Spiral Tool

[walt.farrell]

3 hours ago, Sean P said:

The Spiral Tool's Partial Turns field will switch to use percentage if you have enabled 'Use Cusped Segments'.

Thanks, Sean. It would have taken quite awhile to figure that out  

What about clicking on the + icon, and how the effects differ between Mac and Windows? This is minor, except that it may puzzle users.

[Sean P]

7 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

What about clicking on the + icon, and how the effects differ between Mac and Windows? This is minor, except that it may puzzle users.

Ahh I see what you mean - this isn't actually limited to just that option, or in fact the Spiral Tool. It happens for any of the Quick Shape context toolbar labels. I suspect its tracking the value on Mouse down rather than mouse up. I'll pass it on to development and see what can be done

Thanks!

[lepr]

7 hours ago, Sean P said:

The Spiral Tool's Partial Turns field will switch to use percentage if you have enabled 'Use Cusped Segments'.

That prompts the question "why?"

[Sean P]

16 hours ago, lepr said:

That prompts the question "why?"

Hi lepr,
This is because it is a different formation of geometry when you're using Cusped Segments - it is no longer an angle, instead it is a distance along those cusped segments.

 

[lepr]

33 minutes ago, Sean P said:

Hi lepr,
This is because it is a different formation of geometry when you're using Cusped Segments - it is no longer an angle, instead it is a distance along those cusped segments.

No, not in the AD beta on macOS in front of me. The partial turn percentages are relative to a full turn with 100% being equivalent to 360 degrees, 25% equivalent to 90 degrees, and so on. A cusped versus smooth version of a given Spiral has no difference except the underlying nodes are cusped versus smooth and the segments are linear versus curved. Or am I missing something?

[Sean P]

7 minutes ago, lepr said:

No, not in the AD beta on macOS in front of me. The partial turn percentages are relative to a full turn with 100% being equivalent to 360 degrees, 25% equivalent to 90 degrees, and so on. A cusped versus smooth version of a given Spiral has no difference except the underlying nodes are cusped versus smooth and the segments are linear versus curved. Or am I missing something?

It is most likely the values you're using make it look no different, however some instances (particularly using a large arc angle) will make this more obvious.
See my example below:

[lepr]

Sean, your example contradicts your explanation for the use of percentage instead of angle, which was "it is a distance along those cusped segments". I'm struggling to see how you came up with that explanation.

That example has 0 full turns and a 'partial turn percentage' (note the word turn that is in the tooltip) of 83% producing about 2.2 segments, not 83% of a single segment.

[Ben]

16 hours ago, lepr said:

Sean, your example contradicts your explanation for the use of percentage instead of angle, which was "it is a distance along those cusped segments". I'm struggling to see how you came up with that explanation.

That example has 0 full turns and a 'partial turn percentage' (note the word turn that is in the tooltip) of 83% producing about 2.2 segments, not 83% of a single segment.

He came up with that example, because that's what I gave him in way of an explanation.

When using the cusped version, the spiral is formed from straight lines. The partial turn in this case is a percentage of the distance along these straight lines for a single 'turn'. To express this as an angle about a notional centre is less meaningful when the geometry is not an arc.  Using an angle would result in non-linear interpolation of the straight line segments.

Note, a 'turn' is a complete lap around, not a segment or arc.  Since arc angles (or more accurately, the circle divisor angle) can be arbitrary, a turn is determined as being independent of the arc angle for simplicity.  So - you can specify a spiral of 2 turns (a notional rotation of 720 degrees) but then set the arc angle to whatever value gives you the visual result you want.

[FastVector]

Love the new Spiral Tool!

[RNKLN]

So happy that my 12" record now has a real spiralling groove rather than a set of concentric circles. 😃

[Belldorado]

I like the new spiral tool a lot, very handy addition to the existing tools!
Since I mainly work on the IPad version of AD, I want to report that for some types of spirals some of the panels to enter the values and the „bake appearance“ buttons are cropped. At least with the German version. I think nothing of the usability got lost, yet still I am wondering if a function remains hidden under looking glass, windshield wiper and magnet. And I am super curious to learn the full description of „Wic“ with the polygonal spiral. Using landscape format, with portrait format the tool is almost useless. 

—- after writing this I found out that the bar is scrollable! „Wic“ is „Wichtung“! I have never heard this word before. Richtung? Wicklung? Gewichtung? 
The scrollbar is very hard to grab without creating another spiral instead, especially when not using a pen but a finger. It also always jumps back to the left start after changing a value which make it very complicated to compare the results. Especially with the decreasing spiral some interesting features are hard to use.

Nevertheless a cool instrument!

[loukash]

Based on a feature request for a "concentric circles" tool, I've experimented a bit with the Spiral tool which is capable of creating concetric circles in the linear and decaying mode with Arc Angle = 360°, albeit all aligned to one side.

To center the circles subsequently:

1. convert to curves
2. Layer → Geometry → Divide
3. Layer → Alignment → Align Center

Optionally, if you need rectangles rather than circles, select all nodes of the converted circles and convert them to sharp nodes.

[Roland Rick]

Hi @Ash thanks for all this awesome new tools in 2.3.

The new Spiral tool is very interesting: I'm using Designer very rarely and have absolutely no clue how to use it.

Please recommend a how to video, many thanks.

I also checked the "Designer 2 Help" from the Help menu, found no starting point for noobs like me.

Appreciate any help! 😇

Edited December 4, 2023 by Roland Rick
added Spiral Tool

[Mithferion]

29 minutes ago, Roland Rick said:

Please recommend a how to video, many thanks.

Hi there!

Here is the official explanation video by th Affinity Team. You might find it useful:

Best regards!

[Mithferion]

13 hours ago, loukash said:

Based on a feature request for a "concentric circles" tool, I've experimented a bit with the Spiral tool which is capable of creating concetric circles in the linear and decaying mode with Arc Angle = 360°, albeit all aligned to one side.

Really nice. Thank you.

Best regards!