ThePixelWhisperer Posted October 13, 2016 Share Posted October 13, 2016 In Affinity Designer Beta, I have an EPS vector with more than 1000 icons. I want to drag a selection box around one of them to copy or recolor it. But Designer selects ALL the icons with the Move tool, or individual elements of each icon with the Node tool. In Illustrator, I can easily drag around any icon to select it. How do I do that with Designer? 1111_XXL_set2.eps Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Ingram Posted October 14, 2016 Share Posted October 14, 2016 Moving to Questions forum. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff Lee D Posted October 14, 2016 Staff Share Posted October 14, 2016 Hi ThePixelWhisperer, Welcome to the forums. Affinity Designer when opening the EPS file, breaking down all the designs individually. If the file was created and exported to EPS using Illustrator, this may be why it's reopening the file with better results as it's reading an embedded AI within the EPS which allows it to open the file with the designs intact, which makes for easy selection. For the moment you'll need to use the Layers tab, select all the curves that make up the icon and right click and group them. You can then select it as one and move it around, resize. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThePixelWhisperer Posted October 14, 2016 Author Share Posted October 14, 2016 Hi ThePixelWhisperer, Welcome to the forums. Affinity Designer when opening the EPS file, breaking down all the designs individually. If the file was created and exported to EPS using Illustrator, this may be why it's reopening the file with better results as it's reading an embedded AI within the EPS which allows it to open the file with the designs intact, which makes for easy selection. For the moment you'll need to use the Layers tab, select all the curves that make up the icon and right click and group them. You can then select it as one and move it around, resize. Thanks for your quick reply, Lee D. The reason I included the vector file was to show folks the difficulty of the quoted solution. There are exactly 1111 icons. Can you imagine how many layers that is? Searching through thousands of layers for the correct curves could take hours. I'm sure one could see where drawing a marquee around a single icon to copy/paste or recolor it is the way to go. I consider that a basic, everyday feature, certainly not too much to ask. Regardless of the file's origin. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff Patrick Connor Posted October 14, 2016 Staff Share Posted October 14, 2016 Marquee selection with alt pressed will not select any background, and options in preferences exist for auto-locate in layers tab and for partial cover drag selection. Quote Patrick Connor Serif Europe Ltd Latest V2 releases on each platform Help make our apps better by joining our beta program! "There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man. True nobility lies in being superior to your previous self." W. L. Sheldon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gdenby Posted October 14, 2016 Share Posted October 14, 2016 I opened the file in the Mac 1.5.2 beta. I found that if I zoomed in to about 500%, Where the icon filled most of the screen, I could use the move/select tool by double clicking a line segment, and then shift click to select all of the other parts. Quote iMac 27" Retina, c. 2015: OS X 10.11.5: 3.3 GHz I c-5: 32 Gb, AMD Radeon R9 M290 2048 Mb iPad 12.9" Retina, iOS 10, 512 Gb, Apple pencil Huion WH1409 tablet Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThePixelWhisperer Posted October 17, 2016 Author Share Posted October 17, 2016 Thanks to both gdenby and Patrick for your suggestions. I knew about gdenby's suggestion; I was hoping for something as quick as "drag and copy." Richard's suggestion to enable "show selection in layers panel" doesn't work for the file I attached as an example. I had already tried that before attaching the file. It shows layer groups, because that's how the file's icon shapes are segmented. (Even if it had worked, it would take far longer than what I'm suggesting.) Richard's suggestion to alt-drag a marquee also doesn't work for that .eps file, nor for a similar .ai file I opened. You should try it. Adobe Illustrator's Direct Selection tool easily handles the marquee. (And yes, I know that these are two different software companies. I'm simply making a workflow suggestion while Designer is in beta. When a product is in beta, testers don't suggest workarounds--they suggest new or better features.) JimmyJack 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimmyJack Posted October 17, 2016 Share Posted October 17, 2016 +1 All Marquee does not work in this scenario. