Elements drop from origin layer to the Artboard (last layer) when modified

[alequa]

 

When I modify whatever element (for example moving it with the arrows in move mode) , in whatever active layer, the element is removed from its layer and associated to the layer at the bottom of the pile. This happens most often when editing the present file, but it happened on other occasions too.

In the two screenshots I have the layers info before and after pressing "down-arrow" on the keyboard (i.e., moving it downwards). As you can see, the text-element moves from the "Original Layer" to the "Artboard"

Affinity Designer, 1.10 8ab56

I am using MacOs 13.4.1 (c), with Apple M1 Pro chip and Hardware acceleration on.

 

sample_AD_bug.afdesign

[Callum]

Hi Alequa,

Please could you confirm which version of Affinity you are using? You may want to try opening the app with the ctrl key held down and when the reset menu appears hit deselect all and then tick reset keyboard shortcuts and then hit clear this should hopefully solve your issue.

[thomaso]

18 hours ago, alequa said:

When I modify whatever element (for example moving it with the arrows in move mode) , in whatever active layer, the element is removed from its layer and associated to the layer at the bottom of the pile.

This is the default behavior "by design" in documents with Artboard layers: Then an element is automatically moved to the artboard layer over which it is currently located in the layout as soon you edit this item. In the sample below the selected object would get moved in artboard 36, though it is located in the layers panel above 33. This also affects layers of type "(Layer)".

Workaround: You can disable this behaviour by deactivating the option "Edit All Layers". Note that such layers may not respond to the click selection in the layout if any "(Artboard)" layer is selected or highlighted dimmed in the Layers panel.

[R C-R]

6 hours ago, thomaso said:

This is the default behavior "by design" in documents with Artboard layers: Then an element is automatically moved to the artboard layer over which it is currently located in the layout as soon you edit this item.

Personally, I think that is a poor design decision -- I would prefer to decide for myself if I want to move an element into an artboard or not. The Edit All Layers button does give me that choice but it is an obscure behavior not suggested by its name.

[thomaso]

8 hours ago, Callum said:

reset keyboard shortcuts

What keyboard key do you see here not working correctly? I understand the OP's arrow key as object move on the layout page, not in the layer hierarchy of the Layers panel.

56 minutes ago, R C-R said:

I think that is a poor design decision

To me it is hard to judge which of the various related features is useful or not: as long some of them seem not to work while they influence others I don't know which one works correctly. For instance to me it feels unclear whether the enforced "Clip to canvas" menu option (in Artboard documents invariably grayed-out) is indeed a consequence of the object type "Artboard" (e.g. for easier handling when artboards get nested inside each other), or if the permanent active clipping is 'just' a coding imperfection. Accordingly the empty bleed area may confuse, although the bleed content occurs successfully on export. So I also don't know if for objects outside artboards the workaround via "Edit All Layers" is meant to be used this way or possibly might be judged by the developers as bug. Same for the unusual click-select behaviour for such objects.