Line (Stroke) Width Tool

[jackamus]

1 hour ago, AffinityMakesMeSad said:

But, your attached document isn't made in Affinity Designer v.2.50 beta 1 - so, how could you use Line Width Tool then??

Ok I re-save the file from the Beta version now attached. Before saving it I made sure the line tools was available!

Weight of line 2 .afdesign

[Frozen Death Knight]

I noticed that this tool has a hard time staying in one spot when there is overlapping going on along the curve when you want to just adjust the width.

[walt.farrell]

4 minutes ago, jackamus said:

Ok I re-save the file from the Beta version now attached. Before saving it I made sure the line tools was available!

The beta still says that file was saved with the Release version of Designer 2.

[walt.farrell]

2 hours ago, jackamus said:

I was trying to use the line width tool to Make ellipse 'A' like ellipse 'B'. I did B using the Stroke Pressure tab.

'C' is the result of trying to use the line width tool. When a new node is added the line seems to default to a zero width!

I imagine I'm not using it correctly. Advice would be appreciated.

I probably would not use the Line Width Tool for that, as duplicating another object's stroke doesn't seem to be one of its advertised purposes/capabilities.

B already has a pressure profile. So, with B selected, in the Stroke panel you can click on the profile, then Save Profile.

Then select A, and in the Stroke panel click on the pressure profile, and double-click on the saved profile to set A's pressure profile to exactly match the saved one from B.

[Uwe367]

 

On 4/19/2024 at 1:29 PM, Hangman said:

I'm seeing artefacts when line widths applied using the Line Width tool are quite large...

A great Tool and it works very well. Thanks a lot for this.
But i also get artifacts by doing a large Line width like in the posting from @Hangman

[jackamus]

1 hour ago, walt.farrell said:

I probably would not use the Line Width Tool for that, as duplicating another object's stroke doesn't seem to be one of its advertised purposes/capabilities.

B already has a pressure profile. So, with B selected, in the Stroke panel you can click on the profile, then Save Profile.

Then select A, and in the Stroke panel click on the pressure profile, and double-click on the saved profile to set A's pressure profile to exactly match the saved one from B.

Hi Walt,

B is what I'm trying to imitate with C! A is what I started with for both of them.

Attached is the a new drawing using AD Beta to create it. Why does adding 2 a new node default the line thickness to zero?

Weight of line 3 .afdesign

[walt.farrell]

7 minutes ago, jackamus said:

B is what I'm trying to imitate with C! A is what I started with for both of them.

Again, duplicating an existing stroke pressure profile is not a function provided with the Line Width Tool. There's no "copy" function. If you have an existing object with a pressure profile you're better off saving that profile, or possibly using the Style Picker.

7 minutes ago, jackamus said:

Why does adding 2 a new node default the line thickness to zero?

I've no idea. But thanks for the new file.

[thedzko]

Does this feature works with dashed/dotted lines? I can't test this feature right now so, if anyone could confirm this. Thanks.

[Frozen Death Knight]

3 minutes ago, thedzko said:

Does this feature works with dashed/dotted lines? I can't test this feature right now so, if anyone could confirm this. Thanks.

It does not. This only works for regular vector lines and vector raster brushes. If Affinity supported pure vector brushes we could make our own dotted vector lines with varied line widths and even more complex patterns.

[jackamus]

16 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

Again, duplicating an existing stroke pressure profile is not a function provided with the Line Width Tool. There's no "copy" function. If you have an existing object with a pressure profile you're better off saving that profile, or possibly using the Style Picker.

I've no idea. But thanks for the new file.

I don't understand why you keep saying I'm trying to duplicate a pressure profile! Let me put it another way - how do I draw an ellipse, using the line width tool, to look like ellipse 'B'?

[Old Bruce]

7 minutes ago, jackamus said:

I don't understand why you keep saying I'm trying to duplicate a pressure profile! Let me put it another way - how do I draw an ellipse, using the line width tool, to look like ellipse 'B'?

I wouldn't bother with the Line Width tool at all. I would select the ellipse with the desired pressure profile, save the profile and then apply it to the new ellipse. Or I would copy the ellipse with the desired profile and use the Edit > Paste Style to the newly drawn ellipse. Or I would temporarily use the Synchronize Defaults from Selection (the ellipse with the desired profile being the selection) to set my default to the desired profile and then draw a new ellipse.

[Hangman]

27 minutes ago, thedzko said:

Does this feature works with dashed/dotted lines? I can't test this feature right now so, if anyone could confirm this. Thanks.

Technically no because with dashed lines you don't have access to the pressure map so all you see when making changes to a dashed using the line width tool is the entire dashed line becoming thicker or thinner however, if, after applying varying line widths on the dashed line you convert it back to a solid line the line width changes are honoured...

So even though you can't visually see the changes being made to a dashed line, the underlying changes are made but can only be seen visually once converted back to a solid line. It begs the question 'should it be possible to apply different line widths to dashed lines', i.e., should the pressure map also be available for dashed lines as well?

[walt.farrell]

35 minutes ago, jackamus said:

I don't understand why you keep saying I'm trying to duplicate a pressure profile! Let me put it another way - how do I draw an ellipse, using the line width tool, to look like ellipse 'B'?

