Line Tool

[Jbone547]

Is there a Simple line tool to make a horizontal or vertical line?

[Leigh]

Welcome to the forums Jbone547 :D

 

You can draw horizontal & vertical lines with the Pen Tool by pressing ⇧ (shift).

[ProfessorB]

Okay, one can create a line with the pen tool, but how does one keep the line? Every time I create a line then if I do anything else the line disappears. Extremely frustrating and I have tried to figure this out for about an hour now to no avail. Please help!

[ProfessorB]

Once I draw a line with the pen tool, how do I release it? No matter what I click on, the line instantly disappears. Any help?

[Oval]

Once I draw a line with the pen tool, how do I release it? No matter what I click on, the line instantly disappears. Any help?

 

Welcome here, ProfessorB. Use the Outline View Mode and you will see your line, right?

[R C-R]

Another way to verify that the line object exists even if it seems to disappear is to select the Move tool & type CMD + A to select all objects. This will place a bonding box around everything & display a count of objects in the contextual menu. So even if the line has no stroke or fill or is located completely off the canvas, you will get a visual indication of where it is.

 

However, note that if the object layer is locked, it will be excluded from the 'Select All' step & that if its layer is hidden (no checkmark in the visibility column in the Layers panel), even Outline View Mode won't reveal it.

[MEB]

Hi ProfessorB,

Welcome to Affinity Forums :)

The line probably doesn't have a width applied to the stroke (so there's nothing to draw on screen) or the stroke may be white and you can't see it against a white background. To make it visible, as soon as you draw you first point (click), go to the context toolbar. click on the width dropdown and change the Width slider to any value on the pop up. Make sure you set the stroke's colour to something different from the canvas background colour. Then continue drawing the line on the canvas. It should now be visible.

 

To select/view previous lines you may have drawn (with no width) go to menu View ▸ View Mode Outline ▸ Outline, select them with the Move Tool and change their width as described above. You can then go back to  View ▸ View Mode Outline ▸ Vector mode again as @Oval suggested. There's an icon on the main toolbar to change View Modes quickly (see screenshot).

 

[ProfessorB]

Before you answer the question, please read it. Let me rephrase the question (it is much simpler than all of you are making it): 

 

Choose the pen tool. Click on the canvas/page/drawing space and drag to create a line. The line will have a node at each end and a larger node in the center. Now, what does one do? If one clicks on another tool the line disappears. If one clicks within the canvas area the line disappears. If one does ANYTHING other than the secret action (must be, because I have spent hours trying to discover the secret action), the line disappears. This is an incredibly non-intuitive action! Please help...

 

PS - I could probably find the answer somewhere online if I knew how to phrase the question properly. One would think that just reading about the Pen tool would do the trick, but I cannot find this issue addressed anywhere.

[A_B_C]

Well, you actually created only a single node, and the “line” you created is just the line connecting the Bézier handles that will control the curvature of the line that you will create as soon as you add a second node.  :)

 

See my video …  :)

Alex

[A_B_C]

Here are some explanations on (cubic) Bézier curves:

 

http://www.graphicdesignfree.com/vector-art-and-the-bezier-curve/

(practical)

 

https://pomax.github.io/bezierinfo/

(mathematical background)

 

And a game that will help you master the pen tool:

 

http://bezier.method.ac

 

Hope that helps …

Alex  :)

[ProfessorB]

No one is understanding this problem. It is very simple. Using the pen tool, click on the screen, then move to a different location and click again. A line will appear between the two points. The line will have a node on each end. What is the VERY NEXT ACTION that will convert this into a permanent straight line? It isn't selecting the MOVE  tool. It isn't pressing the ESC key. It isn't pressing the RETURN key. What is it? I really can't make the question any simpler. Anyone have an answer?

[Alfred]

No one is understanding this problem. It is very simple. Using the pen tool, click on the screen, then move to a different location and click again. A line will appear between the two points. The line will have a node on each end. What is the VERY NEXT ACTION that will convert this into a permanent straight line?

 

There isn't a very next action: if you've clicked to create a start node and then clicked elsewhere to create an end node, it's already a "permanent" straight line. If it disappears from view when you deselect it, then it must have no stroke width (line weight) or no stroke colour, or the colour must be the same as the colour of the background. What do you see in the Layers panel before and after attempting to draw the line?

[gdenby]

Stop trying to draw a line. its obviously impossible. )-:

[ProfessorB]

Okay, if there is no “very next action” then the line is already permanent, right? So the problem is not after I draw the line, but before I draw the line. If I have already chosen a line style, color and width, then a line with those attributes should appear, right? It doesn’t. I can never get anything on the screen except thin blue lines. Which disappear when I do anything. Does that help you?

 

Thanks

[Alfred]

If I have already chosen a line style, color and width, then a line with those attributes should appear, right? It doesn’t. I can never get anything on the screen except thin blue lines. Which disappear when I do anything. Does that help you?

 

I think it might help if you were to answer the question that I asked in my previous post:

 

What do you see in the Layers panel before and after attempting to draw the line?

[R C-R]

ProfessorB, please try this:

 

1. Create a new Affinity Designer document. Make sure "Transparent background" is not checked. You should see an empty white canvas.

2. Select the Pen tool. Verify that in the Context toolbar it says "Pen" on the left.

3. In the Context toolbar the third item is "Stroke," with color & stroke style selection popups. Set the stroke color to black, the stroke style to Solid Line Style (the second item in the Style section), and move the Width slider to the right, so it is set to something other than zero.

4. In the canvas, click once to start the line. Do not drag with the mouse button down, just click & release the mouse button.

5. Repeat step 4 at another location on the canvas.

6. Switch to the Move tool. Click anywhere in the canvas other than on the line.

 

Does the line still disappear?

 

EDIT: One other thing to check: In the Color panel, make sure you have not set the stroke color to 0% opacity.

[ProfessorB]

Thanks, Alfred, I did miss that question - my apologies. I want to confirm: The Layers panel is normally on the extreme right, right? There was one layer with a triangle on the left side, which when pressed, opened up a bunch of rectangles below the original one that appear to be the ones I tried to draw earlier. Some of these rectangles show a little icon of the line, and some of those are thick and red, so clearly the attributes are attached. But when I click on the layer, the drawing appears on the screen but still as only thin blue lines. It looks like if I click on a layer that has a red, thick line icon, then that line with its attributes should appear on the screen (it doesn't) . Does that help?

[ProfessorB]

Oh, PS - when I draw the line, another layer appears in the Layer panel. 

[R C-R]

Your problem seems to be that you have set some of your layers to be invisible. There is a checkbox to the right of each layer in the Layers panel. Only layers with that box checked will be visible.

[ProfessorB]

RC-R, that was effective. I now have a big black permanent line. Problem is, I was pretty sure I did all that before, but I probably missed something. Thanks, and many thanks also to Alex and Alfred. 

[R C-R]

Glad you got this sorted this out. Once you provided the info Alfred requested, it was easy to see what the problem was. If you run into any more problems, please keep that in mind -- there are almost always a lot of possible reasons for something that seems simple to not work as expected, so it is always a good idea to provide as much info as you can, even if it does not all seem relevant.

[Oval]

Yes, ProfessorB. Provide more details if you don’t get a solution. This is why we asked a question in May. But without a reply, …

[fernandolins86]

This was some intense reading haha

[Tony Ennis]

I am having a similar issue as @ProfessorB. Now it seems I have to read this whole thing. #intense  😁