Unsure term: to reset bounding box

[Oridraw]

Hi All,

Hope I can get advice on how to:

+ See screenshot of object, on Windows 2.4 Affinity Designer: I would like to would make this square/flat on bottom bounding box, it does not when I click "add", it stays diamond form.

+ Is there a way to make it square, not a diamond shape selection box?

Thanks.

[bbrother]

33 minutes ago, Oridraw said:

is there a way to make it square, not a diamond shape selection box?

Yes, it is possible. You can achieve this using two options:

• Cycle selection box
• Set selection box (new in 2.4 you can read about it here)

What they do is:
Cycle selection box changes the selection's selection box to vertical.
Set selection box makes this change permanent. Wchich means the object now will use this orientation as default when you select it.

Example video↓

P.S You can also look at the documentation, specifically Selecting objects → Selection box types, to familiarize yourself with the terms used in ADe, if you are interested, of course. But it's worth it because the more precise the question, the better the answer.

I hope I helped @Oridraw, best regards

[Oridraw]

Thanks. That partly helps, why though even after clicking "add" once that done and then as per screenshot, selection box stays square now though does not stay close to object?

[MEB]

Hi @Oridraw,
Welcome to Affinity Forums
It should "stay close" to the boundaries of the object. Can you please attach the .afdesign file with that object for inspection? Thanks.

[Oridraw]

3 minutes ago, MEB said:

Hi @Oridraw,
Welcome to Affinity Forums
It should "stay close" to the boundaries of the object. Can you please attach the .afdesign file with that object for inspection? Thanks.

Hi. Sorry, needed to add that it is close to object, it is only when I "group" object (so proportions are held when I scale from a corner), that the bounding box goes away from object. If I do not group object, it stays close to object. Is there a way that one can group object like this whereby bounding box stays close/tight to object, I tried to add before group and that did not work?

[Oridraw]

Just now, Oridraw said:

Hi. Sorry, needed to add that it is close to object, it is only when I "group" object (so proportions are held when I scale from a corner), that the bounding box goes away from object. If I do not group object, it stays close to object. Is there a way that one can group object like this whereby bounding box stays close/tight to object, I tried to add before group and that did not work?

 

Object bounding box set.afdesign

[MEB]

I've replicated it here. When you group the object it is still considering the original base box boundaries to define the group bounding box, not the new one (selection box) you set it to. I'm checking if this is logged and whether or not this can be improved. Thanks.

[walt.farrell]

32 minutes ago, Oridraw said:

so proportions are held when I scale from a corner

That should be controlled by your application Settings, under Tools, for Move Tool Aspect Constraint. This can be set to one of these (terminology may be wrong, but the functions are correctly specified):

1. Always constrain: In this one the aspect ratio will be maintained unless you press Shift.
2. Never constrain: In this one the aspect ration will not be maintained, unless you press Shift.
3. Automatic: Constraining or not will be determined by the application, based on the object characteristics. If it's making the wrong choice for what you want to accomplish, press Shift.

[Oridraw]

53 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

That should be controlled by your application Settings, under Tools, for Move Tool Aspect Constraint. This can be set to one of these (terminology may be wrong, but the functions are correctly specified):

1. Always constrain: In this one the aspect ratio will be maintained unless you press Shift.
2. Never constrain: In this one the aspect ration will not be maintained, unless you press Shift.
3. Automatic: Constraining or not will be determined by the application, based on the object characteristics. If it's making the wrong choice for what you want to accomplish, press Shift.

Thanks for this "work around", very helpful, and means I don't need to group or hold down shift when scaling.

[Oridraw]

Just now, Oridraw said:

Thanks for this "work around", very helpful, and means I don't need to group or hold down shift when scaling.

In event I want to scale n object like one I indicated in this topic, that I change bounding box orientation. If it is a flat square, grouping would have worked fine for scaling from corner.

[fearville]

I'm having a similar (i think) issue. 

In Designer v2.4.2 on Mac OS Sonoma 14.4.1, have a circular object (group) for which the bounding/selection box is too big. I want to resize the selection box so it fits the object exactly. It seems like the issue is that one of the elements in the object has been rotated. I've just had a go at ungrouping the entire thing and then rotating the rotated elements a tiny bit and it allows me to set the right size selection box. however when I regroup all the elements the selection box goes back to the original wrong size. Anyone know why this is? It is going to be quite inconvenient if the only way I can have the right size selection box is by not having the elements grouped. 

Does anyone know of a workaround? I really need this logo to have a selection box that is the right size and I don't understand why this is so complicated 😞 

I'm attaching the file. Hope this makes sense and I hope I'm posting in the right place!

Thanks in advance 🤞

test2.afdesign

[carl123]

@fearville

I'm not sure if the issue raised in this thread was ever logged as a bug or an improvement request but it remains the same in the current beta.

i.e. You can't use a group (or Layer) as a container for your rotated objects (without the bounding box looking wrong). So, one way around the issue is to use a different kind of container.

E.g. If you use a filled rectangle the same size of your logo design and clipped/masked all the 4 elements of your logo inside that rectangle then selecting the rectangle would give you the correctly sized bounding box

The problem with the above is that the Rectangle will still be visible outside your Logo so you have to change its fill colour to match whatever design the Logo will be used on

 

A better approach would be to use a filled curve which is in the shape of the outline of your Logo, then clip/mask all the 4 elements of your logo inside that curve, which will ensure you logo has a transparent background and can be used on top of any design.

In the attached example I....

Ungrouped your logo
Duplicated your logo (the 4 parts of it)
Selected and Boolean added one set of your logo (4 parts) to give me a filled curve
Then clipped/masked all the 4 elements of your logo inside that curve

PS I don't use Designer that much so someone else may be able to simplify the above for you or suggest a different/better technique 

 

 

test2B.afdesign

[lepr]

8 hours ago, fearville said:

Does anyone know of a workaround? I really need this logo to have a selection box that is the right size and I don't understand why this is so complicated 😞

If you select the Group then press the period key, the selection box temporarily will be the regular bounds of the contained objects. If that doesn't help, is there a particular reason you need the Group's selection box permanently to be the regular bounds?

[fearville]

Thank you so much for this and sorry I'm only just responding! Problem solved I think – much appreciated 😊