conforming the end of a stroke to different angles

[Joshua Stamper]

Greetings All,

I'm trying to change the angle of a stroke's cap so that it's flush against a different stroke that it's intersecting.

The attached screen shot illustrates the problem. I'd like to have the the purple and grey lines each terminating at the same angle of the bigger yellow field. Right now, the best I can do is to I join them at the bottom of each stroke.

I've explored the "Snap to geometry of selected curves" option, but it's not providing a solution to the problem (which either means it's not the right solution, or I'm not using it right).

Any help, as always, very appreciated...

[debraspicher]

Maybe use the yellow stroke as a clipping mask for the blue? Might create a duplicate for creating the mask and then just have a shape for the bg... that will keep it both as strokes.

The other option is to expand both blue and yellow strokes, "cut down" the portions of the stroke you don't need it with

The grey can remain underneath.

[firstdefence]

[loukash]

1 hour ago, firstdefence said:

To expand on the above…
Use partially synced Symbols to make it interactive:

 

[Joshua Stamper]

1 hour ago, firstdefence said:

Thank you very much for the suggestion!

I'm tried implementing your suggestion, and got strange results. The grey lines do exactly what I want, which is very exciting. You'll see though in the first screen shot that the bottom three purple lines have vanished all together. They also stop short of the edge of the yellow stroke. In the second screen shot, you see the yellow stroke selected, and the purple lines stopping when they reach the center of the yellow. I don't know if there's a way to tell it to go all the way to the edge?

[Joshua Stamper]

8 minutes ago, loukash said:

To expand on the above…
Use partially synced Symbols to make it interactive:

 

This is incredible. Thank you. And looks like a very flexible solution, which would work well with what I'm trying to do. Are you doing this in Affinity Designer or in Affinity Publisher? At 0:13, you clicked on 'rename symbol' and the Publisher icon was in the pop-up screen.

[Joshua Stamper]

9 hours ago, debraspicher said:

Maybe use the yellow stroke as a clipping mask for the blue? Might create a duplicate for creating the mask and then just have a shape for the bg... that will keep it both as strokes.

The other option is to expand both blue and yellow strokes, "cut down" the portions of the stroke you don't need it with

The grey can remain underneath.

Thanks so much. I've got to hit the manual to learn about clipping masks, but it looks super promising. Much appreciated!

[loukash]

21 minutes ago, Joshua Stamper said:

Are you doing this in Affinity Designer or in Affinity Publisher? At 0:13, you clicked on 'rename symbol' and the Publisher icon was in the pop-up screen.

Yeah, it was in the Designer persona of Publisher v1. It works the same in Designer (persona) v2.
You can also achieve the same effect in Photo v2 using partially linked layers (which is just another UI for symbols):

[Joshua Stamper]

29 minutes ago, loukash said:

Yeah, it was in the Designer persona of Publisher v1. It works the same in Designer (persona) v2.
You can also achieve the same effect in Photo v2 using partially linked layers (which is just another UI for symbols):

Gotcha. I'm trying things out and it's working well, which is very exciting.

I'm still dealing with the issue above though, where the bottom three lines disappear and the top two lines terminate in the middle of the yellow stroke. Any ideas?

[loukash]

27 minutes ago, Joshua Stamper said:

Any ideas?

Not without inspecting an example document.

[lepr]

52 minutes ago, Joshua Stamper said:

I'm still dealing with the issue above though, where the bottom three lines disappear and the top two lines terminate in the middle of the yellow stroke. Any ideas?

Your yellow clipping object appears to be an open path with no fill and a yellow path with stroke set to "Draw stroke behind".

Alternative solutions (use one or the other, not both):

• use Expand Stroke command to convert the path to a yellow-filled unstroked shape, and put the purple staff inside it
• use Contour Tool to give the path thickness, and swap fill and stroke colours (and optionally set stroke width to zero although it will now have no colour anyway)

The advantage of the latter solution is the original path is retained and is easier to edit than the shape created by Expand Stroke.

staffs.afdesign

 

Edited February 18, 2023 by ,,,
added document and screenshot

[Joshua Stamper]

8 minutes ago, loukash said:

Not without inspecting an example document.

 

4 minutes ago, ,,, said:

Your yellow clipping object appears to be an open path with no fill and a yellow path with stroke set to "Draw stroke behind".

