Other Improvements

[Ash]

There are a few other minor improvements to mention in 2.5:

1. Some new cameras have been added to LibRAW:

• FujiFilm X100VI
• Leica SL3
• Pentax KF (Rioch)
• Samsung Galaxy S23+
• Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra
• Sony ILCE-9M3 (A9 III) [improved]

2. As was requested in a few places before and on the last beta, when you have "Transform objects separately" checked and have a multi-selection, if you type a value in either the width or height field and precede it with an equals sign (e.g. H: '=100px') then it will set all objects in that selection to have that specific width or height value entered. This is opposed to scaling the other objects in your selection proportionally based on the key object which is he result you get without the equals sign.

3. DWG polylines import improvements

We have made some substantial improvements when importing polylines, which now ignores the cached points which AutoCAD creates. This simplifies the resulting curves substantially.

[Affinity Info Bot]

Known Issues in this feature
A list of unresolved issues for this feature, reported by users

Released Fixes
A list of issues for this feature, available in the current beta build

• AF-2809 - = expression with Transform Objects Separately enabled is failing in Publisher

Upcoming Fixes
A list of issues for this feature, which will be available in a forthcoming build

[Jon S]

Hi, no lens correction available for  Galaxy s23 on windows 10. File is being correctly identified as coming from S23.

 

Cheers.

[Aammppaa]

On 4/12/2024 at 1:59 PM, Ash said:

2. As was requested in a few places before and on the last beta, when you have "Transform objects separately" checked and have a multi-selection, if you type a value in either the width or height field and precede it with an equals sign (e.g. H: '=100px') then it will set all objects in that selection to have that specific width or height value entered. This is opposed to scaling the other objects in your selection proportionally based on the key object which is he result you get without the equals sign.

This is great. Thanks.

[Frozen Death Knight]

@Aammppaa How does it work? I activated Transform Objects Separately and typed in "=100" in the Height box in the Transform panel. The objects did not become 100 pixels in height except the one I had selected.

[walt.farrell]

39 minutes ago, Frozen Death Knight said:

except the one I had selected

If you only have one item selected that's the only one that would be affected.

[Frozen Death Knight]

6 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

If you only have one item selected that's the only one that would be affected.

I have more than one item selected, which is why I ask how to get it to work.

[walt.farrell]

3 minutes ago, Frozen Death Knight said:

I have more than one item selected, which is why I ask how to get it to work.

Then what did you mean by "except the one I have selected"? 

Perhaps a screenshot would help?

[Frozen Death Knight]

12 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

Then what did you mean by "except the one I have selected"? 

Perhaps a screenshot would help?

It means only the key object has a height of 100 pixels while everything else gets resized, but none of them have 100 pixel heights like the key object. 

[anto]

On 4/12/2024 at 3:59 PM, Ash said:

2. As was requested in a few places before and on the last beta, when you have "Transform objects separately" checked and have a multi-selection, if you type a value in either the width or height field and precede it with an equals sign (e.g. H: '=100px') then it will set all objects in that selection to have that specific width or height value entered. This is opposed to scaling the other objects in your selection proportionally based on the key object which is he result you get without the equals sign.

I don't understand what it means either.
@Ash Could you attach a video with an example?

[MikeTO]

30 minutes ago, anto said:

I don't understand what it means either.
@Ash Could you attach a video with an example?

Here's a video demonstrating the new option.

 

 

[anto]

15 minutes ago, MikeTO said:

Here's a video demonstrating the new option.

And what's the difference when you use the transform separately in 2 and 3 times, with and without "="? I don't see any, only that the shapes jump in different directions.

 

[anto]

I did a few experiments.
Now I understand. Without the "=" sign, the size changes proportionally for all shapes, and with the "=" sign, the size becomes the same for all shapes.
But it's not intuitive and very hidden. An ordinary user will never find it.
It would be better if, when clicking on the Transform objects separately button, you could choose to either transform the objects proportionally or align them to the same height or width.

[loukash]

5 hours ago, anto said:

An ordinary user will never find it.

That's why it will be very likely mentioned and described in the user manual, once the feature has been finalized.
Because e.g. I, for one, also don't remember every field input expression by heart, even after all those years, and may need to look them up every now and then…

[anto]

1 minute ago, loukash said:

That's why it will be very likely mentioned and described in the user manual,

But why look for it in the manual? It should be intuitive. No one looks in a manual to find out how to resize a rectangle. They just drag the node. Isn't that right?

