Affinity Designer Customer Beta (1.5 - Beta 11)

[Hokusai]

Assorted questions & comments:

 

• Hokusai, I give up. What is "scuzzy zoom" mode?

R-C-R,

 

Scrubby and scuzzy sound similar, but of course with different meanings to reflect my feelings toward the scrubby zooming behaviour. It is funny (or at least it was supposed to be funny) ;). Sorry if it wasn't funny.

 

Hokusai

[R C-R]

R-C-R,

 

Scrubby and scuzzy sound similar, but of course with different meanings to reflect my feelings toward the scrubby zooming behaviour. It is funny (or at least it was supposed to be funny) ;). Sorry if it wasn't funny.

I don't mind the humor but I really don't know what you mean by the "scrubby" zooming behavior, unless it is the Zoom tool default drag right/left to zoom in/out vs. the (old?) default of dragging a marquee to zoom in. The marquee drag is still there, but you have to hold down the alt/option key (Mac) to use it.

 

Assuming that is what you mean, I never had much use for the marquee 'zoom in' behavior for several reasons:

• There is no logical way to do the reverse (marquee zoom out).

• The drag right/left to zoom in/out (scrubby?) behavior zooms in/out around the pointer, which I find a lot more useful & dynamic than guessing about where I should start the drag with the marquee zoom in behavior.

• I rarely use the Zoom tool at all. Instead, I enabled the "Use mouse wheel to zoom" preference, which lets me zoom in/out at any time, even at the same time I am drawing a shape or whatever, without having to select the Zoom tool or change from whatever tool I am using at the time.

• I also frequently use the ⌘0 & ⌘1 keyboard shortcuts to zoom to fit & to actual size, & double-clicking on a layer thumbnail to zoom to its extent.

 

All that said, I have noticed that the status bar prompt for the Zoom tool has a long standing error (in both AP & AD for the Mac) that may confuse some users about the scrubby (?) zoom:

Dragging Up/Down doesn't do anything; it is left/right that does.

[n0rmand0]

It seems like the text tool is not working over Pixel Layers. It wants to select the layer rather than create a Text element.

 

The text tool works as expected over vector layers or no layers.

[Schubi63]

Hi guys,

 

according to the following waring:

 

 

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PLEASE BE AWARE - If you have not already run Beta 9 or 10, this version will reset all your settings. If you have already run Beta 9 or 10 then it will not. Please make sure that if you have created any palettes, styles, assets, brushes, etc in the current beta that you export them in the current version first BEFORE installing this beta otherwise you will lose them. This was unfortunately necessary for the Beta 9 build and should hopefully not be required again.

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Question 1:

I can see an export option for e.g. brushes, palette ... but not for symbols. I wonder if I have don't have to do it with symbols.

 

Question 2 / Improvement:

Is there an "easier" way to export everything, e.g. via folder?

A function in the preferences could be helpful to see all the export possibilities at a glance, what can be exported, where to, etc.

[MattP]

 

Question 1:

I can see an export option for e.g. brushes, palette ... but not for symbols. I wonder if I have don't have to do it with symbols.

 

Question 2 / Improvement:

Is there an "easier" way to export everything, e.g. via folder?

A function in the preferences could be helpful to see all the export possibilities at a glance, what can be exported, where to, etc.

 

Hi Schubi63,

 

Symbols are document-based, so they're contained in the document you made them in (there's nothing to export from the application, basically)

 

Well, there kind of is... but I wouldn't recommend it, so that's why we're not advising it (it may lead to unexpected consequences)

 

Thanks (and sorry for the extra overhead this time)

Matt

[R C-R]

Matt,

 

Did you notice my comment in post #27 about the status bar text for the Zoom tool being incorrect? This has been wrong for all versions of AD & AP, not just the betas.

[GerhardL]

Hello,

 

Please, do not forget the PDF export problem:

 

Export PDF if 2 slices are stacked and overlapped.

 

All formats (PNG. Etc.) are working correctly, PDF exports allways the entire artboard

 

See example.

 

Greetings

:-) Gerhard

DEMO_Export.afdesign

[Garytagreg]

Hi

 

An issue that has been bugging (unintentional pun) me for the last few betas has been layer renaming:

 

• On a file with multiple layers, select one and do some stuff to the shape. E.g. use the move tool to resize the shape
• Now, double click on the current layer name in the layers panel to rename it
• The history will indicate "set description"
• The layer will be momentarily in a editable state but will immediately revert back to its regular state (almost as if it has lost focus)

Very annoying if you're not paying attention and start to type the text for the layer name as it will start running keyboard shortcuts instead as the focus is back on the main window.

 

If you want to reliably set the layer name, then you have to first select another layer and then double click on the layer you want to rename whereupon it acts as expected. A small but most annoying bug.

 

Here's a short screen capture of the above. 

 

I'm running the latest Sierra beta (16A304a), if that has anything to do with it.

 

Hope it helps :)

[MattP]

Matt,

 

Did you notice my comment in post #27 about the status bar text for the Zoom tool being incorrect? This has been wrong for all versions of AD & AP, not just the betas.

Yes, spotted your comment and already fixed it along with Hokusai's scrubby zoom change :)

 

Thanks guys!

Matt

[MattP]

I'm running the latest Sierra beta (16A304a), if that has anything to do with it.

I think that has a LOT to do with it! ;)  I'm on El Capitan and I don't see this behaviour at all - and it's something I do very often!

