Affinity Designer Customer Beta (1.5 - Beta 15)

[Andrew Tang]

Toolbar shortcuts don't work in non-latin keyboard layout.

 

Sorry about that. Can you specify exactly which keyboard layout you are using?

[Paekke]

Heyyaaaa I just press print in this beta version and crash! I did it 3 times and  keeps crashing :(

It doesn't crash when printing on my machine.

[wiredfractal]

When grouping a separate number of layers, a layer gets moved out of place.

 

 https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1477988/group.mov

[MattP]

When grouping a separate number of layers, a layer gets moved out of place.

 

 https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1477988/group.mov

Hi wiredfractal,

 

This is probably document-specific as it doesn't normally happen... Is there a constraint on the jellyfish head, perhaps? If you're able to send us the file to support@seriflabs.com we can try to get it sorted out for you :)

 

Thanks,

Matt

[Wiredframe]

 

• Added option (in Preferences) to always show the selected item in the Layers panel when selection changes

 

 

Aweseome! Thanks!

[predick]

Me too, really happy with this new feature. Thanks!

[Ben]

Illustrator could snap to just the centre. You just had to turn the centre point on first. It didn't snap to much of anything, but that worked.

Thanks for the explanation of the tolerance. That makes a lot more sense now.

 

The thing I'm not getting still is why snapping sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. That's with the same objects in the same file. Especially when using guides. And yes I turn on snap to lines before I try that. I mean mostly guides not snapping to objects most of the time. My workaround is to zoom in to where I'd see where the ants got their locks and eyeball it. That's where it'd be great to be able to click on a guide and type in where that guide should go.

 

The first reason snapping doesn't work after opening a file is if your are in "Snapping Candidates" mode.  The candidate list is not saved, so you have to re-add you candidates when reopening.  To improve on this, we now add candidates when objects are manually selected/deselected.  Alternatively, we now have other modes for the choice of snapping inputs that snap to objects in their sibling list in the document.

 

There was a bug I just fixed where guides didn't snap when being created.  There should be no reason why you can't snap objects to guides though - as long as you have the option turned on.  If you identify a problem, could you capture a video of it, or send us a test file if it is recreateable.

 

Thanks.

[Frank Jonen]

The first reason snapping doesn't work after opening a file is if your are in "Snapping Candidates" mode.  The candidate list is not saved, so you have to re-add you candidates when reopening.  To improve on this, we now add candidates when objects are manually selected/deselected.  Alternatively, we now have other modes for the choice of snapping inputs that snap to objects in their sibling list in the document.

 

There was a bug I just fixed where guides didn't snap when being created.  There should be no reason why you can't snap objects to guides though - as long as you have the option turned on.  If you identify a problem, could you capture a video of it, or send us a test file if it is recreateable.

 

Thanks.

 

Oh I had no idea that's how candidates work. Strange. An idea: Do away with it and make it like "select the items you want to snap to" or "select items you want to exclude from snapping" and "snap to all (default)". That way it's not confusing, people run into less errors and you can exclude items from snapping which would be immensely helpful on complex graphics. The new sibling snapping modes sometimes cause slowdowns where nothing happens when I move an object.

 

BTW another option might be helpful: snap when objects intersect. You already have object contours available, but that only reacts when the cursor is on that line while carrying an item. Let's say you want to construct a golden rectangle, the arc (circle in AD) needs to intersect with the square's top right corner with the radial centre being at the bottom centre point of the square. Current workaround is to do it in ViaCAD in a bit less than a minute and export as EPS to AD. That's certainly doable but I rather not switch apps all the time when I'm doing grids. It'd be nice to have something like that. And a two point arc drawing mode :) 

[Ben]

Oh I had no idea that's how candidates work. Strange. An idea: Do away with it and make it like "select the items you want to snap to" or "select items you want to exclude from snapping" and "snap to all (default)". That way it's not confusing, people run into less errors and you can exclude items from snapping which would be immensely helpful on complex graphics. The new sibling snapping modes sometimes cause slowdowns where nothing happens when I move an object.

 

BTW another option might be helpful: snap when objects intersect. You already have object contours available, but that only reacts when the cursor is on that line while carrying an item. Let's say you want to construct a golden rectangle, the arc (circle in AD) needs to intersect with the square's top right corner with the radial centre being at the bottom centre point of the square. Current workaround is to do it in ViaCAD in a bit less than a minute and export as EPS to AD. That's certainly doable but I rather not switch apps all the time when I'm doing grids. It'd be nice to have something like that. And a two point arc drawing mode :)

 

The snapping candidate system has been in there right from the start, and there have been numerous threads and tutorials about it.  It provides exactly the "select what you want to snap to" functionality you want, but probably not in the way you imagine.  See the tutorials.

 

"Exclude from snapping" was already done but will be in the 1.6 Beta (after we release 1.5 MAS and go into the next Beta cycle).  It won't make 1.5 as we have a freeze on UI changes now.

 

The "snap to everything" modes are already in 1.5.  In the snapping options, chose "Immediate layers" or "All layers" form the Candidates dropdown.  Immediate layers will only snap to a layers siblings or parent, so it excludes children of siblings and anything above the parent.  For most layout tasks this should be preferable if you organise your document sensibly - of course, if your document is flat, you are going to end up snapping against everything.

 

As for the last paragraph - I think you are going to have to draw a diagram to explain what you mean.

[A_B_C]

"Exclude from snapping" was already done but will be in the 1.6 Beta.

 

That sounds amazing …  :)

[A_B_C]

By the way, I am almost sure that Frank alludes to a construction like the one below. In Step 3 it is impossible to drag a circle from the indicated centre and snap it to the other endpoint of the diagonal that crosses the upper half of the square. 

