Affinity Designer crashes anytime I break a curve (anchor point).

[Love Adeola]

As shown in the screenshot below, I have highlighted two anchor points to be broken with my predefined shortcut (Alt + Z). But the very moment I do this, the app crashes and all unsaved progress is lost immediately. This has happened too many times and has forced me to write on this forum for the first time. I noticed this bug after updating to v2.5.6 I thought the issue would be resolved in the 2.5.7 update, but it persists.

Please fix. It's breaking my workflow and costing me time.

 

[GarryP]

It’s difficult for us to know what could be the problem without being able to test it for ourselves.

Would you be able to share the document so that tests can be applied to it?

[Love Adeola]

Quote

It’s difficult for us to know what could be the problem without being able to test it for ourselves.

Would you be able to share the document so that tests can be applied to it?

Hi Garry,

I'm currently on holidays so it would be difficult to share the file. But it doesn't just happen with one single file, but with multiple files. And it doesn't happen everytime I break an anchor point. It works more like Russian Roulette. You don't know when it's going to crash but you know for sure that it surely will. At this point, anytime before I break an anchor point, I save (Ctrl + S), I cross my fingers, break the anchor point (Alt + Z) and hope Designer doesn't crash. Sometimes it doesn't and sometimes it does. Sometimes I'd have forgotten to save and just break the anchor point with the shortcut I use (Alt + Z), and wham! Sudden app crash.

[GarryP]

Unfortunately there’s maybe not much that anyone can do without being able to see or replicate the problem.

Once you are able to share the file then we forum users can try it on our different set-ups and see where it happens, or doesn’t, which should help Serif to have a better idea of where the problem lies.

[Ron P.]

@Love Adeola, I've not been able to replicate the crash following your instructions. Your screenshot looks like your on Windows, 10 or 11?

I run Windows 10, and it just doesn't crash for me. Like you a created a shortcut of Alt + Z for Break Curve. So there must be something on your system Designer is having a problem with. Until you get to where you can upload a file that's causing a crash, not much we or Serif can do to help fix this.

You might try disabling H/A (Hardware Acceleration), in Designer, go to Edit>Settings>Performance, Uncheck the box beside the hardware acceleration.

[Love Adeola]

Thanks @GarryP & @Ron P.

I'm currently traveling back home. As soon as I settle tomorrow, I'll share one of the files. I use Windows 11. I'll take a screenshot of my system specifications and share alongside the file once I'm home.

Thank you.

[GarryP]

Thanks for sharing the document but can you tell us which specific part of Artboard3 can be seen in your original image?

[Love Adeola]

@GarryP

In one of the hidden groups, there is an outline version as shown in this screenshot:

 

If you zoom into the left eye area, you'll see the section I referenced in my first post (though I've already flipped it horizontally in this final version) as shown in this screenshot:

 

However, the bug is not exclusive to that area, as it happened frequently during the vectorization of every illustration in this file and even other documents apart from this one.

[Love Adeola]

@GarryP @Ron P.

Here is a summary of my System Information in case it helps in the debugging process.

[GarryP]

Thanks for the extra information.

I’ve just tried to break the Curves layer at the two nodes shown in your latest image and it worked okay for me on Windows 10 Home with Designer 2.5.7 – see attached video.

I also tried breaking the curve at other places (by selecting two nodes first) and that was okay too.

Maybe someone else can replicate the problem.

[Love Adeola]

@GarryP

Maybe it's a Windows 11 problem.

But remember that I said it works like Russian Roulette. You don't know which particular break will crash the app, but do many breaks over time and one of them will certainly crash the app. Also remember that I only use the shortcut (Alt + Z) for breaking anchor points. So maybe the bug is tied to the shortcut? 

[GarryP]

I tried again but right-clicked one of the selected nodes and chose “Break Curve” from the contextual menu and that worked okay.

I assigned Alt-Z to be the shortcut for “Designer/Node Tool/Break Curve” and did the same thing and that worked too.

I tried marquee-selecting the nodes (rather than click and then shift-click) and then repeated the things I’d already tried and didn’t see a problem.

I tried the same sort of things on various other two-node selections and it all seems to be working fine for me.

It can be tricky to replicate a problem which only happens sometimes, and it can be tricky for the developers to fix a problem that cannot be replicated with ease.

Maybe someone can come up with a similar scenario which can be replicated so the developers have ‘something to get their teeth into’.