How to auto Snap to Curve

[Mr. Sam]

I was wondering if anyone knows how to AUTO "Snap to Curve"?

I tried to illustrate what I am asking in the video. 

I know that one can use the "Sculpt" feature to make a continuous path, but I want separate curves/paths that auto snap together when they are close to each other.

If I am working on a large project and I want to draw a bunch of lines with the pencil tool and fill the enclosed areas with the flood tool, is there a way to auto snap and close the curves of the pencil tool, or do I HAVE to join the curves manually (aka. drag selected nodes to nearest curve until the other curve turns yellow, which attaches them)?

I find that it is taking forever to have to manually join each ending node nearby curves. It would be so nice to have it "Snap" to another curve.

[Pšenda]

6 hours ago, Mr. Sam said:

I find that it is taking forever to have to manually join each ending node nearby curves.

And isn't it easier to draw it straight as one curve? Or use Node Tool and Join curve?

https://affinity.help/designer2/English.lproj/pages/Tools/tools_node.html

[firstdefence]

I think what @Mr. Sam is getting at is as you start to draw the curve the cursor should highlight in yellow the snapping option and snap to that point and as you finish the curve the yellow snapping option should also highlight and snap to that curve. Having to do that manually is at best tedious. So imagine drawing a Japanese carp and drawing the scales, then having to go back and snap each node to the curve below it. 

losing the will to live springs to mind lol
https://www.istockphoto.com/en/vector/koi-carp-and-chrysanthemum-flowers-sketch-vector-illustration-tattoo-print-hand-gm1372358049-441484058?phrase=koi+carp+drawings&searchscope=image%2Cfilm

[Mr. Sam]

@firstdefence, I am literally drawing a Japanese carp at this time, and you are correct, it is very tedious having to select each node to snap it to the nearest curve. It gets very frustrating. Each scale has it's own gradient, so I have to use the fill tool for each scale. This is getting time consuming, so I'm wondering if there is a way to have it auto snap (turn the neighboring curve yellow) to the nearest curve.

I wish there was a feature like:

-Auto Snap Curve: End of curve snaps to nearest curve (with custom tolerances).

-Auto Snap Curve: Snap curve to any other curve intersection along it's path.

[Aammppaa]

A very similar thread from earlier in the year...

It does seem ridiculous that the Pencil Tool (and Vector Brush Tool) do not have the same snapping ability of the Pen / Node Tools, nor other niceties such as auto Merging Curves as we draw multiple strokes.

You might find a workflow using the Shape Builder and Vector Fill Tools (both new in v2) similar to those used by GaryP in this thread... 

You are almost doing the inverse of this! So can build up several rows of scales, then use the Shape Builder to clip off the unwanted overlaps, and the Vector Fill to put the gradient in each resulting scale.

[Mr. Sam]

Super helpful @Aammppaa. I'm going to look into this. Thank you.

I do a lot of drawing and am now in the process of learning to put them into vector. Sure wish there were equal capabilities like this with the pencil tool as with the pen tool.