Inconsistent Results with Contour Tool

[MiMiLi]

As shown in the areas circled in the attached screenshot, I have two layers with the same contour settings but different results. The Contour layer in the "I" group shows the result I expected. The "J" is the problem. FWIW, if I change the Contour layer in the "J" group to have a -6.5px contour, it finally shows up. Also, if I copy/paste the "J" group into a document in AD1 the contour works as expected. I'm working on a MacBook Air M1 with macOS Monterey. Edit: I also get the contour to show up if I change it to -3.6px, so it's only the range of -3.7 to -6.4px that isn't working for me as expected.

ContourIssue.afdesign

Edited December 2, 2022 by MiMiLi
New Info

[loukash]

3 hours ago, MiMiLi said:

The "J" is the problem.

If you turn on View > View Mode > Hairline, you'll notice that compared to the "I", a curve is missing in the middle.

[MiMiLi]

@loukashThanks so much for the reply, but I think that I'm just missing something. The hairline view doesn't change the way that anything shows up for me. 🤷‍♀️I can't find a missing curve though. I'm attaching what the center cutout portions of the Contour layers look like to me with the node tool active. On the left is the "I" showing the correct contour offset and the right is the "J" showing no offset in the center cutout where one should be. Could you be thinking that a curve is missing because the contour offset is not showing up on the center of the  "J"? I apologize if I'm not understanding.

[loukash]

1 hour ago, MiMiLi said:

I apologize if I'm not understanding.

Ah, my fault. I didn't notice that the duplicate outlines are created by the Contour tool, so logically the "J" center doesn't have one since there's no visible contour.

So… I've tried everything I could think of, even redrawing the curves (which is actually done within seconds using the "copy control handle length/direction" trick, see Designer help), but always around -4px, the inner contour disappears.

Looks like there's some kind of a weird "math bug" in the Contour tool.
I think I've already seen similar reports in the past few weeks.

And… it is a v2 bug, because when I copy the object into a v1 document, the Contour shape immediately appears as expected.

[MiMiLi]

@loukashYes, as I mentioned in my first post, I already tested it by copying to v1, so it is definitely confined to v2. Aside from not being able to find a solution in AD2, the perplexing thing is that the same contour settings are applied to the "I" within the same document, and it works properly. If it is a "math bug", the logic in my brain says that the issue would occur on all items with the same settings, but I'm a designer, not a coder, so what do I know! I also tested multiple contour radius settings and it occurs from -3.7 to -6.4px at the present object size. If I increase the object size, without changing the contour radius, at some point the contour shows up correctly. However, if I increase the object size and the contour radius proportionally, the issue persists.

Thanks again for trying to help!!

[loukash]

1 hour ago, MiMiLi said:

If it is a "math bug", the logic in my brain says that the issue would occur on all items with the same settings

I meant "math bug" as in calculation of the vectors. Boolean operations and stuff.
Much like there are still similar bugs when using the Geometry commands (although quite a few have been fixed compared to v1), expanding strokes to curves, especially when using pressure, and the like.

1 hour ago, MiMiLi said:

but I'm a designer, not a coder, so what do I know!

Neither am I…  
(OK, apart from HTML/CSS, basic AppleScript and a bit of FileMaker programming knowledge)

1 hour ago, MiMiLi said:

If I increase the object size, without changing the contour radius, at some point the contour shows up correctly.

… which sounds like you already have a workaround:

1. resize a copy until the contour appears correctly
2. "bake" = flatten the appearance
3. resize back to the original size (turn snapping on)
4. disable the original and keep it for later reference if needed

[MiMiLi]

@loukashUnfortunately, if I don't increase the contour radius proportionally as I increase the object size, then the geometry of the baked object is different from what I need it to be. In other words, when I reduce the object size after baking, the curves don't match up. Maybe I don't understand the node snapping options as well as needed for me to use them efficiently in this situation. For now I think that I just need to copy everything over to v1 for this project and pray that this is something that is corrected soon in an update.

[MiMiLi]

Just some interesting behavior I noticed while manipulating one of the points on the outside curve of the Contour layer. The contour around the center cutout suddenly pops up when moving the point to certain positions.

[loukash]

It's definitely a bug. In the meantime I've seen other similar reports.

[Dan C]

Hi MiMiLi, 

Yes this is a known issue and will hopefully be resolved soon, thanks for reporting it.

Lee

[MiMiLi]

Still waiting...V2.1 is finally here and still no fix. This is bug #2 that I've had to live with and still have no resolution for. I dread checking on the others. Honestly, I haven't gotten anywhere near my money's worth after purchasing this suite since I'm constantly having to go back to V1 to complete my work. This lack of attention to known bugs is just at the point of unacceptable, IMHO.