turn off tool handles for vector path

[Hapax121]

I know you can minimize in Preferences, but I'd like to turn them off completely. Is it possible to turn them off? 

[R C-R]

There is no way to permanently turn them off permanently for a selected object (& no good reason to do so that I am aware of) but you can temporarily hide them by switching to the View (Hand) Tool using the spacebar keyboard shortcut.

Why do you want to turn them off?

[loukash]

18 hours ago, R C-R said:

no good reason to do so that I am aware of

Adobe Illustrator has had this feature for decades, and I was often making use of it, definitely for… er, "good reasons".

18 hours ago, R C-R said:

Why do you want to turn them off?

Editing objects without being distracted by boxes, nodes and handles.

23 hours ago, Hapax121 said:

Is it possible to turn them off? 

No, but I found a somewhat weird workaround to make them at least partially invisible:

1. create a white swatch with 0% opacity
2. create a blank layer
3. context menu on that layer in Layers panel → Properties → Layer Color → apply the transparent swatch
4. move all objects for which you want to hide the handles into that layer

It doesn't hide everything though, e.g. the red end node remains always visible, and also the selection box will ignore the opacity attribute.
But better than nothing…  

[R C-R]

2 hours ago, loukash said:

Editing objects without being distracted by boxes, nodes and handles.

Just curious I guess, but what kind of editing operations of shape objects would be possible or easy to do if there were no visible selection boxes, nodes, or handles?

For example, I do not know how I could select a node to edit its properties if I could not see that it was selected.

[thomaso]

17 hours ago, R C-R said:

I do not know how I could select a node to edit its properties if I could not see that it was selected.

With the Node Tool you can click-drag anywhere on a curve between nodes to modify the shape without using the handles or adding nodes.

[R C-R]

19 minutes ago, thomaso said:

With the Node Tool you can click-drag anywhere on a curve between nodes to modify the shape without using the handles or adding nodes.

True, but with the Node Tool selected & no node selected, there are no bounding boxes or node handles showing, just the nodes themselves, so surely that is not a significant distraction?

[loukash]

57 minutes ago, R C-R said:

so surely that is not a significant distraction?

Let each individual user decide what distracts them. Quite likely there's stuff (in general, not just in Affinity) that would distract you while it wouldn't distract me. To each their own.

[loukash]

Also, there are a lot of functions that can be done on objects just by selecting them in the Layers panel. In particular when editing thin strokes, all the outlines, boxes and nodes get massively in the way. My "Transparent Layer Property" workaround fixes that. E.g. when editing the Stroke attributes while Point Transform Tool is active, you won't see any nodes or boxes at all, only the small point of origin.

So having an option to disable all visual selection hints globally like in Illustrator would be certainly very helpful.

[Hapax121]

Thanks for the good comments. I'm positioning eyeballs for characters, trying out various gazes. The tool handles get in the way.

[thomaso]

33 minutes ago, Hapax121 said:

I'm positioning eyeballs for characters, trying out various gazes. The tool handles get in the way.

If you don't need the Node Tool but just want to reposition shapes then the Move Tool may be sufficient. It allows to fully hide the bounding boxes temporarily by pressing the space key on your keyboard.

Also note the button in the Context Toolbar "Hide Selection while Dragging" for permanent use while dragging.

[R C-R]

3 hours ago, thomaso said:

If you don't need the Node Tool but just want to reposition shapes then the Move Tool may be sufficient. It allows to fully hide the bounding boxes temporarily by pressing the space key on your keyboard.

Hmm. On my Mac, if I press the spacebar it temporarily switched to the View (Hand) Tool, which does not reposition shapes. But Hide Selection while Dragging works for that.