Affinity Photo: Refining selection sometimes does not appear

[Tormy]

2.5.2 Windows 11 Pro

selection made wit the pen tool. Then clicking on the button SELECTION in the contextual tool bar but the button REFINE doesn't appear (any longer).

[GarryP]

If you are doing what I think you are doing, this sounds like the expected behaviour to me.

If you are still using the Pen tool after creating the pixel selection then there will be no Refine button as the Pen Tool doesn’t have the Refine functionality.

I checked, and this is how it worked in 1.10.6 too, so I’m not sure what you mean by “(any longer)”.

To get the Refine button you can switch to the Selection Brush Tool.

[Tormy]

1 hour ago, GarryP said:

If you are doing what I think you are doing, this sounds like the expected behaviour to me.

If you are still using the Pen tool after creating the pixel selection then there will be no Refine button as the Pen Tool doesn’t have the Refine functionality.

I checked, and this is how it worked in 1.10.6 too, so I’m not sure what you mean by “(any longer)”.

To get the Refine button you can switch to the Selection Brush Tool.

I say this because so far I never used the brush tool to make selection. Never.

I selected alway PEN TOOL then, once the selection-polygon was made, I clicked on SELECTION and then REFINE was appearing.

[Ron P.]

44 minutes ago, Tormy said:

I say this because so far I never used the brush tool to make selection. Never.

I selected alway PEN TOOL then, once the selection-polygon was made, I clicked on SELECTION and then REFINE was appearing.

IF that's the case, then there's a bug with the Refine Button appearing while the Pen Tool is selected. It's always been the Selection Brush or at least one of the Selection tools need to be selected for the Refine Button to appear on the Context Toolbar. You are able to use the Select Menu to choose Refine Edges the default shortcut is CTL + ALT + R.

Please provide a screenshot of one of the apps/versions showing the Refine Button while you have the Pen tool selected.

[Tormy]

4 minutes ago, Ron P. said:

IF that's the case, then there's a bug with the Refine Button appearing while the Pen Tool is selected. It's always been the Selection Brush or at least one of the Selection tools need to be selected for the Refine Button to appear on the Context Toolbar. You are able to use the Select Menu to choose Refine Edges the default shortcut is CTL + ALT + R.

ok perfect with CTRL + ALT + R it appears exactly what normamly appeared to me by clicking on the REFINE button ... the one now it is disappeared

[Ron P.]

6 minutes ago, Tormy said:

the one now it is disappeared

It has not disappeared. It never was there. I used to get frustrated when using the Pen tool for selections, after clicking on Selection, I had to switch to the Selection brush to get the Refine button.

Another route, is to use the Quick Mask (Q keyboard shortcut). BUT you still need to switch to a Selection Tool..

 

[Tormy]

2 minutes ago, Ron P. said:

It has not disappeared. It never was there. I used to get frustrated when using the Pen tool for selections, after clicking on Selection, I had to switch to the Selection brush to get the Refine button.

So it means I'm making confusion or getting confused. with other operations I have made. It's possible.

However at this point: why didn't they provide the button for refining also on pen tool?

However thank you for the hint. Now I'm working fine.

[GarryP]

9 minutes ago, Tormy said:

why didn't they provide the button for refining also on pen tool?

Possibly because Pen Tool is for drawing lines and shapes, not manipulating pixel selections.

The Selection button is there as a ‘shortcut’ for people to make quick pixel selections with the Pen Tool, which can then be modified with the tools/functionalities that exist for that purpose.

[Tormy]

57 minutes ago, GarryP said:

Possibly because Pen Tool is for drawing lines and shapes, not manipulating pixel selections.

The Selection button is there as a ‘shortcut’ for people to make quick pixel selections with the Pen Tool, which can then be modified with the tools/functionalities that exist for that purpose.

You can't imagine how good is PenTool for particular works in define a selection. Having the CTRL + ALT + R that activates Eraclito the same function of the Button "Refine", it has no sense do not make it appear also when a selection is done with Pen Tool, since there is that possibility by selecting: or mask or Selection.