How to select a curve's Point that's underneath another Point? (keyboard shortcut?)

[MmmMaarten]

as title! 

Two points laying exactly on top of each other, because I broke the curve intentionally. Now I'd like to remove the underlying point. How can we reach it without moving the points?

   

[Return]

https://affinity.help/designer2/English.lproj/pages/Workspace/shortcuts.html?category=operations

[MmmMaarten]

9 minutes ago, Return said:

https://affinity.help/designer2/English.lproj/pages/Workspace/shortcuts.html?category=operations

Thanks for pasting the link to the shortcuts. But where in there is what I'm looking for?

When having the node tool selected none of it shows in the statusbar to do a thing like selecting a point underneath (at the same location).
That's why I posted this question here

[MEB]

You want these:

Select next node on a curve	]
Select previous node on a curve	[

Then with the Node Tool select one of the overlapping nodes then use the shortcuts to move back or forward to select the underlying node.
Depending on your keyboard you may not have access to the [ and ] keys. Change the shortcuts in the Preferences in that case.

[MmmMaarten]

12 minutes ago, MEB said:

You want these:

Select next node on a curve	]
Select previous node on a curve	[

Then with the Node Tool select one of the overlapping nodes then use the shortcuts to move back or forward to select the underlying node.
Depending on your keyboard you may not have access to the [ and ] keys. Change the shortcuts in the Preferences in that case.

I get it and that's also helpful and does the trick in this case! Out of curiousity tho: let's say I have three points on top of each other; how do I know by scrolling through them with these shortcuts, which point is currently selected? 

[MEB]

I believe it's not possible to cycle between overlapping nodes at the moment - will check with the team.
There's another way to select underlying nodes - if only two - which consists in drawing a selection marquee around both (the top one becomes selected - outlined in red), then hold Shift and click over it to select the one below it. 

[MmmMaarten]

59 minutes ago, MEB said:

I believe it's not possible to cycle between overlapping nodes at the moment - will check with the team.
There's another way to select underlying nodes - if only two - which consists in drawing a selection marquee around both (the top one becomes selected - outlined in red), then hold Shift and click over it to select the one below it. 

Ah yes! That SHIFT-one was the one I was hoping for. I thought I read about that some time ago, but now I understand why it didn't work here; I needed to first select both with a marquee first. Thanks a lot for that! That was the one.

For more than two points it would definitely be welcome to have a feature to get a list of all (named?) points that lay on top of each other to select one from that list. That seems like it's not often used, but I did lots of interactive maps designs where that was very needed because multiple roads (all individual curves) were ending on the exact same spot. And than it's basically impossible to select the right point quickly without needing to move the other ones first just to see what point is selected and/or select it.
So thanks for mentioning this to the devs!

For the case today the above method works fine tho. Thanks for your quick and helpful responses!

[R C-R]

4 hours ago, MmmMaarten said:

For more than two points it would definitely be welcome to have a feature to get a list of all (named?) points that lay on top of each other....

It would be useful but since nodes do not & cannot currently have names there would have to be some other way of choosing which one(s) you want selected.

I'm not sure how that could be implemented but I would like to hear any ideas for how it might be.

[lepr]

[deleted because my initial comment would have led to a near endless argument that the forum doesn't need]

Edited December 5, 2023 by lepr

[Old Bruce]

7 hours ago, MmmMaarten said:

Two points laying exactly on top of each other, because I broke the curve intentionally. Now I'd like to remove the underlying point. How can we reach it without moving the points?

Not too sure of Mac vs Windows, this works on Mac. Why not use the Control Key and delete the segment to the left or right of the break. Hell, you don't even need to break the curve first.

[R C-R]

14 minutes ago, lepr said:

The index of each node could be listed.

Not sure what you mean by index. Say for example a curve has 50 or more nodes & one or more pairs of them are overlapping, or how that would work if there are several nodes of different layers at exactly the same location. Can you provide any more details about it?

EDIT: Are you maybe thinking about indexing by Z order, like bottom to top? 

[MmmMaarten]

1 hour ago, R C-R said:

It would be useful but since nodes do not & cannot currently have names there would have to be some other way of choosing which one(s) you want selected.

I'm not sure how that could be implemented but I would like to hear any ideas for how it might be.

Index (as @lepr wrote) would be very helpful indeed. Just use index 0 for the one rendered most below and the highest number to the one on top and everything in between accordingly. BTW I don't see any reason why a NAME property for vertices wouldn't be possible. That way  indices could be shown, unless a vertex has a name, than the name could be shown.
 

57 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

Not too sure of Mac vs Windows, this works on Mac. Why not use the Control Key and delete the segment to the left or right of the break. Hell, you don't even need to break the curve first.

Sorry, but you're answering a question here that has not been asked.

[lepr]

31 minutes ago, R C-R said:

Not sure what you mean by index. Say for example a curve has 50 or more nodes & one or more pairs of them are overlapping, or how that would work if there are several nodes of different layers at exactly the same location. Can you provide any more details about it?

I was hoping you would see my earlier post as it is now. I edited it only 2 minutes before you responded, so I understand why you were not aware of that. I could, but will not, provide details. Many regulars here will know why.

48 minutes ago, R C-R said:

EDIT: Are you maybe thinking about indexing by Z order, like bottom to top? 

No.

End of my participation in this discussion.

 

[R C-R]

25 minutes ago, MmmMaarten said:

Just use index 0 for the one rendered most below and the highest number to the one on top and everything in between accordingly.

OK, but assuming all the nodes are at exactly the same coordinates, why would that be useful? IOW, does it matter which one(s) are selected if the intent is to delete all but one of them?

[MmmMaarten]

26 minutes ago, R C-R said:

OK, but assuming all the nodes are at exactly the same coordinates, why would that be useful? IOW, does it matter which one(s) are selected if the intent is to delete all but one of them?

That's assuming a thing that is not to be assumed (as explained above).
I'll leave it here as everything is said already.

[R C-R]

12 minutes ago, MmmMaarten said:

That's assuming a thing that is not to be assumed (as explained above).

Are you talking about the ending nodes of different curves (like what you said about maps with intersecting roads) or something more generalized? 

I am just trying to get a better idea of the end result you want from being able to select a specific node (end or otherwise & of a specific curve) because in Affinity there are often existing ways to get the desired results that may not be obvious.