Resizing ellipses within a layer (group)

[Jim Monson]

In my AD map docs there are many ellipses in one layer/group to show site locations. They are 40x20 pts in size with a stroke of 6 pts. I would like to resize them all 85% to 34x17 pts, and if possible reduce the stroke by 85% at the same time.

 

In Illustrator I did this by "Transform Each" since transforming the entire group/layer would also reduce the width and height of the entire group and thus reposition of each ellipse. AD also treats the layer/group as unit, reflected in the width and height in Transform.

 

Does AD have such a feature as Illustrator "Transform Each?"

[MEB]

Hi Jim Monson,

No, currently Affinity doesn't have a "transform each" functionality. You have to do it manually for each ellipse.

This was already requested a few times and hopefully will be considered for a future update.

[JimmyJack]

Yeah, no such tool.

 

I'm assuming the important part is to keep them in their same positions :rolleyes: .

 

It's a shame that the dimensions aren't being reduced by the same number of points in both directions.

That could have been done in a batch process.... A couple of steps long but a batch process nonetheless.

[JimmyJack]

Okay..... I think I've got it!!

 

"Bout 4 steps. If your ellipses are still shapes and not curves.

 

Let me know and I'll walk you through....

[Jim Monson]

I'm very interesting in you "bout 4 steps," JimmyJack. Importing from Illustrator turned all my ellipses into curves, but I made new ellipses in AD and am trying to resize them in batch (as Transform Each in Illustrator). In Illustrator I had to select all of the objects, deselect one of them and it worked, and then reduce the one by itself. This was because they were all in the same layer ... which they had to be since Illustrator does not allow an object to be at the top layer level. While this took some time, it was faster than resizing each ellipse separately. Thanks for any help you can offer.

[JimmyJack]

Hey Jim sorry I didn't get back to this sooner.

 

I made a vid here.

 

But in a nutshell:

Again you need to have shapes to do this.... which will, through the process become curves. So keep that in mind.

1. Group your ovals. Copy Group.

2. boolean add everything in the first group.

3. Select all shapes in the copied group, and activate the node or ellipse tool. Click Make Donut in context tool area. Type in 85%.

4. Boolean add that group. 

5. Subtract that from the original. (...then Divide if you want them all separate).

 

Stroke change is easy to do to everything at once. Just select and assign the value (or use an expression, as I did in the vid).

 

Okay.....so it was five steps. But those five steps can change hundreds (or however many boolean will tolerate) at a time.  :)

 

(it's still just a workaround.... of course we would love a Transform Each option)

[Jim Monson]

Many thanks, JimmyJack. The video was also very useful. I happened to see some of your other videos which were also very helpful. Keep up the helping hand. It's appreciated.

 

I'm going to give this a whirl now but I may run into a problem since ending up with curves leaves me with no current option in AD to transform them back into ellipses. This is necessary when exporting SVGs since a oval curve exports to a larger SVG than an ellipse (just four numbers). I'm working on a map app with tons of ellipses and need to keep the weight at a minimum.

 

Will keep looking for more of your videos.