Problems with exporting

[mmmmm]

Hello!

I have a problem exporting my document. This is how a test (reproducing the problem) looks like:

but it does not export one of the artboards:

It does not matter if I want to export to PDF, PNG, ...

Apologies in advance if I am doing something terribly wrong (my first time using Affinity Designer) & please help (as for now I cannot export the document I spent a few hours designing...)

Thanks a lot in advance!

 

export_problem.afdesign

Edited October 10, 2023 by mmmmm
updated files

[Dan C]

Hi @mmmmm,

Welcome to the Affinity Forums

Thanks for your file provided! This is certainly a strange issue, as I can see your Artboard has a 'Stroke' applied around it - which is not technically supported with Artboard objects. 

If you create a new artboard, fill it with the same colour, copy and paste the Curve layer nested within and this new artboard will export as expected. If you then add a Stroke to this new artboard, the stroke will not be visible, but the Artboard will still export.

However If I select the original Artboard 3 and copy this, then use Paste Style on the new Artboard 4 I have created, this also now fails to export.
This indicates the application is failing to account for the Stoke property, causing the artboard not to export - however I'm yet to identify the exact reason this artboard is displaying a stroke, as mentioned above this should not be possible.

Can you please confirm for me, how was this Artboard created? Have you copied and pasted this artboard from another file? Or did you create this using the Artboard tool, within Designer?

In the meantime, I've created a new Artboard in your document and recreated the same visual appearance, using a transparent Rectangle within the Artboard to apply a stroke around the Artboard. This document can be found below and will export as expected - 

export_problem_F.afdesign

I hope this helps!

[carl123]

The Appearance Panel shows two strokes, delete the active (black) one and the document exports correctly

[mmmmm]

Thanks! Yes, I copied the artboard over from my original work (not the minimal example I posted here).

It seems the file you created exports fine. It's a shame the stroke around artboards does not work I use it for many of the artboards in the original document...Is the rectangle workaround the best solution to have "frames" around the artboards?

[edit: the artboard was still created with designer]

Edited October 10, 2023 by mmmmm

[Dan C]

Apologies, I had overlooked the Appearance Studio - I'm getting this logged as a bug with our team now as not only should the stroke not render, this shouldn't cause the Artboard not to export.

3 hours ago, mmmmm said:

It seems the file you created exports fine. It's a shame the stroke around artboards does not work I use it for many of the artboards in the original document...Is the rectangle workaround the best solution to have "frames" around the artboards?

I'd personally recommend using the Rectangle method shown in my file, as this will be retained as a vector object when exporting to supported formats, my apologies for any inconveniences caused due to the missing support for Strokes on Artboards at this time!

[mmmmm]

OK many thanks. Good to know that it was not my usage but a bug...

Naive question about using a rectangle instead of a frame: how can I ensure they align perfectly? When I try always some part of the frame is cut off / outside the artboard...

[Dan C]

14 hours ago, mmmmm said:

Naive question about using a rectangle instead of a frame: how can I ensure they align perfectly? When I try always some part of the frame is cut off / outside the artboard...

You can use the Snapping options in Affinity to ensure the Rectangle aligns with the Artboard, as shown below -

 

I hope this helps

[mmmmm]

Thanks! that works like a charm!

[mmmmm]

Sorry to bug you again but even with the file you provided there is a similar export problem.

PNG works:

But PDF only shows one artboard (although I selected "whole document"):

I have used eps export and then convert to PDF as workaround but that does not seem right...?

[Dan C]

12 hours ago, mmmmm said:

But PDF only shows one artboard (although I selected "whole document"):

This is expected behaviour with Artboard documents when exporting to PDF - each Artboard will be exported as a separate page within the PDF document, though the Export Dialog Preview will only show the 1st page of the multi-page document, hence the preview shown above.

If you want to export all Artboards within a singular PDF page, there are 2 options. You can either use the Export Persona, setting the document slice to PDF -

 
Or you can create a singular Artboard that encompasses the size of all your Artboards in your file, then nest your multiple Artboards within this and export to PDF - 

 
I hope this clears things up