Affinity Designer, vector flood fill causing crashes

[Shane111]

Hi All,

Newbie here and I'm hitting an apparent limitation with what I'm trying to do that's causing crashes, hoping for some helpful tips from the experts here. I did look for answers on the forum and elsewhere but nothing so far has helped. I'm trying to replicate the kind of art that I used to do by hand (and compass) in the real world (see attached image) and I'd like to print what I digitally come up with at up to 100x100cm.

I've had no problem yet doing the precision geometry and some small works (still early days :)), but when I try to use the vector flood tool on (large?) complex designs it crashes. I've tried limiting the amount of geometry in particular layers but when I select 2 or more layers simultaneously (which I need to see to color them) it's often an issue.

I'm just hoping one way or another I can get this to work as so far I'm enjoying the whole process.

Thanks,

Shane

 

[Hangman]

Hi @Shane111 and welcome to the forums,

Can you upload a sample file so we can take a look at the geometry used and test it with the Vector Flood Fill tool?

[Shane111]

Howdy Hangman,

Hopefully this is what you're asking for. The center ring (layer 1) works for me but beyond that it's crashland.

Perhaps I'm just asking too much and I'll have to get really methodical with layering to make it work.

What's your thoughts?

geometry #1.afdesign

[Hangman]

Hi @Shane111,

Many thanks for the file...

I'm certainly seeing the same issue when selecting different layer combinations, e.g., Layer 1 and 2 or Layer 2 and 3 though selecting Layer 1 and 3 seems to be okay working with the Vector Flood Fill tool... Designer appears to struggle to process what in reality isn't a great deal of information regardless of whether Hardware Acceleration is enabled or not...

I see absolutely nothing wrong with the geometry, it's pretty straightforward so this looks like a bug to me...

I think the team at Serif need to take a look at your file to see if they can determine why something so relatively simple is causing Designer to crash...

I've attached a crash report in the hope it may highlight an issue...

Crash Report

Affinity Designer 2 Affinity Store-2024-01-17-170520.ips

[Shane111]

Thanks Hangman,

Good to know it's not something I'm doing wrong but bad to know there's not much I can do about it.

Let's hope it gets sorted shortly or I think I'll have to look elsewhere to do my thing.

Please keep this thread updated with any relevant news you come across and I'll submit crash reports for any future issues I run into.

Cheers

 

[Hangman]

Hi @Shane111,

It doesn't affect the fact that Designer is crashing but I did note in your file you have a duplicate circle in both Layer 1 and Layer 3 highlighted in Magenta below...

 

I recreated your graphic using a different technique but I see exactly the same crash so it does appear as though Designer's Vector Flood Fill tool finds what I would consider a relatively straightforward graphic too complex to process...

This is the version I created...

geometry v2.afdesign

This is the Crash Report from simply selecting two of the Layers and the Vector Flood Fill tool...

Crash Report

Affinity Designer 2 Affinity Store-2024-01-18-085952.ips

 

Hopefully, someone from the Moderation or Development team can provide some feedback as to the cause of the crash...

[Shane111]

Thanks Hangman,

I'm not surprised there's extra circles, it can get a bit confusing in there at times😀  I've also had crashes with what I consider simpler drawings.

For those who end up crunching the numbers on this thing, I think for me a 5x improvement would be great, 3x would probably be functional in most cases and 10x would be an almost infinite horizon that I doubt anyone would ever see.

Hope that helps.

 

[lacerto]

Obsolete.

[Hangman]

Hi @lacerto,

It could be Mac specific...

Selecting Layer 1 is no problem likewise selecting Layers 1 and 3 and there's no problem and they happily work with the Vector Flood tool but as soon as you select, e.g. Layers 1 and 2 or Layers 2 and 3 on Mac there is an instant crash...

Initially, I thought it may be an issue with Layer 2 as that seemed to be the common denominator but as mentioned above (and attached) I recreated the file from scratch using a different technique with exactly the same outcome...

Can you give it a try on Mac and see if you see the same issue?

[Shane111]

Hi lacerto,

I don't think I'm doing anything wrong but I could be wrong about that😀. The problem for me (and Hangman it seems) is that with the fill tool selected I can't select more than one layer at a time (in above drawing) without Designer crashing.

I'm on an old mac mini (late 2012) running 10-15 so I know I'm on the edge of what this program supports. However I've watched the activity monitor while the crashing goes on and it barely blips, I doubt that's the issue.

