How to add a point in the middle between two points?

[VIPStephan]

Perhaps I’m stupid or I have forgotten but how do I add a point in the exact middle between two other points on a line/shape? I’m sure AD is smart enough to be able to do this (it’s so smart with other things)? Specifically, I have a circle, and that has four points by default, and I want to add points in between, so that I have eight points with equal spacing.

[walt.farrell]

If in V2, this Help page explains it: https://affinity.help/designer2/en-US.lproj/pages/CurvesShapes/edit_linesAndShapes.html

 

[KarinC]

The way I did it was to make a horizontal line then angle it 45 degrees from the center. That will be in the middle of two points. Add the nodes then delete the lines.

[Aammppaa]

2 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

If in V2, this Help page explains it: https://affinity.help/designer2/en-US.lproj/pages/CurvesShapes/edit_linesAndShapes.html

 

Specifically...

To split curves with a new node:

Do one of the following:

• -click the node before the adjoining curve segment you want to add a midpoint node to and select Split Curve After Node.
•  Select a node, then click the same option on the context toolbar.

Which segment is split depends on the current curve orientation (indicated by a red-line indicator). Use Reverse Curve to change this curve orientation or reselect an adjacent node to split from.

[R C-R]

FWIW, regarding that help topic, the first method says to ⌃(ctrl)-click the node but on my Mac that doesn't work. Instead, a right-click pops up the menu with the Split curve after node item.

It's the same for the other things mentioned that suggest using ⌃(ctrl)-click to get a menu, like to break or reverse a curve. Right-click pops up the menu, ⌃(ctrl)-click does not.

[thomaso]

17 hours ago, R C-R said:

⌃(ctrl)-click the node but on my Mac that doesn't work.

I never understood how this preference option works in V1. – Maybe it makes you successful in V2 with ⌃(ctrl)-click for its new split-option?

[lepr]

18 hours ago, R C-R said:

FWIW, regarding that help topic, the first method says to ⌃(ctrl)-click the node but on my Mac that doesn't work. Instead, a right-click pops up the menu with the Split curve after node item.

For the macOS apps, ctrl+clicking a node should make the node context menu appear, but the developers mistakenly made ctrl+click, instead of cmd+click, be the means for converting a Sharp node to a Smooth node. Similarly, they mistakenly made ctrl+click, instead of cmd-click, be the means for deleting a segment of a path. We are probably stuck with these blunders now.

 

[R C-R]

1 hour ago, thomaso said:

Maybe it makes you successful in V2 with ⌃(ctrl)-click for its new split-option?

No, in AD V2 that ⌃(ctrl)-click option has no effect on this: whether on or off the only way to get the context menu with the Convert, Split, Break, etc. menu items is to right-click on a node, at least on my Mac. 

In both V1 & V2, if that option is enabled a ⌃(ctrl)-click on a selected object or an empty part of the document pops up a contextual menu with various items (see below); otherwise a right-click will do that, so to keep things simple, I personally don't enable it in either version.

The V1 & V2 popup contextual menus (the longer one is V2):

 

 

[R C-R]

10 minutes ago, lepr said:

For the macOS apps, ctrl+clicking a node should make the node context menu appear, but the developers mistakenly made ctrl+click, instead of cmd+click, be the means for converting a Sharp node to a Smooth node. Similarly, they mistakenly made ctrl+click, instead of cmd-click, be the means for deleting a segment of a path. We are probably stuck with these blunders now.

I'm not so sure this was a mistake* but if by intent it does seem like an odd choice & one that is certainly at odds with the V2 help topic. Maybe one of the staff can ask the developers about it or at least let those doing the help documentation know about it.

* What if anything is the Windows equivalent for that context menu and/or for deleting a segment? (I know it has been mentioned in some recent discussions but I can't find that info right now.)

[lepr]

32 minutes ago, R C-R said:

I'm not so sure this was a mistake* but if by intent it does seem like an odd choice [...]

