Please add a Freehand/ lasso selection tool for Vector objects in Designer and Publisher

[Intuos5]

To me, the lasso/ freehand selection tool (and polygonal selection tools) are a must have in my daily workflow. For very irregular selections, they are indispensable, especially when you also have to avoid selecting other objects close-by. It still surprises me on a regular basis that I cannot use such a vital tool after having used other software that have such selection tools. Please add these selection tools to Designer and Publisher!

[Dazmondo77]

Just select your vector object and select the node tool then hold down Alt (on mac)and lasso freehand or click once to have a lined selector (not sure what the correct terminology is?) works great

heres a vid grab to demo:

 

[Intuos5]

1. Yes, but that doesn't easily let you select objects within a group. You can't Ctrl+Alt drag select. If you do, you'll window select.
2. Right mouse dragging to deselect is counter-intuitive. All software I use and have used 12+ use LMB + modifier deselect.
3. You cannot force to add to a selection and toggle selection (deselect if selected, select if deselected)
4. You need multiple modifier keys this way, whereas a stand-alone tool could do with Ctrl = add, Shift = toggle, Alt = deselect.
5. The software often times doesn't note the hotkeys, you need to have at least something selected for them to show. Pretty important, since it has these (to me) weird key combinations.

[RReijm]

I also would really appreciate when there will come a Freehand selection/ Lasso tool. I often have to select a area with a lot of different objects, and in Affinity it is almost impossible or you have to make a lot of selections to get there.

[keiichi77]

On 12/1/2022 at 6:38 PM, Intuos5 said:

Right mouse dragging to deselect is counter-intuitive.

I can't even deselect anything with right click mouse dragging, it gives a deselection overlay to the cursor but dragging isn't working on Pc, nothing happens.

and even if freehand lasso selection is a thing in Designer an option would be good to let us change the default mode from rectangular to freehand selection.

me trying to deselect with node tool in freehand mode:

[Old Bruce]

17 hours ago, keiichi77 said:

I can't even deselect anything with right click mouse dragging, it gives a deselection overlay to the cursor but dragging isn't working on Pc, nothing happens.

Have you tried using the Control Key instead of the Right Mouse Button?

[Alfred]

3 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

Have you tried using the Control Key instead of the Right Mouse Button?

As a Mac user, you have the luxury of a Control key and a Cmd key. Windows users, who only have a Ctrl key, are currently saddled with a horrible RightMouseButton+LeftMouseButton combo.

[keiichi77]

16 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

Have you tried using the Control Key instead of the Right Mouse Button?

I tried and doesn't work, but thanks for the suggestion, because it works with click + right click + ctrl + alt, it is an inconvenient total nonsense, but works.

(But I still want an option to use it as a default selection mode, or as a separate tool)

[Alfred]

17 minutes ago, keiichi77 said:

I tried and doesn't work, but thanks for the suggestion, because it works with click + right click + ctrl + alt, it is an inconvenient total nonsense, but works.

@Old Bruce is using a Mac, not a Windows PC, so the keyboard modifier options are more flexible.

35 minutes ago, Alfred said:

As a Mac user, you have the luxury of a Control key and a Cmd key. Windows users, who only have a Ctrl key, are currently saddled with a horrible RightMouseButton+LeftMouseButton combo.

 

[keiichi77]

2 hours ago, Alfred said:

@Old Bruce is using a Mac, not a Windows PC, so the keyboard modifier options are more flexible.

either way using right click and left click at the same time is unreasonable and way to uncomfortable in itself when I use pen as input device

[PaulEC]

I have to agree! - I need to use an ergonomic mouse, thanks to a slight problem with the middle finger of my right hand, and I find juggling the left and right mouse buttons almost impossible!

[_Th]

I am, admittedly, somewhat confused about this. For context: Designer 2.11 / Windows 11 / Desktop / Ergo Mouse

What I See

1. There is a fully-functional lasso/marquee node selection tool, though it is hidden as part of the Node Tool (A)
2. It works across multiple groups and layers
3. I can drag to marquee select and deselect nodes
4. It's hard to learn about it using the Help docs

Usage

1. Select the Node Tool (A)
2. Select the path(s) to work with. (If filled, shift-clicking the fill allows multiple selections. If no fill, shift-click on part of the path(s).)
3. ALT-drag to marquee select node(s)
4. ALT-shift-drag to marquee select additional node(s)
5. ALT-Control-drag to marquee deselect nodes (Seemingly a bug: ALT-shift immediately shows a + by the cursor; ALT-control does not show a – beside the cursor until dragging begins.)

Thoughts

1. It Works
   Once I understood the use, I was able to select or deselect nodes regardless of complexity, layers, groups, etc.
2. Separate Tool Needed
   I find this to be far less intuitive than a dedicated Node Lasso tool. The functionality is already there, why not just add a separate tool for it? Again, there is an established, de facto standard for this type of tool.
    
3. Help ... Please!
   The Help docs often are of very limited—how shall I say it—help. In this case, there is a page that begins to document this function, but it is far from complete. Frustratingly, searching for lasso returns no results, even though the page actually includes the word lasso. Searching for marquee shows results for the Marquee tool, although that pertains only to the Pixel persona, and that fact isn't directly mentioned. Also, because the Help docs use frames, the URL never changes—though it could—making sharing a direct link to a specific page much more difficult than it need be. The Help docs may be using off-the-shelf software, but the use of frames is, IMHO, a really bad choice. (Empathy: Having written a fair bit of software documentation, I know this is a challenging, time-consuming and often-underestimated part of the software as a whole. However, I feel strongly that Serif/Affinity is at a place where the Help docs really should be world class, and that is certainly not the case yet.)

[keiichi77]

 

On 6/30/2023 at 12:12 AM, _Th said:

It Works

When I accidentally start the selection on a line or node instead of blank canvas (with node tool) it moves and manipulates the nodes, even if I am in 'lasso selection' mode.
In the case of a dense and complex drawing, there is a 90% chance that I will make mistakes and I will ruin the drawing accidentally, because no way to lock movement of nodes when the tool I use for selection is the tool I use for manipulation.

[_Th]

5 hours ago, keiichi77 said:

When I accidentally start the selection on a line or node instead of blank canvas (with node tool) it moves and manipulates the nodes, even if I am in 'lasso selection' mode.

That is true, though I haven't had issues with that. However, to your point, a dedicated Lasso tool would eliminate the possibility of inadvertently manipulating nodes/paths.

A separate Lasso tool is needed and would seem to be easy to implement since the functionality already exists.

Hopefully the dev team will get this added soon.