More Options for Strokes & Dashes

[Rounce]

I used to use Adobe Illustrator primarily as a way to create laser cutting files for my leather working designs. One feature that Adobe Illustrator has that I cannot figure out how to get working on Affinity Designer is the ability to evenly space out dashes across the entire length of a stroke. Another is the ability to change stroke in different units.

This helps me out in creating uniform bilateral stitching that works on each individual panel when I separate the main design into each individual leather panel.

I'm sure there is some way to do what I need to in Affinity Designer 2 but I have not been able to figure it out. I have tried messing with the 'Phase' setting, even using decimal places but I cannot get it close enough.

Feature Suggestion:

• It would be very helpful if we can move stroke in different units (other than points) so that we can more accurately place dashes.
• A way to evenly space dashes across the entire length of a stroke ( for example spacing of approx. 3mm per 1mm dot but spaced evenly across the stroke so some shifting is inevitable)

The file attached may illustrate the issue a little better. With the current method of stroke/dash spacing, it's not possible to get precise, evenly spaced stitching holes so that they line up uniformly throughout the design. The red circled dot with a red 90 degree stroke helps illustrate the primary issue. On a 4 panel design, you can see the stroke is never aligned for all the panels.

[loukash]

7 hours ago, Rounce said:

how to get working on Affinity Designer is the ability to evenly space out dashes across the entire length of a stroke

Only by finetuning the dash and gap fields in the Stroke panel. Note that the fields accept fractions, so you can easily set gap values like 3.207 if that's what's needed.

7 hours ago, Rounce said:

I have tried messing with the 'Phase' setting, even using decimal places but I cannot get it close enough.

Phase will change the starting point. If your starting point is OK, you only need to change the gap – i.e. the 2nd field – to place the last dash at the end point.

Alternatively you can use text on path with Alignment > Justify All. Those can be regular characters or pinned inline objects.

7 hours ago, Rounce said:

the ability to change stroke in different units

Strokes can be any units. Default are points, but if you type in e.g. "1 mm", the field will convert it to pt automatically.

[Pšenda]

4 hours ago, loukash said:

Default are points, but if you type in e.g. "1 mm", the field will convert it to pt automatically.

... or Uncheck this options, and value stay in document units.

[Rounce]

7 hours ago, loukash said:

Phase will change the starting point. If your starting point is OK, you only need to change the gap – i.e. the 2nd field – to place the last dash at the end point.

Alternatively you can use text on path with Alignment > Justify All. Those can be regular characters or pinned inline objects.

I currently have my gap placement to 10 which is roughly around 5.3 mm spacing. On the example I included, the starting point is the top right node on the inside of the rectangle but I can't get a dash on the ending point. I tried to utilize the text on path option but it was grayed out. Is there something specific I have to do in order to enable the alignment options with text on path ?

[Rounce]

2 hours ago, Pšenda said:

... or Uncheck this options, and value stay in document units.

This worked great! Thank you!

[loukash]

3 hours ago, Rounce said:

I tried to utilize the text on path option

https://affinity.help/designer2/en-US.lproj/pages/Text/pathText.html

3 hours ago, Rounce said:

Is there something specific I have to do in order to enable the alignment options with text on path ?

I would use simple individual straight lines, not a closed shape. It will be easier to arrange.
Something like this, the text on path being the • bullet character:

[Rounce]

46 minutes ago, loukash said:

I would use simple individual straight lines, not a closed shape. It will be easier to arrange.
Something like this, the text on path being the • bullet character:

I used this advice and it works pretty well! I created a shape that acts as a jig to approximate how many bullet points I need to add in (to keep stitching at roughly the desired spacing across the stroke length). Thank you for such timely advice, this has solved my issue!

While this works, it still adds a handful of steps and I still standby my feature suggestion to at least add a way to justify dashes across the entirety of the stroke. Illustrator has a one-click button that does this and it does make things nice and easy.

[Pšenda]

10 hours ago, Rounce said:

I still standby my feature suggestion

There are already several requests of this type.
https://www.google.com/search?q=dashed+line+alignment+site:https://forum.affinity.serif.com

 

[MickRose]

For symmetrical objects something worth trying is to duplicate an object and flip one of the objects horizontally or vertically as appropriate. Then select both objects and play around with the dashes.

This rectangle/coupon box is an example.

Dashes.afpub

[Ash]

Hi All - I'm pleased to say we have now added the ability to create balanced dashed lines and this is available to test in the latest beta. There are more details in the post below and it would be great if you wanted to try it out in the beta and let us know what you think - you can sign up to the beta program here.