[loukash]

Just now, anto said:

why look for it in the manual?

Because that's what manuals are being written for…?  
A self-respecting professional software user reads manuals – if available – to learn all those nifty tricks that may be intentionally hidden from the surface in order not to distract novice users. Perhaps it's just me, but that's how I've been proceeding in the past 35 years of my DTP experience. (Although, back in 1989 I didn't have a user manual for the PageMaker 3 that someone installed on the Macintosh SE/30 in the public university library, and it took me quite some time to figure it all out by myself, without any former computer training while I was at design school…)

8 minutes ago, anto said:

It should be intuitive.

Once I have looked it up (in Ash's post above, as it's not in the manual yet), it appears totally obvious and intuitive to me. But again, perhaps it's just me…  

10 minutes ago, anto said:

No one looks in a manual to find out how to resize a rectangle. They just drag the node. Isn't that right?

And you still can. It hasn't been taken away.

[Frozen Death Knight]

10 hours ago, MikeTO said:

Here's a video demonstrating the new option.

 

Screen Recording 2024-04-21 at 1.45.11 AM.mov 18.22 MB · 5 downloads  

 

Thanks a bunch! I don't know what changed, but I was able to get it to work now. I remember typing = into the Transform panel, but last night it didn't work. Odd.

A great quality of life feature for sure. I need this every time I drag in reference images and having to align them in a grid like fashion. It's even better that it takes Lock Aspect Ratio into account as well. Much appreciated!

Edit: Did another test with the X, Y, Rotation, and Sheer values and it works there as well. Fantastic!

[chessboard]

On 4/12/2024 at 2:59 PM, Ash said:

We have made some substantial improvements when importing polylines, which now ignores the cached points which AutoCAD creates. This simplifies the resulting curves substantially.

 

Well, now that this exists - wouldn't that also be a nice algorithm to simplify ANY path or shape, no matter if it's imported or drawn in the Affinity-Apps directly? Or to put it more clearly, can we now have a "Simplify path" command?

[fde101]

1 hour ago, chessboard said:

wouldn't that also be a nice algorithm to simplify ANY path or shape

They are not simplifying it artificially.  They are ignoring nodes that are already flagged to be ignored by the file they are reading the shape from.

To simplify an arbitrary existing shape they would need an algorithm to identify which nodes to remove and/or adjust, which is not part of what they are doing here.

[Intuos5]

22 hours ago, anto said:

But why look for it in the manual? It should be intuitive. No one looks in a manual to find out how to resize a rectangle. They just drag the node. Isn't that right?

Using software requires training. To assume that everything should be intuitive makes no sense in that context.

There will always be new things to discover and people also forget about existing features. These types of expressions are of this kind.

[Dazmondo77]

1 hour ago, chessboard said:

Well, now that this exists - wouldn't that also be a nice algorithm to simplify ANY path or shape, no matter if it's imported or drawn in the Affinity-Apps directly? Or to put it more clearly, can we now have a "Simplify path" command?

I was thinking the same thing

20 minutes ago, fde101 said:

To simplify an arbitrary existing shape they would need an algorithm to identify which nodes to remove and/or adjust, which is not part of what they are doing here.

☹️

[Intuos5]

Indeed, you can only smooth curves. This import feature is about getting rid of cached data from the DWG, meaning segmentation that is added for display purposes.

[EricP]

regarding enhancement 2, I really like the idea and using = for this but for some reason I can get it to work. I get a red = sign when I enter in W or H in transform panel

[anto]

1 hour ago, Intuos5 said:

Using software requires training. To assume that everything should be intuitive makes no sense in that context.

There will always be new things to discover and people also forget about existing features. These types of expressions are of this kind.

I haven't used Indesign for 10 years and have never used a feature like this. But now I tried it and it took me 5 minutes to find it without the help of the manual.

 

Could you please consider to add this function to the menu so that you can assign a keyboard shortcut. Alternatively, assign a default "=" sign when a group is selected and the Transform object separately icon is selected, too.  Something similar to the Cycle Selection Box. Pressing and releasing the "=" button changes the objects from proportional alignment to the same size.

[AffinityMakesMeWonder]

33 minutes ago, anto said:

I haven't used Indesign for 10 years and have never used a feature like this. But now I tried it and it took me 5 minutes to find it without the help of the manual.

 

 

Why why why do you relate to Indesign in this thread??

It's really really Off-Topic...

Affinity Publisher isn't Adobe Indesign, so, what's the point??