Power Duplicate and Quick Grids - Tutorial for Affinity Designer

[TrentL]

Quick Grids and Power Duplicate allow you to easily place your objects in cool patterns, including a circle. Today we’ll look at these tools and some tips and tricks for getting the most out of them.

 

[Arkibus]

Thank you, this has clarified a few things that were frustrating me!

[deepblue]

 Hello TrentL,
Thank you very much for your great videos. Your videos are really well explained and I was able to learn some useful things. Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us. 😃

[lenogre]

This function is great but to it would be perfect with "Duplicate on path" and "Duplicate on surface".

Actually, when I need to duplicate diamonds on a specific path, I use… Cinema 4D (3D software) because we can duplicate on paths.

I've tried to create a brush with diamonds in Affinity but there is a distorsion : diamonds look like eggs !

[loukash]

1 hour ago, lenogre said:

"Duplicate on path"

And you can:

1. copy/cut the object you want to duplicate on path
2. select the curve that will become the path
3. Layer → Convert To Text Path
4. paste into the text path ("technically" pinned as Inline In Text as known from Publisher, see the Layers panel)
5. paste
6. paste
7. …

If the path is long, then after every few pastes do "select all" to paste multiple.
For flexible manipulation with more available options, this is best done in Publisher where you have both the Pinning as well as the Text Frame panels.

[lenogre]

Incredible technique !!!!

Thanks a lot.

The most powerful hidden function.

[TrentL]

8 hours ago, loukash said:

And you can:

1. copy/cut the object you want to duplicate on path
2. select the curve that will become the path
3. Layer → Convert To Text Path
4. paste into the text path ("technically" pinned as Inline In Text as known from Publisher, see the Layers panel)
5. paste
6. paste
7. …

If the path is long, then after every few pastes do "select all" to paste multiple.
For flexible manipulation with more available options, this is best done in Publisher where you have both the Pinning as well as the Text Frame panels.

That is pretty awesome, I never knew about that. Can I make a video on it? Do you want any credit? 

[loukash]

Just now, TrentL said:

Can I make a video on it?

I'm sure you can!  

Just now, TrentL said:

Do you want any credit? 

Hehe, I don't mind either way… but it's not like I have found out something that no one ever knew anything about.  
Any design app that supports text on path and inline pinned graphics could do that. I remember doing similar things with FreeHand over 20 years ago.

[loukash]

Here a couple of my earlier "crazy workarounds" on a somewhat similar theme. (That was before we eventually got the long requested "Balanced Dash Pattern" option):

 

[loukash]

^ In other words, if you want the pattern on path to be easily editable en gros, use Symbols!

[lenogre]

A little bemol about duplicate on path : If you modify the path, objects become crazy and cmd + Z can't restore initial state.

[loukash]

^ There are confirmed and logged bugs concerning pinned objects. That might be the reason. I was involved in such a thread just the other day.

[TanBrae]

AWEsome, thank you!

But,,, I want to design my own doily for laser cutting. Can I make a shape (for instance, a maple leaf) into a symbol so I can make duplicates as you did in your tutorial? So far, I have created a teardrop/dot design that I want to put on a scalloped edge of the doily. I just used they circle/dot symbol, and the teardrop symbol. How do I merge those but keep them editable to duplicate to go around the scalloped edge?
I forgot to add that I'm working in Designer 2.5.5.

[prophet]

1 hour ago, TanBrae said:

How do I merge those but keep them editable to duplicate to go around the scalloped edge?

If I understand, you could group instances of 2 individual symbols together and create a new, 3rd symbol.

[TanBrae]

On 10/14/2024 at 3:40 PM, prophet said:

If I understand, you could group instances of 2 individual symbols together and create a new, 3rd symbol.

I "think" I've got it. Still working on it, but had to stop for a while. Health issues in the family. 

I wish Affinity would let us create shapes, then save them in the Shapes Tools.  I still need to work on creating the shapes I need, to use as I want. 

[Alfred]

25 minutes ago, TanBrae said:

I wish Affinity would let us create shapes, then save them in the Shapes Tools.  I still need to work on creating the shapes I need, to use as I want. 

Creating shapes and saving them as assets is a very straightforward thing for users to do. Adding new functionality to the apps so that users can create their own parametric shapes is probably a pretty big ask.