Please add a Highlight in the Layers Panel on where to find the Currently Selected Layer

[MmmMaarten]

Since (one of the last versions of?) v2 I often see myself searching for the currently selected layer and need to open each and every layer group just to find the layer I'm in, because it doesn't highlight where the layer is at. I don't believe I ever experienced this in v1.

Please see video below. How to know where the layer is? 

So Please add a (blue) highlight to the layer the currently selected layer is inside!!

(BTW When working with large files a search option to find a layer by its name would be pretty useful too, but that's another thing)

Using Windows 11 Pro, Affinity Designer 2.3.0

[edit] I see now that the screenrec. isn't showing the full screen. But believe me I scrolled through all the layers in the video 

 

[RM f/g]

Have you discovered right click -> show in layers panel yet?

[MmmMaarten]

40 minutes ago, RM f/g said:

Have you discovered right click -> show in layers panel yet?

Thanks for the tip. If you mean the 'Find in Layers panel' in the context manu; yes, I see it. And that's nice to open the group(s) it's in in the layers panel, but honestly there should always be a highlight on the layers panel instead of needing to manually do this with some menu each and every time. That's not very efficient. Also this setting is always opening the group(s) it's in and sometimes we only want to see where it is at in the layers list without opening the groups. So a blue highlight that automatically updates when the layer is selected (and preferrable an optional scroll to) is all we need (and I believe we always had in at least v1).

[walt.farrell]

What OS are you using, @MmmMaarten? 

 

[MmmMaarten]

10 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

What OS are you using, @MmmMaarten? 

 

You're right, I've just updated the post with the details. Thanks

[Dan C]

1 hour ago, MmmMaarten said:

So Please add a (blue) highlight to the layer the currently selected layer is inside!!

Using Affinity 2.3 & Windows 10, I'm seeing a 'highlight' of my currently selected layer - whether this is a standalone object, in a Group, or in a Layer container.

This occurs for me both with and without 'Auto-scroll' enabled for the Layers Studio:

 

Is this happening in only one file, or multiple please? What settings do you have set for the Layers Studio please?

[MmmMaarten]

1 hour ago, Dan C said:

What settings do you have set for the Layers Studio please?

Thanks for the quick response. Here it was a group btw (used Ctrl+G to create it)

You mean this with 'settings you have set for the Layers Studio'?

 

That scene you have there looks awesome btw. Very nice! 

[MmmMaarten]

@Dan C I see that with the exact same settings/affinity software this IS working in another project I'm working on. 

So it's starting to look like a bug. Unless I am missing a feature, than I'm all ears!

[Dan C]

Thanks for confirming that for me - I can't see anything untoward in regards to your settings, and if this is working in another file then it certainly sounds as though it may be document specific.

Can you please upload a copy of the file to the below link for me?

https://www.dropbox.com/request/Z5uJdWg6jdwuuCt7aH3l

Once uploaded, please let me know!

28 minutes ago, MmmMaarten said:

That scene you have there looks awesome btw. Very nice! 

This is the 'Plushies Summoner' sample file, kindly made by @Frankentoon Studio 

[MmmMaarten]

2 hours ago, Dan C said:

Thanks for confirming that for me - I can't see anything untoward in regards to your settings, and if this is working in another file then it certainly sounds as though it may be document specific.

I'm sorry, but I have to respectfully dissagree. Both files were created in the exact same version of Affinity Designer with the exact same settings and on the exact same machine and never've been somewhere else. Affinity Designer didn't even had an update since. Also when I open the file I experienced this bug in (the one you see in the video) in Affinity now it doesn't have this issue.

So we both agree on and have concluded that Affinity Designer is not stable on this, but this doesn't looks like anything file specific to me as a developer.
If this would've been file specific the same thing would be replicatable by opening the same file and doing the same. But it's not; when I select that same group in the viewport now it works. The question is for how long, but that's the same with other files, because it's obvious now there's something working one time, but not another time.
 

2 hours ago, Dan C said:

This is the 'Plushies Summoner' sample file, kindly made by @Frankentoon Studio 

Super Nice! Thanks for sharing! @Frankentoon Studio love your style!

[Dan C]

21 hours ago, MmmMaarten said:

I'm sorry, but I have to respectfully dissagree. Both files were created in the exact same version of Affinity Designer with the exact same settings and on the exact same machine and never've been somewhere else. Affinity Designer didn't even had an update since. Also when I open the file I experienced this bug in (the one you see in the video) in Affinity now it doesn't have this issue.

If only one file was exhibiting this behaviour, which can no longer be replicated in that specific file, then the exact reason is unfortunately lost to the wind, so to speak.

It's possible the app was calculating something incorrectly in your file, leading to the app believing a different layer was actively selected and causing internal confusion over which layer should show as highlighted in the Layers Studio - but this is simply conjecture as I wasn't able to replicate the behaviour here, and it has not persisted within the file/app.

