Overlapping curves

[st.guadagno]

Hi. I am asking for help with a problem that must have occurred with some recent update. I am redrawing some cartographies (for a research project) simply using the pen tool. I had to reopen the file to integrate the drawing about 3 months later and surprisingly I realized that I have thousands and thousands of overlapping lines! Basically, when I try to move a node with the node tool, I find that there are several perfectly overlapping and coincident curves everywhere. How can I get rid of them quickly? This is a multi-curve layer.
I attach a couple of screenshots, before the “move” and after moving all the overlapping lines.
Thanks!

[MEB]

Hi @st.guadagno,
Welcome to Affinity Forums
I'm afraid there's no easy (automated) way to do this. Since all the lines have the same attributes, there's no way to distinguish between them. I'm also not sure if you need to maintain the current layer structure while removing the extraneous lines. If not, you could simply move or copy one version of each line to a new layer instead of trying to select and delete the duplicates, which appear to be more numerous.
Perhaps someone else has a better idea.

[st.guadagno]

Just now, MEB said:

Hi @st.guadagno,
Welcome to Affinity Forums
I'm afraid there's no easy (automated) way to do this. Since all the lines have the same attributes, there's no way to distinguish between them. I'm also not sure if you need to maintain the current layer structure while removing the extraneous lines. If not, you could simply move or copy one version of each line to a new layer instead of trying to select and delete the duplicates, which appear to be more numerous.
Perhaps someone else has a better idea.

Thank you for your answer. Unfortunately, we are talking about thousands of lines drawn by me, multiplied by 6 or 7 times. Multiply that by the number of layers it happened on (I drew roads, rivers, houses, curves of terrain...): that's impossible to do by hand! Is it not possible to merge and blend them?
It is absurd for an update to irreparably ruin a file, we are not talking about a beta version!

[MEB]

Hi @st.guadagno,
Layer > Geometry > Merge, will make the lines appear to be a single object (single layer called CurveS - note the S at the end in the Layers panel) but are in fact several lines combined that act as one. A truly single object is identified as Curve - without the S in the Layers panel). If this is OK for you then go ahead and do a Merge but note that if you touch those "line's" nodes with the Node Tool you will immediately notice that just one of the combined lines moved unless you drag a selection around the node to select all the nodes of the combined curves that are overlapping themselves to move all at once.

[HCl]

.

[st.guadagno]

42 minutes ago, Return said:

Also tedious but you could use the shape builder tool with "delete sections from objects" selected if they are merged.
 

How? They are not closed curves, they are lines used to represent roads and so on.

 

43 minutes ago, MEB said:

Hi @st.guadagno,
Layer > Geometry > Merge, will make the lines appear to be a single object (single layer called CurveS - note the S at the end in the Layers panel) but are in fact several lines combined that act as one. A truly single object is identified as Curve - without the S in the Layers panel). If this is OK for you then go ahead and do a Merge but note that if you touch those "line's" nodes with the Node Tool you will immediately notice that just one of the combined lines moved unless you drag a selection around the node to select all the nodes of the combined curves that are overlapping themselves to move all at once.

The problem is that the file is really, really slow. I can't understand why the software did this to my files. I'm using Affinity software for my PhD thesis, but maybe I should return to other software if Affinity is not reliable.

[st.guadagno]

Ok, I'm understanding what is happening: as you can see, Designer has recognized on its own some closed shape. Why?

[HCl]

.

[MEB]

Hi @st.guadagno,
Software updates typically do not change user's files/projects. If they did we couldn't trust them for anything and we would have several users complaining about it, I don't believe that's the case. I've a vague idea of users inadvertently creating overlapping duplicates as in your case but I can't remember what caused it exactly - it was quite a long time ago and I believe whatever was it was fixed some time after. Maybe some older forum members are aware/remember what is was.

@Return That doesn't work for overlapping merged lines since the whole "set" of overlapped lines is deleted at once. I think that's the main issue in @st.guadagno case.

[st.guadagno]

4 minutes ago, MEB said:

Hi @st.guadagno,
Software updates typically do not change user's files/projects. If they did we couldn't trust them for anything and we would have several users complaining about it, I don't believe that's the case. I've a vague idea of users inadvertently creating overlapping duplicates as in your case but I can't remember what caused it exactly - it was quite a long time ago and I believe whatever was it was fixed some time after. Maybe some older forum members are aware/remember what is was.

@Return That doesn't work for overlapping merged lines since the whole "set" of overlapped lines is deleted at once. I think that's the main issue in @st.guadagno case.

Yeah, the problem is that lots of curves are superimposed, there are no other pieces to remove. And another problem is that not ALL the curves are duplicated the same: sometimes there are 6 curves, other times only 2 or 3. As I showed before, it's like Designer "used" shape builder on the set, creating some closed shapes.

I never did this on my own, however this is the first time I open this file since June, so I tought it was simply one of the update.   

