This problem did not exist in Publisher V1

[tripplejaz]

For whatever reason, you cannot add objects together anymore in the Designer persona using Publisher V2.
This is unbelievably frustrating. Might be a bug but it's causing me a lot of time not being able to do this.

Windows 10, Publisher 2.0.4

[NotMyFault]

It works better for closed curves. At least fill should be active.

open curves with no fill will not add (in V2 and V1)

Edited February 7, 2023 by NotMyFault
V2 differs from V1 as Lacerto has proven

[Old Bruce]

Works with a filled open curve. Or even a pair of filled yet open curves.

[tripplejaz]

Seems to work when a fill is selected, but this behavior is different than the previous version. Why change it? The same thing happens in Designer. I think this change was unnecessary and works less efficiently than previously.

One more question: why does the fill and stroke color change when I actually use the Pen tool??

Example: Black stroke, white fill selected while Pen tool is active. Soon as I click down, a black stroke and empty fill is applied. WHAT

[R C-R]

7 hours ago, tripplejaz said:

Example: Black stroke, white fill selected while Pen tool is active. Soon as I click down, a black stroke and empty fill is applied. WHAT

On the Context toolbar, if Use Fill is not checked, no fill will be applied. If it is, the current fill color will be applied. This is the same as in V1.

[lacerto]

On 2/6/2023 at 11:10 PM, tripplejaz said:

Seems to work when a fill is selected, but this behavior is different than the previous version. Why change it? The same thing happens in Designer. I think this change was unnecessary and works less efficiently than previously.

I agree. I think it is a bug (the behavior is definitely different than in v1 versions where the curves do not need to be closed, nor filled, or even have actual attribute values). As a work around in versions 2, you can use Boolean operation with the Alt/Option key to perform Compound operation, and then convert to curves (Ctrl+Enter / Cmd+Return) to make the change permanent.

Note that you can perform Boolean operations in any of the three apps via Geometry menu. On macOS, you can have a Compound version of the operation by holding down the Option key when clicking the menu command, on Windows, hold down Alt+Ctrl (or AltGr); on macOS the menu command labels change to reflect the alternate mode, on Windows for some reason this UI feature has not been implemented. Note too that if you have plenty of screen estate, it might be useful to place the Boolean operation buttons on the toolbar of Publisher and Photo (if there is no room, the overflowing controls will be available though via a dropdown menu on the right edge of the toolbar). The commands are available either as a group or as individual buttons (but on Windows there is an omission so that individual buttons are not available in Publisher or Designer but only in Photo; on Windows, the remaining five commands of the Geometry menu are available as a button row only in Designer; on macOS they are available in all three apps). 

[loukash]

The problem with v1 was that open curves would autoclose:  

That was a major flaw in the boolean operations which was fixed in v2. That's likely why it may appear that it kinda "doesn't work as it did".

[lacerto]

3 hours ago, loukash said:

That was a major flaw in the boolean operations which was fixed in v2. That's likely why it may appear that it kinda "doesn't work as it did".

Yes, Divide was fixed (but only partially, as shown in Boolean operations involving text objects), and everything else broken (when working with unfilled, open and unattributed curves). Does this only "appear" to be broken compared to v1 behavior, so that this is now "as designed"?

 

[R C-R]

1 hour ago, lacerto said:

Does this only "appear" to be broken compared to v1 behavior, so that this is now "as designed"?

I guess it depends on if the 'auto-close' behavior of V1 was intended or not.

Anyway, if I want the V1 behavior I just need to remember to close (or fill) the shapes I want to use the Booleans with, so while it is a bit of a PITA, I am not going to worry about it too much.

[loukash]

1 hour ago, lacerto said:

this is now "as designed"?

13 minutes ago, R C-R said:

I guess it depends on if the 'auto-close' behavior of V1 was intended or not.

To give it a more fair comparison, I asked Uncle Ill Frustrator how he would handle it:
In case of Add/Subtract/Intersect/Xor, he will autoclose as well.

[lacerto]

1 hour ago, R C-R said:

I guess it depends on if the 'auto-close' behavior of V1 was intended or not.

What else can we do than guess? My guess is that they probably did not plan the version 2 Boolean operations involving open, unfilled or unattributed curves behave as erratically as shown, considering that in version 1 these operations behaved more or less as expected and similarly as in other vector graphic software (excluding Divide that was buggy). As for  autoclosure of open curves that happened in version 1, it basically reproduced behavior of Illustrator (at least in simple cases as demonstrated in the clip above). But maybe Adobe behavior, often copied minutely in other places, was not intentional in this instance, but achieved accidentally:

 

[R C-R]

4 minutes ago, lacerto said:

As for  autoclosure of open curves that happened in version 1, it basically reproduced behavior of Illustrator (at least in simple cases as demonstrated in the clip above).

Maybe Serif decided closing open shapes with boolean operations was something best left up to the user to decide or not to decide to do manually; thus considering auto-close something some users would consider an annoyance?

Anyway, unless the staff comments on if this is by design or not, all we can do is guess or use workarounds.

[Lee D]

As a lot of boolean issues where broken in V1 this is now how it behaves after fixes put in place for V2.