21 hours ago, MmmMaarten said:

So we both agree on and have concluded that Affinity Designer is not stable on this, but this doesn't looks like anything file specific to me as a developer.

I'm sorry, but I don't understand where you believe I have said this.  I agree that you were experiencing an issue that can no longer be replicated - but without a concrete cause, I would be unable to place the blame on Affinity for this issue, any more than I can place blame on the OS, for example.

As above, the true cause is unknown unless the issue is replicable, which unfortunately (and luckily) this issue does not seem to be.

21 hours ago, MmmMaarten said:

But it's not; when I select that same group in the viewport now it works. The question is for how long, but that's the same with other files, because it's obvious now there's something working one time, but not another time.

I'm glad to hear this is now working as expected for you, and I certainly hope the issue does not return for you - but we're happy to help and investigate further, should this reappear

[MmmMaarten]

@Dan C I would honestly find it hard to believe this to even optionally be an issue in the OS. Theoretically everything is possible, yes, but, no offense, pretty far fetched for such an issue to think this could be an OS issue if you ask me. But I'll keep an eye on it.

[MmmMaarten]

@Dan C I hereby bump this one, because that single time surely wasn't an exception as I've bumped into this issue quite a lot last weeks doing more in Designer for an animation I was working on. It would be nice to see such a tag on top of this thread to know it's actually on the issues list of the developers. So far it looks like nothing is in the works to fix this issue and the bugfix version 2.3.1 that came out yesterday didn't have a fix for this looking in the change log. Could this issue please be taken care of and put on the things-to-fix list? + could this issue be moved to the Issues forum please? Thanks in advance!

[Dan C]

As we have not yet been able to replicate this issue, there is nothing I can log with the development team, hence the thread currently has no 'tag'.

From my above post:

On 12/14/2023 at 5:07 PM, Dan C said:

If only one file was exhibiting this behaviour, which can no longer be replicated in that specific file, then the exact reason is unfortunately lost to the wind, so to speak.

(...)

I agree that you were experiencing an issue that can no longer be replicated - but without a concrete cause, I would be unable to place the blame on Affinity for this issue, any more than I can place blame on the OS, for example.

As above, the true cause is unknown unless the issue is replicable, which unfortunately (and luckily) this issue does not seem to be.

Are you now able to provide a document which can replicate this issue?

We're also not receiving reports of this from other users - which may indicate the problem is specific to your current machine/user login.
I'd recommend creating a new user account and installing Affinity apps only, to see if the issue persists.

If you are able to consistently trigger this issue, especially in a new user account, please let us know the steps you're taking when this occurs, providing a copy of the Affinity document and a screen recording if possible - this will allow us to investigate further, attempt to replicate the issue internally and report this to our developers to be resolved, should we be able to repeat the bug.

11 minutes ago, MmmMaarten said:

could this issue be moved to the Issues forum please?

This thread certainly doesn't belong in the Feedback section, my apologies. I'll move this thread now, but that does not change the above requirements to replicate/log this with our team.

Many thanks in advance!

[MmmMaarten]

@Dan C This is getting a bit weird now. And it strongly gives me the impression that there is just no intention to even look into this. You ask me again now to send a file, as if this is a file specific issue. Which it is clearly not. Because it's happening to ALL FILES generated with the latests Affinity version(s) and this was never an issue in earlier version 1 versions of Affinity. Also I'm not using any Affinity user account and this has nothing to do with any Windows user-account. I don't have anything out of the ordinary here, just Windows Pro on a powerful machine. It's dissapointing you keep pointing your finger at me (and Windows 11) instead of just fixing the issue or even show any sign of wanting to do any fixing. I'm happy to try things out if you need help fixing it, but please stop blaiming things that are far fetched, like Windows itself, while no other software has this issue, Affinity didn't have this issue before, and it just doesn't make sense either.

[Dan C]

On 1/9/2024 at 5:59 PM, MmmMaarten said:

It's dissapointing you keep pointing your finger at me (and Windows 11) instead of just fixing the issue or even show any sign of wanting to do any fixing

I have asked for more information, or proof of the issue - as we cannot replicate the reported problem across multiple machines here.
Without being able to replicate the issue, it cannot be reported to the development team.

Whether it is occurring in only one document or multiple was pertinent to the previous posts in the thread, but currently the issue appears to be localised to your PC, and not the Affinity app itself - otherwise our team would be able to replicate this issue internally, or other users would be reporting this.

If there is a genuine issue within the Affinity apps, we're more than happy to test, investigate and resolve these as soon as possible - but if the issue is not occurring in our testing internally, we cannot proceed with any resolution, until we've confirmed the cause.