[MEB]

22 minutes ago, st.guadagno said:

Ok, I'm understanding what is happening: as you can see, Designer has recognized on its own some closed shape. Why?

Hi @st.guadagno,
The software doesn't have autonomy to change the content of your files. The way they are constructed is a reflect of what you have done/how you have created them. Maybe you didn't realise at the time that you closed some shapes while connecting lines or that some lines were being duplicated by pressing some shortcut inadvertently or by error  or even as a consequence of how certain tools operate which you weren't aware. I can't tell you for sure what happened here, but from experience this is not a common occurrence.

If you are having issues with the file because it's very slow we can check it to see what's going on. I can provide an upload link so you can share it with us privately, just let me know.

[Pšenda]

2 hours ago, st.guadagno said:

we are talking about thousands of lines drawn by me, multiplied by 6 or 7 times. Multiply that by the number of layers it happened on (I drew roads, rivers, houses, curves of terrain...): that's impossible to do by hand!

Although it won't be easy, in this case you could perhaps consider exporting to an easily readable vector format (SVG, EPS) and try to find and delete duplicates there.

[thomaso]

2 hours ago, st.guadagno said:

Ok, I'm understanding what is happening: as you can see, Designer has recognized on its own some closed shape. Why?

I wonder if this happened in the layout procedure: If I select only certain nodes of a curve(s) object and choose duplicate (cmd/ctrl - J) then all nodes (= the entire object) get copied, not only the part of the curve(s) which had been selected. For example, a curve that has already been drawn has been copied with the aim of changing only some of its nodes, thus creating deviating streets in addition to an existing road. In this case, parts of the curves may still have nodes in common.

3 hours ago, st.guadagno said:

Unfortunately, we are talking about thousands of lines drawn by me, multiplied by 6 or 7 times. Multiply that by the number of layers it happened on (I drew roads, rivers, houses, curves of terrain...): that's impossible to do by hand! Is it not possible to merge and blend them?

In addition to the workflows mentioned above an entirely different method may be possible: Export the existing drawing with overlapping lines as PNG and use that file to get its rasterised strokes converted to curves with an according vectorizing / tracing software, ideally one which creates objects as single lines (2 nodes) instead of shapes (4 nodes, rectangles).

@v_kyr created a rich link list of vectorizing tools, on- and/or offline.

[David in Яuislip]

Playing around with svg export, Notepad++ has the ability to remove identical lines of text and it's very good unless you've named layers so they end up with id's

Inkscape has an extention available here
https://gitlab.com/EllenWasbo/inkscape-extension-removeduplicatelines
but it only works on paths not shapes or text and nothing within a group so it could be done but you'd end up losing all the groups

There's a Python solution here
https://superuser.com/questions/741606/dedupe-drawing-objects-in-svg-vector-graphics-files
but I can't get it to work yet

[st.guadagno]

I've just tried with CAD software, exporting the curves in dxf format. However, also with this method I can't figure out how to resolve: the curves are not totally overlapping, but chaotically shifted, moved, deformed, and so the CAD softwares I tried can't recognize them as duplicated curves. 

I am sorry but I have to think that there is something not working in Affinity Designer. The whole multi curves layer is a total mess and honestly I don't know I could ever duplicate lines with these really small shifts. I'm ok with the fact that, maybe, I did something macroscopic (i.e. duplicate entire curves instead of single nodes), but all these small deviations are totally insane!   

EDIT: As you can see from the screenshots taken in Bricscad, in this part of the drawings I have 3 overlapping lines of different lenghts and (in the second screenshot) you can also see that they are not on the same exact place. For this reason, automatic cleanup with cad software doesn't work. 
I really can't understand what happened to my file!

Edited November 19, 2024 by st.guadagno
Attached images

[st.guadagno]

I'm sorry but it's clear that something is going wrong with the software! 

Suddenly I've found anbother error: some curves were 'extracted' and maybe moved by myself trying to districate in this absurd chaos. The curves in the screenshot were normal curves with continuity, but now they are all jiggered and small pieces are all around. It seems that the file is corrupting more and more.

  

[NotMyFault]

Please save your files with history. So you can inspect your edit steps any time later.

It is possibly that e.g. using modifier keys by accident lead to duplication of layers or triggered unwanted actions. The history panel will show what happened.

Without access to the file (saved with history) it is impossible to say what caused the issue.

 

[st.guadagno]

I know it's been a long time, but I think I understand the sequence of actions that generated the problem.

I draw with the pen tool keeping the selection and adding the curve to the same layer/object. And so far so good.
I happened, however, while drawing on another file, to break some curves using the knife tool. The layer is so "exploded" and overlapping curves are generated even on curves that I have not touched with the knife tool! Then, rightly, I give the join curves command again and so they stay perfectly overlapping and you don't notice until you try to move one of them. But it is when I use the knife tool that closed shapes are generated even though it is not intended.