 

EDIT It is possible … see the discussion below.

 

Unless I am mistaken, it seems impossible to perform full Euclidean geometry in Affinity Designer at the moment, for we would need the option to use one arbitrary point as the midpoint of a circle and snap the circle (while dragging it from this point) to another arbitrary chosen point: “Given any straight line segment, a circle can be drawn having the segment as radius and one endpoint as centre” (Euclid’s Postulate 3). I believe this snapping option would be a nice addition indeed, not only for undergraduate math teachers …  ;)

 

EDIT I was mistaken.

 

Hope that makes sense …  :)

Alex

[Ben]

Just to be clear - you are trying to snap when creating the circle?  Or creating the rectangle to fit into an existing circle??

 

Phase 3 is already possible in this diagram.  When creating a circle, use Ctrl+Cmd to drag out a circle from it's centre, and define it by radius.  Start on the bottom right corner of the rectangle, and finish at the top left.

You'll want snap to bounds on (or snap to key points will also work for a non-aligned rectangle shape).

 

Ctrl enables you to define a shape (circle in this case) to fit between two points.

Cmd creates a shape from it's midpoint.

[A_B_C]

I am talking of the following operation … is snapping the circle to the endpoint of the line already possible? Would it be difficult to add this?  :unsure:

 

EDIT Deleted attachment due to upload limits. 

[A_B_C]

Oh my goodness, it is possible … Ben, you are amazing …  :D

 

(I missed the Control modifier, I always used Shift instead. So Frank should be able to create his golden rectangle by using the correct modifiers. Sorry for keeping you away from your work … :rolleyes:)

[Ben]

It's like we thought of everything...   ;)

 

Shift doesn't do anything when combined with Ctrl, as I always create the shapes with equal aspect ratio anyway (since only one axis of the shape can be defined by the distance between the two points).

[Frank Jonen]

I sort of got it to work, very cumbersome but it does work. Creating the final rectangle as an object didn't go so well for me, but I can always just type up the numbers.

 

BTW, in both AP and AD betas the moving with arrow keys stopped working when the hand tool is selected. That used to work and was great for aligning things by eye without the artwork edges be covered by UI elements.

golden meanie.mov

[A_B_C]

Hmm … I don’t get these snapping issues on my machine. Maybe your settings are different …  :unsure:

 

What I noticed in your video: Make sure to use the ESC key before creating a new shape. This will deselect the already created shape on the canvas and you can start using the tool you selected. In the first seconds of your video I saw you struggling with the creation of the circle. You started to edit the square instead. By pressing ESC before using the Ellipse Tool, you will deselect the square, so you won’t accidentally edit the square. There is no need to create a new layer in the Layers list …

 

In my video, I used the snapping settings shown below.

 

Hope that helps …  :)

Alex

[Frank Jonen]

Brilliant Alex! Thanks so much!  :D

I didn't know about the ESC key, so many years of Illustrator still to unlearn. I just did it again with your settings in a fraction of the time.

[smallreflection]

One issue I've just noticed I'm having in the most recent beta is my full activated font list (via Linotype FontExplorer) is not showing up—I'm trying to turn on some basic system fonts like Verdana and Tahoma, but for some reason they won't show up in either font list (main toolbar of character panel), even after a reboot.

 

Edit: actually I realized these fonts weren't showing up in other apps either, and I couldn't figure out why—for some reason when I enabled them in FontBook they displayed properly, but when activating in FontExplorer they wouldn't. Strange!

[wiredfractal]

Hi wiredfractal,

 

This is probably document-specific as it doesn't normally happen... Is there a constraint on the jellyfish head, perhaps? If you're able to send us the file to support@seriflabs.com we can try to get it sorted out for you :)

 

Thanks,

Matt

 

 

no constraint as far as I know. I'm sending the file now thru email.

[Malcolm]

Matt P,

 

In regards to the issue of connecting multiple instances of a symbol... If I have two symbols and change the colour of one with sync off, I then can't adjust the curves (in sync) with sync back on, it kills the connection. Files that were made previously are still working though, it just seems to be with newly created instances of symbols. (instances of instances)  :unsure:

 

Anyway I know you are looking into this but thought I'd add my vote for a fix, kinda central to usage. 

 

btw - great to see a count of selected slices and better wording - making my day easier  :D

[Tekikou]

Moving a group containing artboards does not move artboards but only their content. It feels weird.

[MattP]

Matt P,

 

In regards to the issue of connecting multiple instances of a symbol... If I have two symbols and change the colour of one with sync off, I then can't adjust the curves (in sync) with sync back on, it kills the connection. Files that were made previously are still working though, it just seems to be with newly created instances of symbols. (instances of instances)  :unsure:

 

Anyway I know you are looking into this but thought I'd add my vote for a fix, kinda central to usage. 

 

btw - great to see a count of selected slices and better wording - making my day easier  :D

Hi Malcolm - I'm desperately trying to reproduce a similar problem, but I'm not seeing this on any symbol or nested symbol scenario I can create? Turning off Syncing and modifying an attribute like colour always just detaches the colour for that particular instance, but all other attributes are still left connected... If you go to the Layers panel and hover your mouse over the description of the object in question then it should tell you which attributes are not connected. In my case, it just says 'Unlinked Attributes: Fill' and that's it.

 

If it's a particular file and you're happy to throw it my way then I'll look at it straight away :)

 

Thanks!

Matt

[MattP]

Moving a group containing artboards does not move artboards but only their content. It feels weird.

I agree, that does feel wrong... :(

[Pierrick]

 

 

• Added option (in Preferences) to always show the selected item in the Layers panel when selection changes

 

Bravo!