I have previously provided a screen recording of the correct behaviour, which I'm consistently seeing across 3 machines in testing, a Windows 10 desktop, a Windows 11 desktop and a Windows 11 laptop.
I have requested a screen recording and further tests from yourself, which it seems you are yet to complete.

On 1/9/2024 at 5:59 PM, MmmMaarten said:

this has nothing to do with any Windows user-account

The reason I'm asking you to test this on a new user account is to rule out other third-party software that may be affecting this on your machine.
Testing on a new user account with only Affinity installed should hopefully simply work as expected, as I'm seeing on my PC here, and will then allow us to further narrow down the cause of this on your PC.

If you are unwilling to try these tests, or provide further screen recordings showing the issue to help our support team, then we can't assist further with your report as there's no new information for us to action upon.

[MmmMaarten]

1 hour ago, Dan C said:

...

I guess the real question here is wheter the debugging of a PAYED product is the responsibilty of the seller or the client using it. It's not an open source project, so I think it's the responsibilty for Serif to go for quality products and testing to begin with. Not the other way around.

That said, of course I understand there's a gray area and as a 25+ years developer I also get that it's difficult to reproduce some things sometimes. So I help you guys in finding issues, although very little of these actually got fixed while mentioned years ago even, which I see happening with a lot of other issues here mentioned by others (also very simple things to solve), and is quite discouraging tbh. But that's another thing, just as a side note.

I am all for helping you guys in trying to fix an issue, but it has to be within the reasonable. To create a new Windows account for something clearly wrong in the Affinity software I think is far beyond reasonable.

Also you asking me to supply a screen recording is quite odd, as that's exactly what I did starting this thread.

Your assumption that I'm the only one having this issue is also quite strange. For one there's a thank you like on the opening thread. Normally people don't use that button when they don't recognise an issue, so that might be a user also having the issue. But even if that wouldn't be the case, how do you know I'm the only one having this issue?

Of course, if I do another project in Affinity and have the issue again, think about it and don't have a tight schedule I'll make another screen recording. But that's all extra to try to help you guys fix an issue in YOUR product. Which I am a payed client of. Not the other way around.

Again; pointing your finger at me or Windows directly without even knowing what's up is not very professional IMO and very premature. The fact that you are not able to replicate the issue says only that; that you are not able to replicate the issue. It doesn't say nothing about how many people are facing this issue and it doesn't say nothing about where this issue is related to or what might cause this.

I completely understand and have patience if you are not able to find an issue. I do have an issue with you acting like I'm the only one having this issue and pointing to other things than just accepting the idea that this might indeed be an issue inside Affinity and that you're not dealing with a beginner here.

Even if it would be an issue that is very rare, which I highly doubt, than still this is an issue inside Affinity that needs to be solved. Again; this happened to me in several NEW files already and it's quite disturbing the workflow.

Bottom line: Please keep things straight and don't twist things around or demand things from others which are your responsibility, only because you can't find the issue directly.

And for the record: for me this is in no way personal, nor do I have an issue with Serif. I like your products, use them happily and I also get that it must be frustrating for you not being able to replicate this issue. I totally get that. It also doesn't mean that I'm not willing to help, because I am. I also advocate for Affinity products. But when it comes to fixing issues like this it cannot only come from the client side and things should be within the reasonable. If things are clearly not file related than it is not reasonable for me to send copyrighted files not allowed to be send for instance as an example and creating another Windows account is not something I want to do on a production machine. So please also try to see the other side.

I propose to let it rest for now and when I use Designer again and spot the issue I try to make a screenrecording of it. Hopefully that helps you find the issue. Although I would doubt that it would give you any new information that you cannot already see in the screen recording above. As when it happens it will most probably look exactly the same. And when I knew a pattern to when this occurs I would've already told you.

[Dan C]

5 hours ago, MmmMaarten said:

guess the real question here is wheter the debugging of a PAYED product is the responsibilty of the seller or the client using it.

I'm not asking you to debug the apps - I'm asking for more information and further proof of the issue to try and determine the cause. Without a cause, we cannot fix anything.

5 hours ago, MmmMaarten said:

So I think it's the responsibilty for Serif to go for quality products and testing to begin with

This is why I personally have tested the issue across multiple machines (including my PC outside of the office) and even asked a member of a different team to confirm the behaviour I'm seeing, which they have done. Across these multiple tests, from multiple Affinity staff members, we have been unable to replicate the issue.

We're more than willing to continue testing the issue, but require more information and a narrowed scope of possible causes on the only machine where the issue is consistently occurring, according to your reports.

5 hours ago, MmmMaarten said:

Also you asking me to prevent a screen recording is quite odd, as that's exactly what I did starting this thread.

The screen recording in the first post of this thread is incomplete, your full Layers studio is not fully shown - it appears to be cut off on the right edge, as the scroll bar for the Layers Studio cannot be seen. This means I can't verify that you're scrolling through all available layers in your file.

