Cannot 'Ungroup'

[jackamus]

Ungrouping on AD v1 will not work either by Shitt+cmd+G or Layer>Ungroup. What's going on?

[GarryP]

If you could give us some idea of what you are looking at then we can probably help further.

A full-screen screenshot is a good start, with the ‘problem group’ selected in the Layers Panel, with the child layers of that group expanded so we can see the contents of the group.

[joe_l]

21 minutes ago, jackamus said:

Shitt+cmd+G

Maybe because of this unusual shortcut? 🤔

[PaulEC]

Assuming you've tried restarting your PC, my next guess would be to check your keyboard. It could be a problem with the shift key. If possible try using another keyboard and see if the problems still occur.

[jackamus]

6 minutes ago, joe_l said:

Maybe because of this unusual shortcut? 🤔

LOL That's something else AD v1 does - mis-types! Is it the same with v2?

[Alfred]

5 minutes ago, PaulEC said:

It could be a problem with the shift key.

That’s unlikely to be the answer, or at any rate the whole answer, if the menu option ‘Layer > Ungroup’ also fails.

[jackamus]

5 minutes ago, PaulEC said:

Assuming you've tried restarting your PC, my next guess would be to check your keyboard. It could be a problem with the shift key. If possible try using another keyboard and see if the problems still occur.

Yes that had occurred to me too.

[jackamus]

14 minutes ago, GarryP said:

If you could give us some idea of what you are looking at then we can probably help further.

A full-screen screenshot is a good start, with the ‘problem group’ selected in the Layers Panel, with the child layers of that group expanded so we can see the contents of the group.

 

Just now, jackamus said:

Yes that had occurred to me too.

Ok but in the process I moved something accidentally and pressed cmd+Z and just a 'Donk' sound. There are too many things going wrong with my AD at the moment. I'm having problems with Frame text and snapping is s bit hit and miss. I reckon there is something wrong and perhaps I should reset AD but that would losing all my personal settings.

How do I reset AD?

[GarryP]

There are various ways to reset various things.

One way is via Preferences / Miscellaneous.

Another is to hold Ctrl (maybe Cmd on macs) down while you are launching the application.

Either way you will ‘lose’ something but that’s what resetting is about.

You might not need to reset anything if you show us what you can see on your screen as requested above.

[jackamus]

34 minutes ago, GarryP said:

If you could give us some idea of what you are looking at then we can probably help further.

A full-screen screenshot is a good start, with the ‘problem group’ selected in the Layers Panel, with the child layers of that group expanded so we can see the contents of the group.

I've just selected the part that is giving the problem and saved it to a new file which is attached. This new file cannot be grouped without getting 'Donk' sound. I can delete it by I can't use cmd+z to undelete it without getting the Donk sound. However I was able to undelete using Edit>undelte.

Afinity group.afdesign

[jackamus]

5 minutes ago, GarryP said:

There are various ways to reset various things.

One way is via Preferences / Miscellaneous.

Another is to hold Ctrl (maybe Cmd on macs) down while you are launching the application.

Either way you will ‘lose’ something but that’s what resetting is about.

You might not need to reset anything if you show us what you can see on your screen as requested above.

I sent you a file of the ungroup problem.

[pruus]

Just tried it on version 1.x and on version 2.x and on Beta. The circle, which is a group, could be ungrouped, without sound. Here no problems. Sorry. Perhaps starting AD with holding control down to reset the preferences.?

[GarryP]

Thanks for supplying the document.
As with pruus above, ungrouping the group at the bottom of the layer stack works fine for me too, via many different techniques.

[jackamus]

12 minutes ago, GarryP said:

Thanks for supplying the document.
As with pruus above, ungrouping the group at the bottom of the layer stack works fine for me too, via many different techniques.

I don't follow what you mean. Can you explain a bit better please?

[GarryP]

I could ungroup the layer just fine by, with the Group selected:
1. Right-clicking the layer in the Layers Panel and choosing Ungroup from the menu;
2. Pressing the Ungroup button on the Context Toolbar;
3. Choosing Ungroup from the Layer menu;
4. Right-clicking the layer on the canvas and choosing Ungroup from the menu.

[jackamus]

Sorry but it gets worse! The file is currently ungrouped but when I try to group it so I can test your 3 methods, it won't group! It goes Donk! So I can't test it.

[GarryP]

Try this:
1. Close Designer (save your work first);
2. Open Designer;
3. Create a new document (doesn’t matter what type or size);
4. Create a new Rectangle shape;
5. Move the mouse pointer over the shape on the canvas, right-click and choose Group from the menu.

Does that let you group the shape?

If it does, move the mouse pointer over the shape again, right-click and choose Ungroup from the menu.

Does that let you ungroup the shape?

I’ve attached a video showing me doing it.

Edited March 30, 2023 by GarryP
Added video.

[jackamus]

Thank you for the video but you didn't do in the video what you described to me to do! I did what you said and was able to group and ungroup by right clicking. But when I try it using cmd+G to group it it goes Donk! And if  I group it by right clicking and using Shift+cmd+G, to ungroup it goes Donk again. There's something wrong either with AD or my computer/keyboard.

[GarryP]

I did everything in the video that I described above the video except the Closing and Opening of Designer.

Look in your keyboard shortcuts (Preferences / Shortcuts – Designer / Layer) and see which keyboard shortcut is set for Ungroup and Group.

Give us a screenshot showing each shortcut.

[thomaso]

7 minutes ago, N.P.M. said:

I think until version 2 the shortkey for ungrouping was ctrl+U

On mac (jackamus) the default for grouping is Cmd-G, for ungrouping Cmd-Shift-G.

[jackamus]

8 minutes ago, GarryP said:

I did everything in the video that I described above the video except the Closing and Opening of Designer.

Look in your keyboard shortcuts (Preferences / Shortcuts – Designer / Layer) and see which keyboard shortcut is set for Ungroup and Group.

Give us a screenshot showing each shortcut.

Screen shot attached. I'm using the correct shortcuts!

Ungroup.afdesign

[lepr]

Testing Affinity Designer 1 on macOS for you jackamus:

trying to group when no object is selected = donk

trying to ungroup when no Group is selected = donk

 

[jackamus]

I went to do what you asked with the problem file I sent and the problem has gone away and I didn't do anything!!!

Grouping and ungrouping using the shortcuts is now working fine.

Computers?!*

[walt.farrell]

3 hours ago, GarryP said:

Another is to hold Ctrl (maybe Cmd on macs) down while you are launching the application.

No, it's Ctrl on both.

[jackamus]

Amazingly all the AD problems have gone! I've no idea why. As far as know I didn't do anything! Probably got something to do with Donald Trump!