I mean mistake as in an error of judgement. Decades of macOS UI standardisation leads users to expect ctrl+click to be equivalent to secondary click of a two+ button mouse. It originates from the original Mac mouse having only one button. Secondary click on a node raises a node context menu, therefore ctrl+click should raise exactly the same node context menu. The Help author has expected that - there are several sections on the aforementioned page which instruct to ctrl+click a node to get the node context menu.

Usually throughout the Affinity apps, we see cmd on macOS being used where ctrl is used on Windows. However, we see ctrl incongruously being used on both macOS and Windows for converting a Sharp node to a Smooth node and deleting a segment of a path. The use of ctrl there makes sense on Windows only. On macOS it is an odd choice / error of judgement / mistake.

 

[walt.farrell]

40 minutes ago, R C-R said:

* What if anything is the Windows equivalent for that context menu and/or for deleting a segment? (I know it has been mentioned in some recent discussions but I can't find that info right now.)

It's a right-click on the Node in Windows.

 

[R C-R]

8 minutes ago, lepr said:

Usually throughout the Affinity apps, we see cmd on macOS being used where ctrl is used on Windows. However, we see ctrl incongruously being used on both macOS and Windows for converting a Sharp node to a Smooth node and deleting a segment of a path. That is an odd choice / error of judgement / mistake.

Perhaps they decided on that choice so users of both the Mac & Windows versions could use the same modifier key for those operations? Another if less likely possibility is they are reserving CMD-clicking on a node for some as yet unimplemented function.

[lepr]

2 hours ago, R C-R said:

Perhaps they decided on that choice so users of both the Mac & Windows versions could use the same modifier key for those operations?

That's an odd choice / error of judgement / mistake. It's illogical to do that for just these two functions when everywhere else in the app there is cmd+click on macOS where it is ctrl+click on Windows. Not only illogical in that way, it is preventing the customary ctrl+click on macOS being equal to secondary click.

2 hours ago, R C-R said:

Another if less likely possibility is they are reserving CMD-clicking on a node for some as yet unimplemented function.

That's less likely than being hit by an asteroid tonight.

 

[R C-R]

22 minutes ago, lepr said:

It's illogical to do that for just these two functions when everywhere else in the app there is cmd+click on macOS where it is ctrl+click on Windows.

But not everything else is, most notably the CTRL start to get to the reset window. I have to wonder why that is.

[lepr]

45 minutes ago, R C-R said:

But not everything else is, most notably the CTRL start to get to the reset window. I have to wonder why that is.

OK, so I forgot about that exception. The points I made are still valid. 

[R C-R]

2 minutes ago, lepr said:

OK, so I forgot about that exception. The points I made are still valid. 

My point is simply that we do not really know why they chose to use CTRL when it would seem more logical to us to use CMD, either for the Reset function or elsewhere, so all we can do is speculate about that.

[walt.farrell]

26 minutes ago, R C-R said:

My point is simply that we do not really know why they chose to use CTRL when it would seem more logical to us to use CMD, either for the Reset function or elsewhere, so all we can do is speculate about that.

Isn't Ctrl+Click the usual Mac way to perform a Right-Click?

That would make it the Mac equivalent of the Windows action, which is a Right-Click. But for some reason, it seems to also require a Right-Click on Mac, if I've understood this thread correctly.

[R C-R]

2 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

Isn't Ctrl+Click the usual Mac way to perform a Right-Click?

Yes, it is. But as I understand it, Apple says developers are free to override that if they have some reason to do.

[thomaso]

2 hours ago, lepr said:

It's illogical to do that for just these two functions when everywhere else in the app there is cmd+click on macOS where it is ctrl+click on Windows

This reminds me to another spot in the UI: the modifier key to drag-duplicate a selected item. Usually on mac apps the Option key gets used but in Affinity it is the Command key while the Option key disables snapping. On mac this decision may confuse or appears odd because the Option key additionally may cause a duplicate: if the key gets pressed before start dragging (which wouldn't be required because we also can press Cmd + Opt for duplicating without snapping).

