Feature request - Symbols in Affinity Photo [Solved]

[eiketre]

Hi

Symbols in Designer is a great feature.  However, I need Symbols in Photo too since I do most of my art in Affinity Photo.  I re-use and change multiple “objects” when creating a game scene. Symbols are later exported to Unity.

I have complete software series so I can use symbols when switching to Designer Persona in Publisher. This is an issue since Affinity Publisher removes other features like Export Persona that I need.

My request is to enable Symbols in Affinity Photo too.

(The embedded document option is not a good solution for my work).

 

Best regards

[loukash]

1 hour ago, eiketre said:

My request is to enable Symbols in Affinity Photo too.

And your wish has been fulfilled long time ago:
Welcome to the Links panel which is just another interface to the underlying Symbols technology.

1 hour ago, eiketre said:

I need Symbols in Photo too since I do most of my art in Affinity Photo

Since you apparently have Designer already, the actual Symbols object is just one menu command away:
File > Edit in Designer
And back to Photo from Designer the same route.

And yes, the Symbol parameters are individually editable in Photo via the Links panel!

1 hour ago, eiketre said:

Affinity Publisher removes other features like Export Persona that I need.

Aaand same here:
File > Edit in Photo
… and back to Publisher the same route.

Everything works seamlessly on the fly, even with yet unsaved documents.

That's the Affinity Trinity workflow.

[loukash]

Like this:

In Photo v2 there are even some enhancements to the Links panel. (I'm not at my v2 installation right now.) 
The only damper is that the Light UI of the Links panel is even worse in v2…   

 

[eiketre]

Hi

Thanks.   👍

This solved it 🙂

 

 

[loukash]

In Photo, you also have the Layer > Duplicate Linked menu command. That's essentially your shortcut to Photo "symbols", or rather "auto-linking" of layers, only without the Symbol container which is slightly more useful for vector objects and thus a Designer feature.

But personally I think this artificial distinction is unnecessary and more confusing than beneficial. The Symbols and Links panels should be merged and available in both apps.

[loukash]

Speaking of which…
In Affinity v1 there is a small Mac-only bug that enables the Links panel in all three apps. Very practical!  
Sadly, of all things, they fixed this "oh so horrible bug" in v2.

[markpalmos]

On 1/3/2023 at 12:44 AM, loukash said:

And your wish has been fulfilled long time ago:
Welcome to the Links panel which is just another interface to the underlying Symbols technology.

Since you apparently have Designer already, the actual Symbols object is just one menu command away:
File > Edit in Designer
And back to Photo from Designer the same route.

And yes, the Symbol parameters are individually editable in Photo via the Links panel!

Aaand same here:
File > Edit in Photo
… and back to Publisher the same route.

Everything works seamlessly on the fly, even with yet unsaved documents.

That's the Affinity Trinity workflow.

This is very clunky, and very difficult. I can't see how to add basic pre-made symbols in Designer... so the clunky to-and-fro solution is not convenient or easy to use. 

[Pšenda]

1 hour ago, markpalmos said:

I can't see how to add basic pre-made symbols in Designer

Assets?
https://affinity.help/designer2/English.lproj/pages/Panels/assetsPanel.html

[markpalmos]

21 hours ago, Pšenda said:

Assets?
https://affinity.help/designer2/English.lproj/pages/Panels/assetsPanel.html

Hi, yeah, but I think one is expected to know how and where to get them/download/install them, as the Assets Default folder is empty and I see there are some "Flat Icons by Anatoli Babii, but nothing else... what I was hoping for is a load of browsable. useable clip art, vector based or bitmapped. Tx