Pencil Tool Improvements

[WeronikaSalach]

Oh, sadly I’m not very happy with the new auto-close. Is there a way to go back to the previous version?  I liked that the curve closed itself, even if the start and end nodes were farther away. It made hand-drawing vectors much easier and faster. Now I have to go through the effort of getting as close to the first node as possible, and also creating unnecessary node points on the way. The old pencil tool would just snap-close itself and create a straight line, kinda like the pen tool.

On top of that, the sculpt mode doesn’t close itself automatically, so there is really no other faster way of working for me.

I just released a new illustration course and I will probably need to do some extra work, producing a bonus lesson, explaining this to my students.

[MEB]

Hi @WeronikaSalach,
Not all users were happy with the changes made. Same liked the previous algorithm while others missed some of the options. I believe some changes/improvements based on user feedback will be added back/implemented but can't give much details for now.

You can revert to previous version downloading it from here:
macOS
Windows

[CLMBsCrackedKnuckleP]

2 minutes ago, MEB said:

Hi @WeronikaSalach,

You can revert to previous version downloading it from here:
macOS
Windows

Thank you for your reply :). I've done this on my MacBook Pro already, but from what I've seen there's no way to go back to v2.4.2 on my iPad Pro. 

[MEB]

@CLMBsCrackedKnuckleP,
No sorry, there's no way to go back on iPad.

[CLMBsCrackedKnuckleP]

10 hours ago, MEB said:

@CLMBsCrackedKnuckleP,
No sorry, there's no way to go back on iPad.

All the same, thank you for letting me know and answering my questions. Have a great day.

[keiichi77]

I hate it. Real problems has not been solved: the sculpt tool always confuses and cuts large parts of the shape if I try to modify it next to the starting pont. It would be nice to add some math condition just to make a smart guess that whenever I draw something consisting of 2000 points and I change a segment containing 3 points (next to or involving the starting point), maybe I don't do this to delete 1997 points and keep 3 of it. Just a smart guess, just not to be plain stupid.

The new 'improved pencil' smooths out and redraws the shape I've drawn and creates a shape I don't even recognize. It mutated into an evil troll pencil, and it still doesn't understand the scale of the details, that's no big deal, but an affection slider would be nice, to add some input where I could communicate to the tool that the next thing I will draw is not one of the ears of a cat consisting of two points. Because I don't use the pencil tool to draw something what consist of 10 points.
 

[Affinity Info Bot]

The issue "Pencil Tool's Auto Close should not fill the shape if Use Fill is unchecked" (REF: AF-2785) has been fixed by the developers in internal build "2.6.0.2551".
This fix should soon be available as a customer beta and is planned for inclusion in the next customer release.
Customer beta builds are announced here and you can participate by following these instructions.
If you still experience this problem once you are using that build version (or later) please reply to this thread including @Affinity Info Bot to notify us.

[CLMBsCrackedKnuckleP]

On 7/5/2024 at 4:46 PM, Affinity Info Bot said:

The issue "Pencil Tool's Auto Close should not fill the shape if Use Fill is unchecked" (REF: AF-2785) has been fixed by the developers in internal build "2.6.0.2551".
This fix should soon be available as a customer beta and is planned for inclusion in the next customer release.
Customer beta builds are announced here and you can participate by following these instructions.
If you still experience this problem once you are using that build version (or later) please reply to this thread including @Affinity Info Bot to notify us.

Thank you for your work on the issue. I'm looking forward to returning to my project when it's updated.

[WeronikaSalach]

I had a chat with Serif and they’ll “improve it back” with the next update 🙃

[LukeMcConkey]

Hey Ash, 

It would be awesome if the Pencil tool had a trim paths feature so you could accurately get rid of paths that overshoot intersections. I think it would also make the Vector Flood Fill tool much better too! 

[Bri-Toon]

7 hours ago, LukeMcConkey said:

Hey Ash, 

It would be awesome if the Pencil tool had a trim paths feature so you could accurately get rid of paths that overshoot intersections. I think it would also make the Vector Flood Fill tool much better too! 

That can be done with the Shape Builder Tool. It works with overlapping open paths as well.

[Alfred]

9 hours ago, LukeMcConkey said:

It would be awesome if the Pencil tool had a trim paths feature so you could accurately get rid of paths that overshoot intersections.

 

1 hour ago, Bri-Toon said:

That can be done with the Shape Builder Tool.

 

 

 

[JhonatanS]

1 hour ago, Alfred said:

 

 

 

 

I think this is not exactly the best solution.

As someone that draw a lot with pencil tool,

having to switch to shape builder tool while drawing just to remove the intersections is not a good drawing experience, it interrupts a lot the workflow.

 

if we could have a shortcut / mode that can use pencil tool to simply delete is much better and make seamlessly.

 

also considering that in shape builder you must select the lines in order to remove.

it's too much step to make a simple result in long drawing sessions

[keiichi77]

On 8/8/2024 at 3:49 AM, JhonatanS said:

also considering that in shape builder you must select the lines in order to remove

both lines must be selected whatever operation you perform on them, either ways the commands need a cutting line.

you can press ctrl A and then S to quickly select everything and switch to shapebuilder tool. 
or you can set a hotkey to Select all on current layer if you have a container layer.
or you can just click on the layer (on layer panel) to select everything.
or you can select parent with pageup key.

I just don't understand your feature request, other softwares also use an eraser tool to do this job.

if there were an option to keep everything selected while drawing in the same container it would be an easing factor.

[JhonatanS]

3 hours ago, keiichi77 said:

both lines must be selected whatever operation you perform on them, either ways the commands need a cutting line.

you can press ctrl A and then S to quickly select everything and switch to shapebuilder tool. 
or you can set a hotkey to Select all on current layer if you have a container layer.
or you can just click on the layer (on layer panel) to select everything.
or you can select parent with pageup key.

I just don't understand your feature request, other softwares also use an eraser tool to do this job.

if there were an option to keep everything selected while drawing in the same container it would be an easing factor.

I will attach this video that shows really well about this feature.

See how the process works with ease, during the illustration in long drawing sessions this is awesome

Yes I tried the method that you've mentioned when the shape builder came out, is still pain because you must stop to make selections.

- Affinity doesn't offer a direct erase tool in vector

 

[Affinity Info Bot]

The issue "Nodes are removed when smooth curve is used on a curve with a bump/arm" (REF: AF-2783) has been fixed by the developers in the latest beta build (2.6.0.2805). The fix is planned for inclusion in the next customer release.
Customer beta builds are announced here and you can participate by following these instructions.
If you still experience this problem once you are using that build version (or later) please reply to this thread including @Affinity Info Bot to notify us.

[Affinity Info Bot]

The issue "Nodes are removed when smooth curve is used on a curve with a bump/arm" (REF: AF-2783) has been fixed by the developers in the latest beta build (2.6.0.2805). The fix is planned for inclusion in the next customer release.
Customer beta builds are announced here and you can participate by following these instructions.
If you still experience this problem once you are using that build version (or later) please reply to this thread including @Affinity Info Bot to notify us.

[Affinity Info Bot]

The issue "Pencil Tool's Auto Close should not fill the shape if Use Fill is unchecked" (REF: AF-2785) has been fixed by the developers in the latest beta build (2.6.0.2805). The fix is planned for inclusion in the next customer release.
Customer beta builds are announced here and you can participate by following these instructions.
If you still experience this problem once you are using that build version (or later) please reply to this thread including @Affinity Info Bot to notify us.