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff MEB Posted October 17, 2016 Staff Share Posted October 17, 2016 Hi ThePixelWhisperer, Welcome to Affinity Forums :) ⌥ (option/alt) + drag doesn't work with clipped objects, so it can't be applied in this case. Here's a workaround: right-click the (Curve) layer (the clipping rectangle) and select Release, then with it still selected go to menu Layer ▸ Convert Object to Artboard. You can now drag a marquee selection around each icon to select them. Delete the original (now) emtpy layer. If you want to revert back to a not-artboard document, select the Artboard layer, press Delete on your keyboard and select Keep objects from the dialog that will appear. If you have access to Illustrator, Save As the file as SVG and open it in Designer. It will keep the original groups (icons) intact. ThePixelWhisperer 1 Quote A Guide to Learning Affinity Software | Affinity Quick Reference Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeW Posted October 17, 2016 Share Posted October 17, 2016 Or, open this AD file... Mike 1111_XXL_set2.afdesign ThePixelWhisperer 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThePixelWhisperer Posted October 18, 2016 Author Share Posted October 18, 2016 Hi ThePixelWhisperer, Welcome to Affinity Forums :) ⌥ (option/alt) + drag doesn't work with clipped objects, so it can't be applied in this case. Here's a workaround: right-click the (Curve) layer (the clipping rectangle) and select Release, then with it still selected go to menu Layer ▸ Convert Object to Artboard. You can now drag a marquee selection around each icon to select them. Delete the original (now) emtpy layer. If you want to revert back to a not-artboard document, select the Artboard layer, press Delete on your keyboard and select Keep objects from the dialog that will appear. If you have access to Illustrator, Save As the file as SVG and open it in Designer. It will keep the original groups (icons) intact. Hi MEB, Wow, this works perfectly! It's a workaround, but it's a very easy one to use. Thank you so much for taking the time to share this tip! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff MEB Posted October 18, 2016 Staff Share Posted October 18, 2016 You're welcome ^_^ Quote A Guide to Learning Affinity Software | Affinity Quick Reference Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThePixelWhisperer Posted October 18, 2016 Author Share Posted October 18, 2016 Or, open this AD file... Mike Hi Mike, This is amazing. It works exactly as I had hoped all along. How did you do this? It's not as simple as a Save As, because I already tried that. You're a wizard! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeW Posted October 18, 2016 Share Posted October 18, 2016 Er, I used a different application, then brought it into AD and saved it. You're most welcome. Mike Patrick Connor 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff MEB Posted October 18, 2016 Staff Share Posted October 18, 2016 It's not as simple as a Save As, because I already tried that. You're a wizard! :) It should work without issues. How are you exporting the file as SVG from Illustrator? Quote A Guide to Learning Affinity Software | Affinity Quick Reference Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThePixelWhisperer Posted October 18, 2016 Author Share Posted October 18, 2016 It should work without issues. How are you exporting the file as SVG from Illustrator? First off, your original workaround worked perfectly, and so did Mike's AD file. I had never thought of exporting as SVG. So, after reading your latest post, I tried opening the original EPS and exporting as a SVG. I left all the SVG Export options as defaulted, except I tried all three of the "Images" dropdown choices. All resulting SVGs allowed me to select an icon in Designer with a few clicks, but none of my resulting files worked as well as Mike's (allowing me to select a single icon with a single click). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff MEB Posted October 18, 2016 Staff Share Posted October 18, 2016 No, don't export it. You have to use Save As in Illustrator (not export) then select SVG, keep all the default settings and you will have an SVG with all layers intact so you can just click an icon to select the whole thing. ThePixelWhisperer 1 Quote A Guide to Learning Affinity Software | Affinity Quick Reference Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThePixelWhisperer Posted October 18, 2016 Author Share Posted October 18, 2016 No, don't export it. You have to use Save As in Illustrator (not export) then select SVG, keep all the default settings and you will have an SVG with all layers intact so you can just click an icon to select the whole thing. Thanks again, MEB. That worked. My original wish was no workarounds involving other software, but this will at least allow me to continue using AD, which I think is great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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