I say it because that's what you're trying to do. 

If you want another ellipse that looks like B, then duplicate B (Cmd+J). It is you don't want it identical, but similar, use the Style Picker to copy B's appearance and paste onto your other ellipse. 

In other words, pick the right tool for what you're trying to do. As far as I know, the Line Width Tool is the wrong one for your purpose.

[Frozen Death Knight]

Found a visual bug where the mask silhouette breaks when building vectors with the Width Tool when combined with Symbols.

[lepr]

2 hours ago, jackamus said:

how do I draw an ellipse, using the line width tool, to look like ellipse 'B'?

 

 

[jackamus]

3 hours ago, Old Bruce said:

I wouldn't bother with the Line Width tool at all. I would select the ellipse with the desired pressure profile, save the profile and then apply it to the new ellipse. Or I would copy the ellipse with the desired profile and use the Edit > Paste Style to the newly drawn ellipse. Or I would temporarily use the Synchronize Defaults from Selection (the ellipse with the desired profile being the selection) to set my default to the desired profile and then draw a new ellipse.

What I have done in the past is to save the ellipse as an asset to use another time.

[jackamus]

2 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

I say it because that's what you're trying to do. 

If you want another ellipse that looks like B, then duplicate B (Cmd+J). It is you don't want it identical, but similar, use the Style Picker to copy B's appearance and paste onto your other ellipse. 

In other words, pick the right tool for what you're trying to do. As far as I know, the Line Width Tool is the wrong one for your purpose.

Walt you have confirmed what I was thinking and that the line width tool is not appropriate. However it might still have a use for incomplete or partial ellipses. I will check that one out.

[Sean P]

On 4/20/2024 at 3:26 PM, Frozen Death Knight said:

I also noticed that it isn't possible to break the start and end points from each other with the tool.

Old method:

Line Width Tool:

Also, the tool seems to make each curve curved and I don't see any way to make them straight lines between points?

I don't believe this is a bug - In your Line Width Tool image, you can see a Line Width Node has been inserted just below the red dot (not present on the first image), so whilst they are moving together, the fact there is a node really close, makes it appear as though you've broken the line in the pressure graph.

[Dazmondo77]

Had a play around and it's GREAT

Got it set with the same shortcut as pencil N (which is now a pleasure to use)so holding down N temporarily lets you alter line width so can now work really quickly and sort out line widths as I'm drawing ---- loving it

I'm getting the same artefact bugs on thicker line widths and the line width tool not working on additional pages but for first beta really impressed

[Sean P]

16 hours ago, Frozen Death Knight said:

Found a visual bug where the mask silhouette breaks when building vectors with the Width Tool when combined with Symbols.

Do you mind attaching a file with this in please? I'm struggling to reproduce this here!

Thank you!

[StuartRc]

This is going to be a brilliant tool!😀!!!!

I have a couple of questions:
Node Delete
a. I like the ability to delete a width node and reset the line at a particular point [CNTRL + ALT + Node Click] but it looks to be limited to single width nodes; are there any plans to apply a reset to multiple nodes? or add a full reset of the line to the context bar (just think that would be useful!) Otherwise, if you create complex shape lines using the tool (Not that I would normally) you could spend a lot of time tweaking and editing.
Edits
b. Also like the [CNTRL + Click] on width node to access 'Set Line width at point'. Very useful for precise positioning. This would also be useful to set a greater range or frequency. such as 'alternate' or 'all'
UI
c. On the popup the bar title says: 'Set Line WIDTH at point but the Field Label is Weight!
Pressure Graph
d. Attempting to edit the Pressure Graph associated with the line at the same time editing the line with the width tool is a bit frustrating as the pressure graph closes each time you click on the object line

[Frozen Death Knight]

2 hours ago, Sean P said:

Do you mind attaching a file with this in please? I'm struggling to reproduce this here!

Thank you!

Here you go!

Vector 2.5 Testing 2.afpub

[dominik]

24 minutes ago, StuartRc said:

Pressure Graph
d. Attempting to edit the Pressure Graph associated with the line at the same time editing the line with the width tool is a bit frustrating as the pressure graph closes each time you click on the object line

@StuartRc, great suggestions.

I support the last one. Have a way to keep the pressure graph open ... and to resize it!

d.

[Frozen Death Knight]

6 hours ago, Sean P said:

I don't believe this is a bug - In your Line Width Tool image, you can see a Line Width Node has been inserted just below the red dot (not present on the first image), so whilst they are moving together, the fact there is a node really close, makes it appear as though you've broken the line in the pressure graph.

I know. I am just saying that the functionality isn't there for breaking the start and end widths from each other like in the Profile panel. You can get practically the similar effect, sure, but the tool just doesn't handle it the same way as when doing it from the panel. Might be worth considering if you want to add it in to make them behave the same across the board.

[Frozen Death Knight]

By the way, I appreciate that it is easy to set the width to 0 with the tool when clicking on the line. Makes it easy to break a line when intersecting with others to create the illusion that it is cut when it is not. I hope that will remain with some sort of modifier if it of some reason is decided to be changed.