AD2: Layer Effect applied to one Symbol gets applied to all Instances of that Symbol

[LionelD]

EDIT: Latest version of AD2 on iPad.  iPad running most current iPadOS.

EDIT: Forgot to mention that changing the Blur Radius on any one of the single-layer Symbols updates all instances.

This behaviour surprised me.  I use Symbols a LOT, so I expect edits applied to a layer inside a Symbol to affect all instances, whereas edits applied at the Symbol level affect just that instance.  After all, that’s how we get to have multiple instances of a Symbol in different positions, sizes and/or orientations.

The Issue

I made a Symbol with multiple layers and applied a Gaussian Blur to the upper 3 layers in the Symbol.  Radius for the blur is specific to the layer.  Great.

Then I made a Symbol with just one layer, and multiple instances of the Symbol.  When I applied a Gaussian Blur to just one instance, at the Symbol level, all the instances of that Symbol got the same Gaussian Blur.  Removing the blur from one instance removed it from all of them.  The instances of the Symbol present as Symbols throughout.

Not what I expected; can this be right?  So I’m calling it a bug, rightly or wrongly.

The cargo

I’ve attached an AD2 document with it’s very short history, and a video screen capture.

Possibly related thread

@Lee D  I found this, and although it’s not exactly the same, I think it might be related.

Regards

Effects and Symbols.afdesign

[Lee D]

I'll do some testing but I believe this is working as designed.

If you want the FX for example to apply just to that symbol or object that makes up the symbol you would use the sync option.

[LionelD]

@Lee D Thanks for the feedback.  That document has its history which is just 3 steps long, and shows there was no use of Symbol Synch or Detach.  Those are functions I never use - well, at least deliberately, and if it happens accidentally that’s a major disaster in my life.

Regards

[walt.farrell]

On 8/22/2023 at 11:04 AM, LionelD said:

After all, that’s how we get to have multiple instances of a Symbol in different positions, sizes and/or orientations.

No, you get to have Symbols in different positions, sizes, or orientations because each Symbol occurrence automatically has some attributes Unlinked, so they do not Synchronize:

Any attribute that is not Unlinked will be mirrored to other occurrences of that Symbol. Thus, any changes you make in the way you've described, unless you turn off synchrnoziation first, would be mirrored.

 

[LionelD]

@walt.farrell Well, thanks, guess I’m going to learn something.  I believe I’ve never seen that before; and I’ve had Designer since 2019.  Where do you get to see the properties?  Can’t find them on iPad or MBP.

Regards - and thanks again

[walt.farrell]

2 minutes ago, LionelD said:

Where do you get to see the properties?  Can’t find them on iPad or MBP.

You hover your mouse over the Symbol layer. Usually when there are Unlinked attributes the orange line will be broken, but it's not shown broken when just the standard Unlinked attributes (Transform/Constraints) are present.

I'm not sure you can see this on an iPad. It might work if one has the newest version of iPad that supports hover for the Apple Pencil 2. Mine doesn't, as far as I know.

[LionelD]

@walt.farrell Well, thanks again.  I do get the vertical orange line indicating a Symbol, and I even get the occasional broken line, but I can’t get the attribute display to come up on either iPad or MBP.  On my MBP I do get a very terse annotation identifying the kind of object in a layer.  No luck at all on my iPad, but the rate at which tech changes these days may have made my 2019 iPad into an antique long ago.

I don’t find any reference to the display you show above in the online help.  I have read the Help for Symbol Synch and Detach, but I don’t find it enlightening - can’t imagine working with a bunch of detached Symbols with invisible variations due to detached properties.

Your information did explain one thing: I sometimes get a heap of instances of the same Symbol stacked on top of one another, never did figure out why or how to separate them.  If memory serves I had to recreate the Symbol.

[walt.farrell]

It should work on the Mac. Try putting the mouse cursor over the middle of the layer name.