Affinity Designer — Resizing symbol layer with nested children with "Lock Children" selected changes other symbol instances in weird ways when Sync is turned off.

[Ryos]

App: Affinity Designer, version 2.5.3
Operating System: Windows 11, version 23H2 (OS Build 22631.3880)
Hardware Acceleration: Enabled

Reproduction steps

1. Create a rectangle of any colour.
2. Create another rectangle inside the first one, of a different colour.
3. Nest the second rectangle inside the first.
4. Create a Symbol out of the outer layer.
5. Insert a new instance of the Symbol onto the page.
6. With the Move tool, open either instance of the Symbol, and select the outer layer.
7. With "Lock Children" enabled, and Sync disabled on the Symbols pane, resize the outer layer.
8. Zoom in or out just a tiny bit to make the view re-render.
9. Note that the inner rectangle in the other instance is now distorted.

What should have happened

No other instance of the symbol should have been changed in any way.

Video

A video has been provided of the bug below:

In prior versions

I do not recall this ever working as expected in the past.

 

Edited August 9, 2024 by Ryos
I accidentally submitted the post way too early.

[NathanC]

Welcome to the forums @Ryos,

I've replicated and logged this issue with the developers, thanks for providing a detailed report and recording. 🙂

[Hangman]

Despite not being synched, after a forced screen redraw the child layer of the original Symbol adopts the same ratio between itself and its parent as the adjusted second Symbol instance...

Original Unsynced Symbol

• Original Symbol Parent = 200 mm x 200 mm
• Original Symbol Locked Child = 100 mm x 100 mm

The Math

1. Create a second instance of the original Symbol and adjust the height of the parent element to 400 mm.
2. This means the height of the locked child layer relative to its parent is now 25%, i.e., (100/400) x 100 = 25%
3. Force a screen redraw and the height of the locked child layer in the original symbol is now also 25% relative to its parent, i.e., (50/200) x 100 = 25%

The same math applies across the board...