Alternative solutions (use one or the other, not both):

• use Expand Stroke command to convert the path to a yellow-filled unstroked shape, and put the purple staff inside it
• use Contour Tool to give the path thickness, and swap fill and stroke colours (and optionally set stroke width to zero although it will now have no colour anyway)

The advantage of the latter solution is the original path is retained and is easier to edit than the shape created by Expand Stroke.

 

Thanks to you both.

The attached PDF is what I'm aiming for (but if you zoom in you see the problem I originally asked about - lines that are not conforming to the angle of the yellow arrow.

The attached Designer file is me just starting to work with the ideas proposed by @loukash. The area in question is around m.6.

The yellow stroke is large - 100pts. I tried reducing it to 1pt and realized that it wasn't actually intersecting with the bottom three staff lines, which is why they weren't showing up. The problem now is how to keep everything centered in the yellow arrow with other musical symbols that exist at the top or bottom of the staff. And of course, the problem with the lines stopping short of the edge remains.

Also, I know the layers panel is a horror-show. Needs some major cleaning up.

Thank you thank you for all your help!

Kahn - Order Is - Vln I - 7 Layers.pdf Kahn - Order Is - Vln I - 7 Layers - 021823.afdesign

[lepr]

Just now, Joshua Stamper said:

Thanks to you both.

You're welcome! I added a document to my message above.

[Joshua Stamper]

14 minutes ago, ,,, said:

You're welcome! I added a document to my message above.

Amazing. Thank you. I have to step out for the day, but I'm very eager to try out your solution as soon as I get back this evening. So very appreciated.

[loukash]

Haha, I wouldn't want to play that 4 meter wide score!  (The longest sheet music I'm currently playing on bass guitar is a quite advanced and complex bigband arrangement of Love For Sale on 4 pages; quite heavy stuff for me as a more or less self-taught musician…)

Anyway…

2 hours ago, Joshua Stamper said:

I know the layers panel is a horror-show

Here's an idea how to simplify things:

ade_score_clipped_stroke_symbols.afdesign

It's in v1 format for backward compatibility, in case anyone else is interested.

Note that you can't really clip objects by a stroke alone, hence it's better to make a blank expanded copy of the yellow stroke. In case you need to change the yellow curve, you simply edit the original inside, expand a copy and use it as a new clipping curve again.

[lepr]

 

6 minutes ago, loukash said:

In case you need to change the yellow curve, you simply edit the original inside, expand a copy and use it as a new clipping curve again.

Contour Tool significantly simplifies that workflow by providing a live expansion of a base curve:

• no need to keep a duplicate base curve for future editing
• no need to do an expansion
• no need to move clipped objects from inside an old shape to inside a new shape
• no need to delete an old shape

 

[loukash]

19 minutes ago, ,,, said:

Contour Tool significantly simplifies that workflow by providing a live expansion of a base curve

Yes, but it won't work with those arrow ends.

[lepr]

1 hour ago, loukash said:

Yes, but it won't work with those arrow ends.

 

The arrow ends can be a separate clipping shape containing a set of staffs Symbols. A minor complication that's outweighed by the convenient editing enabled by a live contoured path.

The attached document, loosely based on yours, is much more easily edited, in my opinion.

new ade_score_clipped_stroke_symbols.afdesign

[loukash]

5 minutes ago, ,,, said:

The arrow ends can be a separate clipping shape containing a set of staffs Symbols.

Yes. Sure they can. 
There are often multiple methods to achieve a goal. At the end of the day, one's mileage will inevitably vary.

[Joshua Stamper]

7 hours ago, loukash said:

(The longest sheet music I'm currently playing on bass guitar is a quite advanced and complex bigband arrangement of Love For Sale on 4 pages; quite heavy stuff for me as a more or less self-taught musician…)

Love for Sale - what a tune...

[Joshua Stamper]

Thank you, everyone, for all the time and extraordinary thoughtfulness you've put towards helping me out. I am humbled by your generosity. I am awfully grateful.

[debraspicher]

12 minutes ago, Joshua Stamper said:

Thank you, everyone, for all the time and extraordinary thoughtfulness you've put towards helping me out. I am humbled by your generosity. I am awfully grateful.

Did you solve your issue?

[Joshua Stamper]

2 minutes ago, debraspicher said:

Did you solve your issue?

I'm completely new to Affinity Designer (and graphics programs in general), so it'll take me a day or two to try out everyone's ideas, but I'm confident that these strategies will absolutely do the trick. Much obliged!