Hexes Made By Pen Tool Accidentally Filled - Is There Any Way To Remove The Colour & Leave Hexes?

[Ditto Bird]

RESOLVED, thank you.

I have accidentally filled a hex grid I originally created using the pen tool.  The hex grid is a layer that will cover a map. The image shows what I've done - I really don't know how I managed it: I may have been in the incorrect layer and accidentally clicked the fill tool, I'm really not sure.

The following screen shot shows my issue (as well as a rectangle which often appears when I change layers - it's some kind of object I can select and delete). I've chosen a layer different from the Hexes layer and it shows the colour of the Hex lines I've chosen.

 

The next screen shot, following, shows the hexes created by the pen tool.  hey change to blue lines when I am in the layer they are located.  I created one hex using the triangle guides from View --> Grid (shown) and Axis and then duplicated a number of times and grouped after merging the layers created with each new hexagon duplicated. 

I suppose I can delete the current object and redo what I had done before, but I'd really like to know how to get rid of the mistaken fill colour I ended up with.

 

I've tried the flood select tool which doesn't seem to do anything.  When I click on the background or the lines of the hexes with the colour picker tool, it changes the background to whatever colour is selected.

Also, the hexes now only turn blue when I press the alt key. This is all very bizarre to me, coming from mainly Corel PhotoPaint (as is everything becoming a new layer, similar to GIMP, which I recently gave up after a year of frustration).

Is there some means to select by colour? 

I can delete what I have and recreate the hexes again, but I'd like to be able to correct the mess I've somehow created for when  screw up again. 🙂

Thanks for any pointers.

 

[prophet]

Maybe I'm misreading what's going on in your layers panel, but it looks like everything is pixel layers.

To me, and no offense, it would be much better to approach this project using vector objects. You could make a hexagon shape and repeat/align to your hearts content while they all stay live and can be colored or not as needed.

Once everything is flattened to pixels, you lose a lot of flexibility.

[carl123]

@Ditto Bird

Can you upload the document to the forum?

[Hangman]

Hi @Ditto Bird and welcome to the forums,

If you select the Hexes layer in the Layers Panel so you see the blue lines surrounding the Hex Shapes and then set the fill colour for the layer to none either from the Colour Palette or from the Context toolbar does that remove the green fill?

 

1 hour ago, Ditto Bird said:

The following screen shot shows my issue (as well as a rectangle which often appears when I change layers - it's some kind of object I can select and delete).

The blue rectangle looks like the canvas margins. If you go to the View menu and uncheck View Margins, does the blue rectangle still appear, or is it gone?

[Ditto Bird]

21 hours ago, prophet said:

Maybe I'm misreading what's going on in your layers panel, but it looks like everything is pixel layers.

To me, and no offense, it would be much better to approach this project using vector objects. You could make a hexagon shape and repeat/align to your hearts content while they all stay live and can be colored or not as needed.

Once everything is flattened to pixels, you lose a lot of flexibility.

Thanks. 🙂

The process I'm using makes starts with a single polygon made from the Pen Tool, duplicating and aligning them and grouping them together once they cover the image.  The first two parts like the two images below. Is this what you mean?

Edited September 9 by Ditto Bird

[Ditto Bird]

21 hours ago, carl123 said:

@Ditto Bird

Can you upload the document to the forum?

Unfortunately not. I've fiddled with it a fair bit including deleting the original document that I messed up.  I'm finding the program keeps locking up when I have other programs open. Bit of a surprise, but I'm guessing Affinity uses a lot of RAM?

[Ditto Bird]

20 hours ago, Hangman said:

Hi @Ditto Bird and welcome to the forums,

If you select the Hexes layer in the Layers Panel so you see the blue lines surrounding the Hex Shapes and then set the fill colour for the layer to none either from the Colour Palette or from the Context toolbar does that remove the green fill?

<snip very helpful vid>

The blue rectangle looks like the canvas margins. If you go to the View menu and uncheck View Margins, does the blue rectangle still appear, or is it gone?

Thanks for taking the effort for that, I've bookmarked this.

Unfortunately, a lot of frustration in this, I've accidentally deleted layers and in trying to reform things, I cannot reproduce what I had before.

[Hangman]

Just now, Ditto Bird said:

Unfortunately, a lot of frustration in this, I've accidentally deleted layers and in trying to reform things, I cannot reproduce what I had before.

No problem... based on your screengrab I think you'd simply applied a colour fill to your merged Hex shapes but glad it's not causing an issue for you now...

[Ditto Bird]

7 minutes ago, Hangman said:

No problem... based on your screengrab I think you'd simply applied a colour fill to your merged Hex shapes but glad it's not causing an issue for you now...

Unfortunately, it is really being a problem. I can't change the colours of the hexes. Going to delete everything and start again.  I'll get it eventually.

[Hangman]

Just now, Ditto Bird said:

Unfortunately, it is really being a problem. I can't change the colours of the hexes. Going to delete everything and start again.  I'll get it eventually.

Do you have Affinity Designer in addition to Affinity Photo?

If so you'd find it far easier to work in Designer to do what you want to do here...

[carl123]

41 minutes ago, Ditto Bird said:

The process I'm using makes starts with a single polygon made from the Pen Tool,

Would the Polygon Shape Tool not be easier?

[Hangman]

Hi @Ditto Bird,

Just in case it helps...

You could do this in both Affinity Designer and Affinity Photo...

