Need lasso selection tool in Designer and Publisher

[GregTH9457]

The major deficiency of the Affinity V2 Suite is the lack of a lasso selection tool in Designer and Publisher.  The rectangle selection tool does not provide enough control over the selection process to accurately select objects in a complex, closely spaced, vector drawing.  In addition, while the node tool provides for a lasso selection of already selected nodes, it does nothing to help select and move other objects, such as text.  My designs are often very complex with closely spaced objects that can't be selected with a rectangular section tool. 

Both Illustrator and CorelDraw have lasso selection tools, because the free-form selection of objects is essential for manipulating critical vector drawings.  Although I have purchased v2 of the Affinity Suite, I will continue to use CorelDraw for all of my vector drawing needs because of this deficiency.

I hope to see a lasso selection tool in a upcoming v2 update, which will make the Affinity Designer more usable and competitive for creating vector graphics.

Best,

Greg

[Callum]

Hi Greg the lasso tool works with pixels so its only available in the Pixel Persona of Designer. In Publisher you just need to switch to the Photo persona and then hold left click on the Rectangular Selection Marquee to make the flyout menu appear then select the Free Hand Selection Tool.

[Alfred]

@Callum Please see Greg’s post here:

 

[Callum]

1 minute ago, Alfred said:

@Callum Please see Greg’s post here:

 

Ah this makes more sense.

[GregTH9457]

Thanks for the quick response, Callum!  I'm aware of the lasso tools that work with raster graphics, which I often use in Affinity Photo.  However, what I am suggesting is a lasso tool to select and manipulate vector drawings.  This is missing from Designer and Publisher, but the major competitors in this space have this tool available and it is sorely needed in the Affinity Suite.  If Affinity added a lasso tool for vector drawings, the suite would become highly competitive with Adobe and Corel.  Anyone coming from those platforms that has done a lot of vector design will immediately notice the lack of a lasso tool.

Best,

Greg

[Bit Disappointed]

On 2/20/2024 at 5:39 PM, GregTH9457 said:

Thanks for the quick response, Callum!  I'm aware of the lasso tools that work with raster graphics, which I often use in Affinity Photo.  However, what I am suggesting is a lasso tool to select and manipulate vector drawings.  This is missing from Designer and Publisher, but the major competitors in this space have this tool available and it is sorely needed in the Affinity Suite.  If Affinity added a lasso tool for vector drawings, the suite would become highly competitive with Adobe and Corel.  Anyone coming from those platforms that has done a lot of vector design will immediately notice the lack of a lasso tool.

Best,

Greg

 

Yes, I often find myself missing this feature for vector objects, especially in complex designs where such a tool would make selecting specific objects foolproof and quick. The more one works with detailed and complex illustrations, the more crucial this functionality becomes.

[loukash]

On 2/20/2024 at 5:39 PM, GregTH9457 said:

a lasso tool to select and manipulate vector drawings

What exactly do you want to select that you can't select with the Move or the Node-in-lasso-mode tools, and how would you want to manipulate it?
Example please.

Keep in mind that the Affinity apps offer several unique and completely different workflows which many "competitors" don't have. Hence it can well be that some tools are simply not needed in Affinity.

[GregTH9457]

Hello Ioukash,

The attached Designer file is a simple case in which three complex chemical structures containing many vector paths, and which are intermixed with text objects, becomes difficult to edit due to the lack of the lasso tool.  With the so-called "node-in-lasso-mode tool", you can select all the vector paths and manipulate the nodes, but you can do nothing with the text.  Therefore, this does nothing for me.  With the Move tool, you can only draw a rectangular selection box around any one of the structures, but the crude nature of its selection capabilities only allows selection of one of the structures along with major parts of the other structure(s).  In order to isolate a single structure selection, you have to use the coarse selection of the rectangular selector and then press the Shift key while deselecting the numerous parts you don't want selected one at a time.  In addition, since the rectangular selection tool doesn't highlight each selected vector line with selection marks, it becomes even more difficult to know when you've deselected a single vector line (only the text gets highlighted to show what's been selected and needs to be deselected).  This is just one case of many similar vector designs that I have drawn which demonstrates the need for a lasso tool to better select and manipulate complex objects.

I don't believe that a lasso tool, which is so popular in the major vector drawing apps, is suddenly not needed, because Affinity has so many other workflows.  If I have missed a workflow or a special tool that can do the job in Designer, please let me know what I should be doing to make it simpler to use.

Note: For you chemists out there, these are nonsense structures made only to illustrate a point.

Thanks,

Greg

Three chemical structures.afdesign

[loukash]

7 minutes ago, GregTH9457 said:

This is just one case of many similar vector designs that I have drawn which demonstrates the need for a lasso tool to better select and manipulate complex objects.

Thanks.

Looking at the document structure, the first thing I would have done before even starting to draw would be defining a layer hierarchy, and so already grouping objects within a vertical structure as I go. This can be done multiple ways, depending on one's preferences: e.g. either you make layer groups based on neighboring objects, or you make groups based on object types like a "stroke layer group" and a "text layer group".

Then, by switching the "Edit All Layers" button on or off, I can selectively work only with objects contained in one of those layer groups or even its sublayers.

(To be continued: I need to stop here because I must leave now, but I may get back to this thread later tonight or over the weekend.)

[GregTH9457]

Thanks for your reply Ioukash.  Unfortunately, the chemical drawing was brought over as an EMF file from a specialized chemical drawing software program.  As it was brought into Designer, it is grouped as one object.  Ungrouping everything results in each vector line and text object being a separate item in the illustration.  As far as layers are concerned, Affinity brought each of these vectors and text objects in as a different layer.  I didn't count all the layers, but I'm fairly certain there is over 100 in total.  This is not a simple solution but probably much more complicated. 

A lasso is designed to make complex selections simple.  If a lasso was not needed for vector illustrations, Adobe and Corel would have eliminated this tool many years ago.  However, it has been a part of Illustrator and CorelDraw probably for over 25 years and their users make use of it all the time.  It is my standard go-to selection tool.

I'm just trying to suggest something that would make Designer much better and more competitive with Illustrator and CorelDraw.  I am certain other customers would appreciate it, too.

Best,

Greg

[loukash]

On 2/23/2024 at 6:01 PM, GregTH9457 said:

As it was brought into Designer, it is grouped as one object.  Ungrouping everything results in each vector line and text object being a separate item in the illustration. 

I see. Yes, in this case a Lasso Mode for the Move tool would be very handy.

Coincidentally I just stumbled upon an older post of mine on the same topic: 

 

[GregTH9457]

21 hours ago, loukash said:

I see. Yes, in this case a Lasso Mode for the Move tool would be very handy.

Coincidentally I just stumbled upon an older post of mine on the same topic: 

 

That's an even better example for the need of a lasso tool!  I truly hope the developers of Designer can incorporate a lasso into their near-term project plans.

Thanks,

Greg

[Olidoesaffinity]

I agree with OP. I need a lasso selection for the move tool. I hand draw vector designs with lots of complicated overlapping shapes. I need to be able to select multiple shapes that are very close together with high precision. An option in the move tool, just like the node + Alt selection tool would be great.