPro 15" mid-2012: MacOS El Capitan > Affinity v1 / MacOS Catalina > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // iPad 8th: iPadOS 16 > Affinity v2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jose Alvarez Posted November 30, 2022 Author Share Posted November 30, 2022 I agree with all you say. My first option was the Appearance menu, but there you can't do nothing with groups. Maybe some day Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricP Posted December 2, 2022 Share Posted December 2, 2022 wow, very clever. I had not realised you could unlink some attributes from symbols by unlinking, editing and relinking them. Thanks for the tip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
loukash Posted December 2, 2022 Share Posted December 2, 2022 28 minutes ago, EricP said: I had not realised you could unlink some attributes from symbols by unlinking, editing and relinking them. If you have Photo, you can also quickly switch overthere to make use of its Links panel. The underlying technology for links and symbols is obviously the same. Quote MacBookAir 15": MacOS Ventura > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // MacBookPro 15" mid-2012: MacOS El Capitan > Affinity v1 / MacOS Catalina > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // iPad 8th: iPadOS 16 > Affinity v2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricP Posted December 2, 2022 Share Posted December 2, 2022 yes, I need to invest some time in these. I can see the potential, but it requires some planning. Need to get more familiar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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