• Note 1: In Affinity Photo you'd use Layer > Geometry > Merge Curves to merge the Layers...
• Note 2: To invoke the Create Polygon panel use Ctrl + Left Mouse Click when you have the shape selected from the tools panel...
• Note 3: To invoke the Move/Duplicate panel, with the object selected on the canvas, hit the Enter key
• Note 4: You will need to adjust the px values to suit your grid size

[Old Bruce]

4 hours ago, Ditto Bird said:

The process I'm using makes starts with a single polygon made from the Pen Tool, duplicating and aligning them and grouping them together once they cover the image.  The first two parts like the two images below. Is this what you mean?

You would be better off using a three sided open object. Duplicate and shift to the Right until you have a row. Group that and Duplicate and move down and to the Right. Group the two rows and duplicate and shift down.

[Ditto Bird]

4 hours ago, carl123 said:

Would the Polygon Shape Tool not be easier?

Probably! 🙂 I did find making the polygons to be pretty easy though.

[Ditto Bird]

47 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

You would be better off using a three sided open object. Duplicate and shift to the Right until you have a row. Group that and Duplicate and move down and to the Right. Group the two rows and duplicate and shift down.

Thanks very much Bruce, I saw that in a couple of youtube videos.  But after playing with that, I found it not a whole lot difficult to just work with the hex and doing as you described.

[prophet]

5 hours ago, Ditto Bird said:

Is this what you mean?

Ah yes, I see you are using vector, but then at some point converting to pixels. Whatever works for you of course.

 

51 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

You would be better off using a three sided open object.

What benefit does this technique provide?

[Old Bruce]

3 minutes ago, prophet said:

What benefit does this technique provide?

The only benefit is that we don't get overlapping curves/edges/lines as would occur with closed shapes. And  as I am frequently lazy so there are a few fewer clicks to create the initial shape.

[Ditto Bird]

6 hours ago, Hangman said:

Do you have Affinity Designer in addition to Affinity Photo?

If so you'd find it far easier to work in Designer to do what you want to do here...

I did have it, but uninstalled it - I'm still on evaluation ATM - figuring Photo 2 would be fine. However, I'm next looking at patterns to fill the oceans and land areas...  It seems everything I'm finding on line is pointing to Design.  Is it difficult to bring a .afphoto over or save as an .afdesign file?

 

3 hours ago, Hangman said:

Hi @Ditto Bird,

Just in case it helps...

You could do this in both Affinity Designer and Affinity Photo...

• Note 1: In Affinity Photo you'd use Layer > Geometry > Merge Curves to merge the Layers...
• Note 2: To invoke the Create Polygon panel use Ctrl + Left Mouse Click when you have the shape selected from the tools panel...
• Note 3: To invoke the Move/Duplicate panel, with the object selected on the canvas, hit the Enter key
• Note 4: You will need to adjust the px values to suit your grid size

<Snip>

I tried following this and now my hexes have got horrible tiny blue guides or hexes everywhere. Ack! 🤣  Closed it off and reopened, whew!  I'd gotten this far (this is the first part of 10 hex sheets I drew in the late 70s/early 80s):

 

Edited September 9 by Ditto Bird

[Ditto Bird]

29 minutes ago, prophet said:

Ah yes, I see you are using vector, but then at some point converting to pixels. Whatever works for you of course.

Does it convert to pixels because I'm in Photo 2?  🙂 It seems poor and unusual punishment for those proud vectors! 😀

[Ditto Bird]

27 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

The only benefit is that we don't get overlapping curves/edges/lines as would occur with closed shapes. And  as I am frequently lazy so there are a few fewer clicks to create the initial shape.

That makes a lot of sense.  My triangle width is 13.8 px and my lines are only .5 px, but I did notice as I duplicated the lines became a little fuzzy.  I was very careful to make use the indicators for the grid to line things up.

[prophet]

5 minutes ago, Ditto Bird said:

Does it convert to pixels because I'm in Photo 2? 

It doesn't convert unless you tell it to. For me, I leave my vectors in tact as long as possible to keep them flexible (coloring, stroking, etc.) Flattening/rasterizing is the final step, if it's even needed at all.

[prophet]

8 minutes ago, Ditto Bird said:

Is it difficult to bring a .afphoto over or save as an .afdesign file?

Not at all. In fact, they are the same file format with just the suffix determining which program will open it.

Looking at where your project is heading, I might suggest Designer would be a better choice (with artboards, symbols and other features that might serve you well), but that's just my opinion.

[Ditto Bird]

22 minutes ago, prophet said:

It doesn't convert unless you tell it to. For me, I leave my vectors in tact as long as possible to keep them flexible (coloring, stroking, etc.) Flattening/rasterizing is the final step, if it's even needed at all.

I can still move them around on the hex layer. Depending on who I make copies of the map (and other maps), I may still need to change colours, etc.

20 minutes ago, prophet said:

Not at all. In fact, they are the same file format with just the suffix determining which program will open it.

Looking at where your project is heading, I might suggest Designer would be a better choice (with artboards, symbols and other features that might serve you well), but that's just my opinion.

Hangman has also suggested this. My next step is to apply fills, like what I did in GIMP before I tried Affinity. It seems I will need to use Designer for that.

[Hangman]

Hi @Ditto Bird,

Can I ask the purpose of the Hexes in terms of the function they play for the maps?

Also, are you able to upload a screenshot of what it is you are looking to achieve (assuming it already exists in some shape or form) as we may then be able to suggest other options for you...

[Old Bruce]

1 minute ago, Hangman said:

Can I ask the purpose of the Hexes in terms of the function they play for the maps?

I have always assumed they are for table top board games. A variation on the checkerboard.