Symbols resizing randomly in designer 2

[RuthH]

I'm new to Affinity, currently taking advantage of the free trial. I'm a traditional artist, trying to make the jump into surface pattern design using motifs from my watercolours. I use a desktop computer running Windows 10.

I've set up 2 artboards, one 8000pix square, the other 16000x12000, and created a square symbol on the first artboard. I've then copied the symbol across 5 times, lining them up perfectly to create a half drop pattern repeat. All good.

As I've started adding my motifs, the symbols keep changing size. I've tried all kinds of different ways of adding motifs, and locked the symbols in case I was doing something to change them. It still happens! It makes it impossible to do what I want to do. 

I'd be very grateful for any help, maybe I'm doing something wrong.
Ruth

 

[RuthH]

I can see that the symbols are enlarging to fit any items I add that cross the border. Is there a way to prevent this? The items crossing the border on the y axis are also doubling up on artboard 2.

[GarryP]

Welcome to the forums @RuthH

If I understand the problem correctly, you can put your motifs inside (as child layers) a Rectangle layer which is itself invisible – no stroke or fill – and then make the Symbol from that rectangle.
That way, if the child layers extend beyond the parent rectangle dimensions (they will be clipped), the parent rectangle, and thus the symbol, will not resize.

[RuthH]

Thank you Garry, I'll try that. Unfortunately it won't give me a live preview of the pattern repeat, which is what I was looking for.

[GarryP]

I’ve not done this sort of thing myself so I don’t know how you can add things to a symbol which will make it larger without changing the dimensions of the symbol.
Maybe someone else has a better suggestion.

[RuthH]

I'm going to try again, and ignore the symbol size once it's set up, I'm probably causing the issue by changing it back to 8000x8000!

[WeronikaSalach]

Hello! One of my students has the same issue, using symbols. Has anyone gotten a solution for this problem?

[GarryP]

If you can describe the problem, giving as much detail as you can think of, preferably with full-screen screenshots where appropriate, and a video if possible, then someone should be able to help.

[WeronikaSalach]

Thank you! Yes, i am waiting for my student to provide me with the images. I will get back to you once I have them.

[RuthH]

1 hour ago, WeronikaSalach said:

Hello! One of my students has the same issue, using symbols. Has anyone gotten a solution for this problem?

Hi Weronika, it turned out that this is actually normal, when things overlap the edges of the symbol, the symbol expands to accommodate them. 

[barbBear]

Hello,

I have recently been playing with patterns in Designer (2.3.1). I come with years of working in Adobe Illustrator, so this Affinity environment has been a learning experience. I don't know if this will help, but here are some mistakes/assumptions I made... To create a pattern, grouping is helpful and symbols must be dealt with carefully.

If you have a symbol inside a symbol (to infinity and beyond) it can be very confusing to edit. Make sure to detach items from any parent symbol and create the "fresh" symbol you want. The layers panel is helpful because the layer's orange bar indicates you are inside of an already existing symbol. It is easy to have "stray" points or items linger in the symbol, which causes the symbol's dimensions to be skewed (from the anticipated dimensions).

I did find this video to be helpful (you may have already seen it):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1Ea61Uw0EA

 

[RuthH]

4 minutes ago, barbBear said:

Hello,

I have recently been playing with patterns in Designer (2.3.1). I come with years of working in Adobe Illustrator, so this Affinity environment has been a learning experience. I don't know if this will help, but here are some mistakes/assumptions I made... To create a pattern, grouping is helpful and symbols must be dealt with carefully.

If you have a symbol inside a symbol (to infinity and beyond) it can be very confusing to edit. Make sure to detach items from any parent symbol and create the "fresh" symbol you want. The layers panel is helpful because the layer's orange bar indicates you are inside of an already existing symbol. It is easy to have "stray" points or items linger in the symbol, which causes the symbol's dimensions to be skewed (from the anticipated dimensions).

I did find this video to be helpful (you may have already seen it):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1Ea61Uw0EA

 

Thank you. I’m the original poster, and I have worked out my problems now. The most recent post asking for help was from Weronika, who happens to be the creator of the video you shared!

[barbBear]

Yes, I knew that she had posted.

What was the issue, if I may ask?

[RuthH]

Just now, barbBear said:

Yes, I knew that she had posted.

What was the issue, if I may ask?

As I said above, I was assuming that the symbol size increasing was a problem, when actually it is necessary if elements extend beyond the edge. It’s a little annoying in the pattern preview to have overlapping elements, however it doesn’t affect the pattern tile.

[barbBear]

I often use Boolean Operation Subtract to clean up the edge (overlaps).

[RuthH]

1 minute ago, barbBear said:

I often use Boolean Operation Subtract to clean up the edge (overlaps).

Thanks for the tip, I’ll try that when I next use vectors, in this instance I was using raster elements

[barbBear]

.

[WeronikaSalach]

Just wanted to let you know that this got resolved. It was a misunderstanding, everything is working properly. Sorry for the confusion!