Contour tool not showing numerical feedback

[Ted H]

Apologies if that post title makes no sense. I was unsure how to word it concisely.

So today I was trying to draw a logo, and I went to use the contour tool. Normally when I use the contour tool, I start by hovering my cursor over the numerical radius box and use the wheel on my trackball to quickly make the contour bigger or smaller, then I might drag the slider underneath the radius box or type in numbers for more precision. Worked fine until I updated to 2.5, then it started acting strangely. So I thought perhaps it was a 2.5 thing, so I opened the file in the Beta version, and the same issue occurred.

Let me pause to say exactly what I'm using.I'm working on an M1 Mac Mini running Sonoma 14.5. I started out in Designer 2.5, and then switched to Designer Beta 2.5.2 (2486). When I opened the Beta, it prompted me to install the latest version, which I did, so hopefully I'm up to date there.

Okay, on the describing the issue: if I use the trackball wheel to hover over the radius box and adjust the contour, it appears to just be flicking between two settings and not going millimeter by millimeter like it usually does, and the number in the box stays the same. (It actually quickly flickers between two different numbers, but ultimately settles on whatever number was originally displayed.) So I click on the little down arrow to show the slider to adjust the contour, and I try using that. That works, letting me change the contour across a wide range as expected, but again the number in the box flickers but ultimately stays at the same number, even though the contour has obviously contracted or expanded the actual shape. So then I tried clicking in the radius box and typing in a specific number. This works, and the contour of the shape does change to what appears to correspond to the number I typed in, but then the box immediately goes back to showing the number it started with. (The actual contour stays in place though.) This all happens in both Designer 2.5 and Designer Beta. I created a new document to do some experiments in order to give y'all as much information as I could. The contour tool works just fine on a simple object like a square or something I draw with the pen tool. The wonky behaviour I've described seems to happen when you apply the contour tool to a group of objects. (Actually, I just did a test by drawing a simple shape, grouping that solo shape, and using the contour tool on this new group, and it does the same wonky thing even as a group of one.)

I also tried making a compound path by drawing a square with a circle on top and using the mathematical to subtract the circle from the square, and then used the contour tool on it. Everything worked as it should.

I'm happy to provide any other information you might need.

[Ted H]

Forgot to mention; when I first experienced this problem today, after fiddling around with the contour tool in Designer 2.5 for a minute or so trying to figure out what was going on, Designer actually crashed. I got the rainbow pizza and had to force quit Designer.

[Ted H]

Apologies for the multiple messages. I went back to my document and tried to limp through my project creation. Used the radius slider to adjust my contour by eyeballing it (since the number box wasn't changing.) Had it set to what looked good to me. Then I clicked the "Bake Appearance" button so I could work with the resultant shape, and instead of simply baking the appearance, it made another contour the same distance from the actual contour as the actual contour was from the original shape, with some weird janky loops appearing at some of the nodes. I hit undo, clicked away from the contoured shape and tried again, and this time it Baked just fine.

[Affinity Info Bot]

An issue raised in this thread ("Radius value for the Contour Tool doesn't work on grouped objects") has now been reported to the developers by the testing team (Ref: AF-1870). Thank you very much for reporting this issue to us.

[Gabe]

Thanks. We are aware of this issue.