How can I switch a brush stroke back to a regular stroke and still use pressure and expand stroke?

[Rufus Goldenball]

Here is my example it's a simplified version of my project but in my project I used brush strokes for many curves and found out later that I can do the same effect with better more accurate settings just by changing the pressure settings. Doing it this way allows me to expand the stroke once I'm done. The problem I'm having is I already have all the strokes and don't want to rework everything and when I switch them to the solid line style the pressure curve no longer works nor expand stroke. 

 

Any tips are greatly appreciated. Thanks

untitled.afdesign

[firstdefence]

Welcome to the forum @Rufus Goldenball

Brushes in Affinity Designer are pixel images on a vector curve, not a vector shape on a vector curve, consequently you cannot expand a pixel image that follows a vector curve.

At best these are hybrid pixel shaped vector curve brushes but to my mind they are not true vector brushes, this is why you are having trouble expanding the lines.

[Rufus Goldenball]

That's fine, but how do you remove the applied brush settings to your curve after you apply one. No matter what after I apply one then switch back to the solid line style I cannot expand the stroke nor use the pressure settings anymore to taper the start and end points. 

[Ron P.]

Undo, CMD/CTL + Z ?

[Rufus Goldenball]

Yeah I wish I had known that earlier. I have a design I'll have to completely redraw. I used an engraving brush to get the same look but found out I could do the same just using the pressure settings on a solid line style instead. Seems like a bug for sure. 

[R C-R]

1 hour ago, Rufus Goldenball said:

That's fine, but how do you remove the applied brush settings to your curve after you apply one. No matter what after I apply one then switch back to the solid line style I cannot expand the stroke nor use the pressure settings anymore to taper the start and end points. 

Please refer to my answer here in this related topic & let me know if that works for you.

[Andando]

I had a similar problem, my solution was to use the pencil tool instead of brushes. You can use it as a "brush" adjusting pressures options and thickness. It´s completely vector, so no problem at the time of expand.

I think the png brushes is a problem Affinity should fix in future, because can cause some problems to unaware designers.

[loukash]

On 12/31/2022 at 5:19 PM, Rufus Goldenball said:

how do you remove the applied brush settings to your curve after you apply one.

1. select all curves you want to change
2. Brushes panel > Pens > option/alt-click on the topmost "Solid Pen with Pressure"
3. adjust average stroke width as needed, the original stroke width and the pressure will be retained
4. Layer > Expand Stroke
5. voilà

2 hours ago, Andando said:

the png brushes is a problem Affinity should fix

It's not a "problem". It's how the tool works. Sometimes you may actually want exactly this kind of tool.

The actual problem is that apart from the aforementioned "Solid Pen with Pressure", there are no other true vector brushes. In other words, it's a missing feature, not a "bug" or something.

Edited January 8, 2023 by loukash
added the option-click step

[xicus]

On 12/30/2022 at 11:43 PM, firstdefence said:

Brushes in Affinity Designer are pixel images on a vector curve, not a vector shape on a vector curve,

whaaaat?! omg that explains so much

[Andando]

On 1/8/2023 at 2:13 PM, loukash said:

1. select all curves you want to change
2. Brushes panel > Pens > option/alt-click on the topmost "Solid Pen with Pressure"
3. adjust average stroke width as needed, the original stroke width and the pressure will be retained
4. Layer > Expand Stroke
5. voilà

It's not a "problem". It's how the tool works. Sometimes you may actually want exactly this kind of tool.

The actual problem is that apart from the aforementioned "Solid Pen with Pressure", there are no other true vector brushes. In other words, it's a missing feature, not a "bug" or something.

Yeah, it only was a way to speak. The "problem" is when you are not aware you are not using vectors, but png.

Thanks for the tip above.

[Marjolein]

On 1/8/2023 at 3:13 PM, loukash said:

1. select all curves you want to change
2. Brushes panel > Pens > option/alt-click on the topmost "Solid Pen with Pressure"
3. adjust average stroke width as needed, the original stroke width and the pressure will be retained
4. Layer > Expand Stroke
5. voilà

Thank you so much!