Another oddity (and possible mac/win difference ?) in Affinity modifier keys is the Scroll wheel: without modifier keys it scrolls through a document, but I may press Opt+Cmd to use the scroll wheel temporarily for zooming. Oddly, if I have the Affinity preference activated to use the scroll wheel for zooming, then there is no modifier key to make it scroll. This feels like a half way coded solution, not like a decision "by design".

29 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

Isn't Ctrl+Click the usual Mac way to perform a Right-Click?

Like @R C-R I always have the mentioned Affinity Control-key preference disabled, I am just used to right-click and can't imagine an advantage to press Ctrl instead. Also the macbook trackpad knows a right-click to open the context menu – without the need to use the Ctrl key. I remember decades ago the mac mouse lacked a right click and thus required the Ctrl key. It appears nowadays a mac's "magic mouse" can distinguish between left and right and it has a system preference option to activate a "secondary click".

[v_kyr]

1 hour ago, walt.farrell said:

Isn't Ctrl+Click the usual Mac way to perform a Right-Click?

Yes, though that's system adjustable/customizable. The Ctrl+Left click for performing a mouse right click AFAI recall, stems from older Apple mouse times where those had really just one single mouse button. Note that an Apple MagicMouse, even it looks like a one button mouse, can instead distinguish here between left and right button clicks on it's clickable top surface area, in the same manner as trackpads area wise do.

2 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

That would make it the Mac equivalent of the Windows action, which is a Right-Click. But for some reason, it seems to also require a Right-Click on Mac, if I've understood this thread correctly.

The whole behavior is Affinity Tool context/mode related, as for example when the Move Tool mode is used, a Ctrl-Click performs a Right-Click and opens the right click menu as expected. But for the Node tool and so when in node mode, the Ctrl-Click has been overwritten to perform a different action (aka converting a node to a smooth node).

So when in Node Tool mode on a Mac, mouse click actions are this way defined:

Ctrl-Click a node -- converts a node to a smooth node  (... so this overwrites the usual/common macOS behavior for a right context menu popup)

Alt-Click a node  -- converts a node to a sharp node

Alt-Click a segment     -- straightens the segment

Cmd-Click a segment -- deletes a segment

 

[R C-R]

2 hours ago, v_kyr said:

The Ctrl+Left click for performing a mouse right click AFAI recall, stems from older Apple mouse times where those had really just one single mouse button.

FWIW, back in the day Steve Jobs famously was opposed to multiple buttons on a mouse -- in fact, he once told the design team that he wanted the mouse to have no buttons at all! So when it became evident that a second button function was something users really needed, to keep Jobs happy they decided to make the under-used on Macs Control key provide that function.

It was not a great design decision because it meant users needed to use both hands to access it, but it was the only alternative until Jobs relented & Apple started making multi-button mouse designs.

Of course, now that a multi-button mouse or the equivalent is something almost everyone using a desktop computer has, there is very little if any need for it to activate that function.

[lepr]

8 hours ago, v_kyr said:

Cmd-Click a segment -- deletes a segment

On macOS it is ctrl+click a segment to delete it.

Note that the status/hint line fails to inform the user of that function when the pointer is over a segment, unless the ctrl key is actually depressed.

[v_kyr]

8 hours ago, v_kyr said:

The Ctrl+Left click for performing a mouse right click AFAI recall, stems from older Apple mouse times where those had really just one single mouse button.

[v_kyr]

3 minutes ago, lepr said:

on macOS it is ctrl+click a segment to delete it

The ADe v2 online help keyb shortcuts do tell ...

[lepr]

46 minutes ago, v_kyr said:

The ADe v2 online help keyb shortcuts do tell ...

 

Well, I am using the app, not just reading the Help. Ctrl-click deletes a segment.

The v2 Help also informs us in several paragraphs that ctrl-click on a node will raise the node context menu, but that doesn't match reality either.