5 hours ago, MmmMaarten said:

Your assumption that I'm the only one having this issue is also quite strange (...) But even if that wouldn't be the case, how do you know I'm the only one having this issue?

This is not strictly an assumption, this is a corroborated confirmation between myself and every other member of the technical support team here at Affinity.
We're a small team that deal with every customer post, report and question for the retail Affinity apps - meaning we can be almost certain if an issue has been raised previously, and certainly if one is being reported by multiple users consistently.

Having checked with our team, and even by extension our QA team, no one is able to replicate this issue internally, or has yet received reports of this from other Affinity users.

This doesn't necessarily mean the Affinity app is not at fault, and at no point in this thread have I completely dismissed the app is causing this -  but all currently available information, testing and proof points towards your machine being the only one capable of replicating the issue, which would usually indicate a localised problem and not a wider bug with all Affinity apps, but I have certainly not dismissed this as a possibility.

5 hours ago, MmmMaarten said:

For one there's a thank you like on the opening thread. Normally people don't use that button when they don't recognise an issue, so that might be a user also having the issue.

Somewhat off-topic, but as this post was created in the Feedback section of the Forums, it's likely someone was 'thanking' you for the suggestion - but in either case this is purely conjecture and does not assist with our replication or resolution of your reported issue.

5 hours ago, MmmMaarten said:

Of course, if I do another project in Affinity and have the issue again, think about it and don't have a tight schedule I'll make another screen recording.

Thank you, this would certainly help our further investigations of the issue. Please be sure to include the full screen / Affinity app within this recording if possible.

5 hours ago, MmmMaarten said:

Again; pointing your finger at me or Windows directly without even knowing what's up is not very professional IMO and very premature. The fact that you are not able to replicate the issue says only that; that you are not able to replicate the issue.

I'm sorry to hear you feel this way, I have not attempted to 'point my finger' at anything, as I simply don't have enough information yet to draw a conclusion and therefore have not made any decisive statements.

Once again I'm asking for you to do these tests locally to narrow down the scope of our investigations, on the only machine that is showing this issue currently. The results of your test can help us know where else to check for a possible cause/trigger of this issue - as in all of my internal testing currently, this issue has not occurred.

If you don't wish to complete these tests, that's certainly understandably - but as above if we can't replicate the issue, then we can't report the issue to our team, and subsequently cannot fix it. Your tests would continue to help our efforts of replication, which then means we can proceed with logging the issue, etc.

5 hours ago, MmmMaarten said:

I completely understand and have patience if you are not able to find an issue. I do have an issue with you acting like I'm the only one having this issue and pointing to other things than just accepting the idea that this might indeed be an issue inside Affinity and that you're not dealing with a beginner here.

At this time, no other Affinity staff member can replicate this issue and I have personally spent multiple sessions trying to trigger this issue, as well as keeping an eye out for it during other testing/uses of the app. Should we be able to repeat the problem reported in this thread internally, then we can investigate the cause of it within Affinity.

In order to replicate the issue, we need to rule out all possibilities, including the possibility that this is only occurring on your machine - which the current testing results are indicating.

We can only action anything based on the verifiable proof our team have.

All of our current testing does not yet indicate this is an issue within Affinity for all users, or all documents or all actions - otherwise we (and other users in this thread above) would have replicated this already in testing.

Therefore we must narrow down the possible cause of this issue, at the easiest way to narrow down the cause is by testing alternative options using the only machine that is yet to replicate the issue - yours.

5 hours ago, MmmMaarten said:

Bottom line: Please keep things straight and don't twist things around or demand things from others which are your responsibility, only because you can't find the issue directly.

Again, you are certainly not required to perform any further testing for us, but we unfortunately cannot make changes to the application based on an issue we cannot repeat internally.

6 hours ago, MmmMaarten said:

But when it comes to fixing issues like this it cannot only come from the client side and things should be within the reasonable. If things are clearly not file related than it is not reasonable for me to send copyrighted files not allowed to be send for instance as an example and creating another Windows account is not something I want to do on a production machine. So please also try to see the other side

What further testing would you like me to conclude internally?

We have tested this issue across multiple devices, Affinity apps, OS versions & documents - and none of which have shown this issue.

I will of course continue to keep an eye out for reports of this from other users, and also for this occurring 'naturally' during other document testing, but unfortunately I'm not certain what more you would like us at Affinity to do at this time, without further information or tests on your end, considering all of the above.

[MmmMaarten]

@Dan C I've read your post. I clearly wrote that it's not personal for me, that I don't have anything against Serif, even the opposite. I put myself also into your perspective and proposed to let it rest. But it looks like you don't agree and you keep defending yourself with a lot of repeating words while I didn't attack you. My words clearly didn't reach you. Sorry you feel that way. It doesn't help neither of us if I will respond to this again now. Everything has been said. If there's new information on the issue I'll let you know.