AD2 Mac : Export dialog - issues & request

[Bmuse]

Hi all,

In the Export dialog (Affinity Design for Mac), there are a couple of consistent issues that affect and impede workflow.

 

EXPORT PREVIEW RENDERING - CAUSES LAG/DELAY

The Export dialog's Area usually defaults to "entire document," sometimes to the current artboard. And the small preview image takes a very long time to display. I have an M1 Max MBP with 32GB, and it is a really long delay while that small preview is rendered. I'm almost always exporting only a selection, so I try to change it, but even using the drop-down is laggy while the preview is rendering. Once I'm able to change the area, the preview displays instantly.

I often have many artboards in a document, and multiple documents open, and never have a problem with memory or lag. But that simple preview image in the Export dialog somehow bogs down everything.

And when designing icons/graphics for a website, I'm continually exporting, so this forced "entire document" preview and lag are very frustrating.

Worth noting: even in V1, which also defaulted to "entire document" on export, these same documents displayed instantly in the preview. This display lag problem was introduced in V2.

 

EXPORT AREA - NEVER OPENS TO "SELECTION" even though something is selected

As i noted above, the Export dialog almost always opens with the Area of "Entire Document." Sometimes, it will randomly open with the Artboard name I was working in. (I haven't figured out why that happens sometimes and not others.)

But, I almost always have elements selected -- and even when something is selected, Export never opens with Selection as the area.

 

EXPORT DESTINATION - IT'S NEVER TO THE LAST USED

The export dialog never opens to the previously-used destination. Most often, it seems to open two (or more) folders "up" from where I last saved. Even knowing that this happens, when working quickly I sometimes end up with files saved in scattered folders. Default Folder X is my savior here, but even that still requires extra clicks to get back to the folder it should have opened to in the first place.

 

That preview-image display lag needs to be addressed. But the other two issues could absolutely be solved by:

• Basing the export Area on whether nothing, an Artboard, or some element(s) are currently selected when the Export dialog is opened
• Opening to the last-used export parameters and destination.

Opening to last-used has been standard behavior in applications for so long, that I'm baffled why it's so difficult with the Affinity apps.

Is there any hope of addressing these?

Thanks everyone,

B

[Lee D]

We do have several issues logged against the Export dialog including the generating preview taking a long time. The Export dialog opening up to selection area/only, this is based on what's selected on the Layers panel and not pixel selections. Then there's the issue of how the export dialog knows to open with that selected by default and not Whole Document, there's no way of knowing want you would like selected without you having to select the mode.

 

 

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