Happy it seems to be working for you but I'm never going back to Windows😀

Cheers

Edited January 18, 2024 by Shane111
typo

[Hangman]

1 minute ago, Shane111 said:

I don't think I'm doing anything wrong but I could be wrong about that😀. The problem for me (and Hangman it seems) is that with the fill tool selected I can't select more than one layer at a time (in above drawing) without Designer crashing.

Same for me regarding selecting different combinations of Layers... Even when selecting the Vector Flood Fill tool first and then selecting Layer 1, all is fine, Shift Click and select Layer 2 and there is an instant crash with both @Shane111's file and the file I created from scratch...

[lacerto]

Obsolete.

 

[Hangman]

The threshold on Mac for a crash seems pretty low but also depends on the size of the canvas and the size of the object...

• For example, taking a 100 mm diameter ellipse (or any shape) on a 700 mm square canvas, offsetting its origin, duplicating it 999 times and rotating it through 360° then selecting the Vector Flood Fill tool results in a 'Calculations timed out'...
   
• Repeat, this time duplicating 159 times, then simply selecting the Vector Flood Fill tool causes Designer to crash...

Using different diameter shapes and different size canvases results in different thresholds at which Designer will crash...

[Dan C]

Hi all, 

Thanks for the testing here, this has now been logged as a bug to be looked at by the devs.

Lee

[Hangman]

Hi @Lee_T,

Many thanks for logging...

[George-Frazee]

Any update on this? It's been well over 6 months and several versions. I came here to post about this bug but I see a few people already pointed it out. I'm seeing this error whenever I hit the vector flood tool with "too much" geometry selected.

I've attached two example files for which attempting to use the vector flood tool with them selected will cause Designer to immediately crash. I've also tried (as the rules suggest) playing with the hardware acceleration settings in preferences. There are a lot of combinations of settings here, every one of them crashed.

Crash report is also included from my most recent accidental brush against the flood tool (I've since had to take it out of the toolbar to prevent this from happening accidentally again). 

Running Affinity Designer 2.5.4.

Mac Specs:

• Model Name: MacBook Pro
• Model Identifier: MacBookPro17,1
• Model Number: Z11C000E4LL/A
• Chip: Apple M1
• Total Number of Cores: 8 (4 performance and 4 efficiency)
• Memory: 16 GB
• System Firmware Version: 10151.121.1
• OS Loader Version: 10151.121.1

FWIW I had actually put together a file where I systematically added geometry to see where the threshold was that it would crash at, but for some reason that methodology was not consistent. Interestingly enough, as the number of potential shapes grew, the time it took to "process" started to take longer and longer, eventually "timing out." But not consistently, immediately crashing.

Also, FWIW, the shape builder tool, which I had assumed worked on similar principles, has never given me issues crashing. Even with the example files below.

Parabolic example.afdesign Spirograph example.afdesign Crash Report.rtf

[walt.farrell]

1 hour ago, George-Frazee said:

Any update on this? I

It hasn't been fixed yet, or the Affinity Info Bot would have posted here.

Perhaps they'll pick it up for the 2.6 beta, which should be starting in October. 

Once it's logged, there's little we can do except wait, as the Developers seem not to provide any feedback, even to the QA/Support teams.

[Edited to remove a thought about a 2.5.6 beta as the latest word from Serif is that one isn't planned.]

 

[Shane111]

A couple of notes from me. After doing further (limited) tests it looks like this isn't a Mac only bug, I guess we'll see what's up when (or if) it gets fixed.

I was able to do what I wanted however by using a pixel (flood fill) mask layer over the vector geometry. For me it it turned out to be a much better way than the other options, faster and more accurate. Much of course would depend upon individual use case so I'd suggest others do their own tests for suitability.

 

 

[spidershu]

Are there still no updates on this? I am having the same problem on Publisher and on Designer.

I was able to get around it by selecting individual curves instead of the layer with the curves. But now even upon selecting on 3-5 curves, I am getting the "Calculations Timed Out" error.

My computer is not too shabby either. 

13th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-13700HX   2.10 GHz

16.0 GB (15.7 GB usable)

64-bit operating system, x64-based processor

[NathanC]

Hi @spidershu apologies for the late response,

I've bumped the issue with your report and updated it to reflect that it's still a problem in the latest version. If you could send us a copy of your file where you're encountering the error with fewer curves selected I can add this onto the existing report. I've provided a private upload link below.

https://www.dropbox.com/request/cSOOPpt1Oq6gEiAPJ9Xo

Thanks