Tool Cursor Issue

[Ash Eldritch]

Hi, not sure if this is something already being sorted but I'm having an issue with inconsistent tool cursors in Designer v2. When I switch between tools, fairly often, there's no visual change to the cursor. It just remains as the standard arrow. 

Also, similarly, the studio window seems a bit hit and miss upon restarting Designer. Sometimes it shows up, other times not. I tried setting a shortcut to solve this but more than one saved studio preset causes a shortcut conflict. Using only one seems to then remove the preset as an option in the shortcuts menu.

Other than that loving the v2 experience so far.

regards, Ash.

[stokerg]

Hi @Ash Eldritch,

Are you still running Affinity on a Mac?  If so, which version of MacOS are you running and can let you let me know which tools this mainly happens with and how you are switching tools?  

3 hours ago, Ash Eldritch said:

Also, similarly, the studio window seems a bit hit and miss upon restarting Designer. Sometimes it shows up, other times not. I tried setting a shortcut to solve this but more than one saved studio preset causes a shortcut conflict. Using only one seems to then remove the preset as an option in the shortcuts menu.

 

Which window are you referring to when you say Studio window?  Is this the main window your document loads into or the Studios down the right of the app?

[Ash Eldritch]

Hi @stokerg

Yes, I'm still running it on a Mac. Version 13.2.1 on an M2 Mac mini with 16GB RAM. And I tried it with several tools earlier to check. Switching between move, node, pen, fill, knife and colour picker had no effect. Visually it stayed as the arrow yet the information panel in the bottom left indicated the tools are changing.

I'm assuming it isn't memory related as, although it's a large vector image (214mb), I've been working on it in v1 till now on a 2014 Mac with no such issues... except speed. lol

 

As for the Studio Window I am referring collectively to the panels down the right hand side of the app.

[stokerg]

6 minutes ago, Ash Eldritch said:

Yes, I'm still running it on a Mac. Version 13.2.1 on an M2 Mac mini with 16GB RAM. And I tried it with several tools earlier to check. Switching between move, node, pen, fill, knife and colour picker had no effect. Visually it stayed as the arrow yet the information panel in the bottom left indicated the tools are changing.

 

Was your cursor still over the tools on the left?  Just until you move the cursor from the toolbar on the left, it will show a normal arrow but as soon as you move away from the toolbar, you should see the new cursor for the tool you selected.

7 minutes ago, Ash Eldritch said:

As for the Studio Window I am referring collectively to the panels down the right hand side of the app.

They should stay in place unless you Hide the right studio, which can be done via Window>Studio>Hide Studio or unless you close all of the panels.  Next time it loads without them on the right, just look on the Window>Studio menu and see what option is enabled/disabled.

[Ash Eldritch]

Hi @stokerg, 

I don't use the toolbar to select tools, only keyboard shortcuts. So the cursor was over the node/curve or blank area of page with no change.

I never hide/alter the Studio. It's just happened now and this is what shows

 

 

[stokerg]

5 minutes ago, Ash Eldritch said:

I don't use the toolbar to select tools, only keyboard shortcuts. So the cursor was over the node/curve or blank area of page with no change.

 

I just can't replicate this.  The only time my cursor doesn't change is when it is over a toolbar.  All other times, it changes without issue.

5 minutes ago, Ash Eldritch said:

I never hide/alter the Studio. It's just happened now and this is what shows

 

Clicking Reset Studio will bring everything back, but I really can't see why it would keep happening as it's not something I can replicate, unless I manually close the studios on the right and restart the app.  There must be a bit more to the issue.  To rule out memory, which I really doubt this will be related to, if you close your large file, restart Affinity and start a new document, do you encounter any of the issues you've mentioned in this thread?

[Ash Eldritch]

Hi stokerg, 

 

Ok I've worked on a smaller document for a while and not encountered the cursor issue. So perhaps it is indeed a memory issue. 

This wouldn't be the first time I've been surprised by such a thing since the Apple Music app can't handle my old music library that ran fine on iTunes on my old Intel Mac. That was an interesting introduction to 8 years advancement. lol

 

As for the Studio, document size doesn't make a difference. However, I've noticed if I quit Designer and reopen it the studio is as it should be. Unfortunately if I restart or close down the Mac then the studio is gone when Designer automatically reopens. My last open document/s load up as they should but not the studio.

 

thanks,

Ash

[Ash Eldritch]

Hi stokerg, further to above, I have done some more testing on the cursor issue. 

Having, till recently, worked on an older Mac, I've tended to work with most sections of my layers turned off, using vectorised or simplified versions of these layers for a visual aid. I haven't really changed this way of working so was obviously surprised getting the cursor issue. 

Anyway, I've just turned on everything and scrolled, zoomed around the image in both wireframe, and normal views, trying different tools to force/replicate but with no issues whatsoever. To me that would suggest that memory isn't the issue. As said previously this isn't a constant issue so wondering if there's any Designer processes that go on in the background that might be responsible. But don't understand why that'd only affect the cursor visually whilst everything else acts normally. I've tried a few of my larger files and it happens every-so-often in most of them.

[Ash Eldritch]

Guessing there's no further thoughts to either of these issues? The cursor issue is especially troublesome. Should I just put it down to Designer v2 struggling with larger files in a different way to v1?