 

We'll get it sorted, thanks :)

Matt

[R C-R]

Yes, spotted your comment and already fixed it along with Hokusai's scrubby zoom change :)

Great! Now all I have to figure out is what the heck "scrubby zoom" is.  :wacko:

[ronnyb]

Matt, I'm on 10.11 and I still experience this behavior... I've posted about it over the course of several betas...

 

 

I think that has a LOT to do with it! ;) I'm on El Capitan and I don't see this behaviour at all - and it's something I do very often!

 

We'll get it sorted, thanks :)

Matt

[vonBusing]

Thank you so much for fixing the UI functionality in the "more" panel in the export dialogue, to work properly also on OSX 10.9.5. All settings are now adjustable as one would expect. The resolution in the exported files seams also now to correctly match the chosen settings.

 

This has been such a pain, I was seriously considering to jump over to OSX 10.11. Now I can hold a little longer. Eventually, I will have to, though.

[osang]

Is it just me? The latest beta 11 selection is hard to select objects/texts in the long run. I'm using Mac OS X Yosemite 10.10.5. The beta 10 is fine.

[lenogre]

strange fx behaviour between beta 7 and beta 11

[Dave Harris]

Is it just me? The latest beta 11 selection is hard to select objects/texts in the long run. I'm using Mac OS X Yosemite 10.10.5. The beta 10 is fine.

 

We changed text selection in a few ways, but it's intended to make it easier to select text. In what way is it harder?

[farbenfeuer]

Now, it might very well just be me not realizing something crucial about this, but ever since the last two beta versions it seems like my "export selected" button simply doesn't work anymore.

 

I even tried deleting all slices and creating all new, but the button doesn't change, no matter how many i have ticked.

 

It also seems to be on more than one file i work on.

 

Cheers

 

Tim

 

Edit: Also continuous is greyed out too. Dunno if that helps

 

Edit2: Not sure now anymore: Seems like it now all of a sudden works again. Not sure why though *shrug*

Edited August 31, 2016 by farbenfeuer

[MattP]

strange fx behaviour between beta 7 and beta 11

I'm not seeing this behaviour - mine looks like the Beta 7 shot you've shown?... Could you share the file you're using? Thanks!

[predick]

Is it a bug?

I cannot put text on any elements.

I've just seen only this version.

[Malcolm]

Now, it might very well just be me not realizing something crucial about this, but ever since the last two beta versions it seems like my "export selected" button simply doesn't work anymore.

 

I even tried deleting all slices and creating all new, but the button doesn't change, no matter how many i have ticked.

 

It also seems to be on more than one file i work on.

 

Cheers

 

Tim

 

Edit: Also continuous is greyed out too. Dunno if that helps

 

Hi, Also had an issue with Export Selected back in beta 6: #107675 Not sure if it's the same issue but I found closing and opening the app and reloading the file fixed it for me. 

Additional thought - 'Export Selected' really means Exported ticked if anyone is looking at this might be worth changing the name there?

[lenogre]

MattP : I was wrong, I was running beta 8 !

[Julian23]

1) The PDF Import only uses the Mediabox property of the imported PDF pages. It should also use (and preserve!) the cropbox, trimbox and bleedbox.

 

Ideally when exporting a PDF file which was imported before mediabopx, cropbox and bleedbox remain unchanged. For professional printing this is mandatory.

 

2) When I define the croppjng area in the document properties (they are not imported from PDF) they are not exported to PDF. This is also a critical problem when doing professional printing.

[Ben]

Hi, Also had an issue with Export Selected back in beta 6: #107675 Not sure if it's the same issue but I found closing and opening the app and reloading the file fixed it for me. 

Additional thought - 'Export Selected' really means Exported ticked if anyone is looking at this might be worth changing the name there?

 

Yes - I've thought about renaming that to "Export checked" or something similar.

[ianrobertdouglas]

I'm seeing a nasty and consistent crash in at last one file I'm trying to work in. Happens when I attempt to copy an element.

 

Crash report attached.

 

 

crashreport.txt

[jeff]

As always, fantastic work! Most impressive.

 

Since there are other enhancement requests being mentioned here, I thought I'd submit mine as well. They may seem minor, but they would enhance my productivity a 100 times. No exaggeration, I find myself in need of these capabilities literally hundreds of times a day.

 

1. Zoom In towards selection - specifically when an object is selected and the Zoom In shortcut (cmd+) is used, the zoom occurs with the selected object centered in the screen. I know there is a Zoom to Selection option, which I use all the time, but frankly, 90% of the time it's too much zoom, I need to zoom out at least once or twice to see more of the surrounding context of the object I'm working on for it to be a useful view.
   
    
2. Scroll to selected Layer (in the Layers Panel) - I work with files that have thousands of layers, nested within folders upon folders — and this was before art boards. I spend a lot of time in the Layers Panel, arranging, grouping, masking, renaming, etc. Scrolling through thousands of layers every few minutes is really painful. I read somewhere there used to be a behavior, maybe even in an AD predecessor, that when an object was selected it would scroll to that layer, perhaps even expanding enclosing folders. Any chance of getting this implemented again? Or perhaps a version that at least scrolls to the lowest level parent group/layer that isn't already opened (even the highest level parent would be of some use)? Or one last option that I'd still be happy with, duplicate the Context Menu (right click) option to Find In Layers Panel somewhere in the main menu, that way users could create a shortcut to quickly trigger a find. Again this simple feature would reduce effort that takes minutes down to seconds.

Thanks for the consideration and thanks very much for all your hard work.