Designer Brush Tool - duplicate brush, customise, save as - bugs, what?

[SKO]

Greetings,

So I'm trying out the V2 trial now, I bought V1 but never really got into it and stuck with Illustrator. I'd like to change over, I really like the pixel persona but there just so much affirmative control which seems to be missing and I can't find answer in any tutorials so I'll try posting some here, maybe I can get some answers.

The brush panel:

1. There's one brush I use, the "41" in engraving but I need 3-4 different sizes, because it's just quicker to select the sizes than to [[+/-]]  all the time so I duplicate one into a personalised set. I has two measurements depending on the panel, in [stroke] it's "pts" while in the [properties] it's "pixels"??! Why is it not the same??

2. I set the size I need in the panel "save as" and it will change appearance in the [brush] panel but or it definitely doesn't stroke accordingly, or goes thinner or back to default or whatever? Is this a bug?

2b. Strokes also don't immediately "react" to brush/size change? There is some disconnect between selection and mode [tool; node or move] I just haven't figured..  


The [layers] panel:

When you lock a collapsed layer everything on that layer still remains active in that layer??!

+ there should be a [finder] somewhere to selected item(s) 

[Select] items is just "confusing" at best.

Lastly : Why is there no keyboard shortcut for [select] [same: fill, stroke etc] but at the bottom of a roll down menu?

Also the [insert] functions could definitely use keyboard short cuts.

Best to you, hopefully it makes sense and I can get some help.

  

 

 

[firstdefence]

8 hours ago, SKO said:

1. There's one brush I use, the "41" in engraving but I need 3-4 different sizes, because it's just quicker to select the sizes than to [[+/-]]  all the time so I duplicate one into a personalised set. I has two measurements depending on the panel, in [stroke] it's "pts" while in the [properties] it's "pixels"??! Why is it not the same??

I think in part this is because, even though the brush is a vector curve, the pattern it uses is a raster/pixel image, so, at best the vector brush is a raster/pixel brush following a vector curve, the curve enables easier manipulation of the raster/pixel image. Because the image/texture of the brush is raster/pixel the units controlling it's size are px.

With regard to stroke in pts, there is an option under Settings on the User Interface section to disable lines shown in pts, also the stroke slider has a slider limit of 100px but you can input a higher figure manually. The brushes definitely need work to be intuitive, they definitely need to be fully vector so that the stroke can be expanded.

[loukash]

9 hours ago, SKO said:

When you lock a collapsed layer everything on that layer still remains active in that layer??!

The Affinity lock only locks the position of an object but the object still remains selectable and editable otherwise. 
Some users strongly dislike this approach.
I, for one, very much appreciate it, compared to Illustrator's "absolute lock" approach which has always driven me nuts.

If you lock a parent layer or a group of objects, then the child objects will remain selected until you unselect them. But from then on they will remain "immune" to clicking or the Select All command, effectively mimicking the "absolute lock" mode.

9 hours ago, SKO said:

there should be a [finder] somewhere to selected item(s) 

The "hamburger" menu of the Layers panel has an "Auto-Scroll" option, if that's what you mean by "finder".

9 hours ago, SKO said:

[Select] items is just "confusing" at best.

Well… not specifying what exactly confuses you is "confusing at best".  

9 hours ago, SKO said:

Why is there no keyboard shortcut for [select] [same: fill, stroke etc]

Because you haven't assigned any yet.

9 hours ago, SKO said:

but at the bottom of a roll down menu?

Huh?

9 hours ago, SKO said:

Also the [insert] functions could definitely use keyboard short cuts.

Then add them as you see fit.  
https://affinity.help/designer2/en-US.lproj/pages/Workspace/customizingShortcuts.html

 

[SKO]

Thank you so much for replying so quickly, sorry I couldn't get back to you earlier but I had guests.

Big help, and I printed out some shortcuts and will see how I get on, because I hadn't found this overview and can now hop to it. 

Didn't think to screen shoot but these are my "bumps" 

Illustrator has a magnifying glass [find in layers] in the bottom of the layer panel and it's "missing" in affinity for some reason (it has everything else)

[Select same] is also an icon in the tool bar.

[Insert] I hope I'll find it in the shortcuts..?

Cheers

 

[DWright]

If right-click an object on the canvas in the pop up menu that appears the option 'Find in Layers Panel' will be shown.

[R C-R]

21 hours ago, SKO said:

[Insert] I hope I'll find it in the shortcuts..?

If you mean the Insertion options available in AD's Layer menu, then open Settings > Shortcuts with the first popup set to Designer & the second set to Layer, & scroll down the list to find the 4 possible Insertion items. They have no defaults but you can set your own.