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Is it possible to merge nodes without losing their bézier setting?

 

The task I'm trying to do is to create a design that has some symmetrical elements. I draw one half and mirror it over. The problem I find is when I come to join pieces. There doesn't seem to be a way to get nodes to merge properly. I can snap overlap them, but that is not ideal and may cause problems later.

 

An example would be a heart shape outline. Imagine you draw the left side then mirror it right. Joining the top right and bottom right nodes to their left counterpart loses the bézier on the right of the node. The nodes on the left side retain their bézier, on the right they become sharp.

 

Thanks for any help, this is driving me mad. :wacko:

 

 

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It is driving me mad, too. I don't get exactly the same results as you describe -- typically, I get a pair of overlapping nodes at one end where they should merge & one "good" merge at the other end -- but never do I get a clean pair of merges.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
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I am using Mac retail AD 1.5.1 but this has been an issue for every version of the app I have used.

 

Basically, trying to combine any two curves that have two pairs of exactly overlapping nodes into one closed curve works fine on only one pair of nodes -- the nodes combine such that the resulting handles preserve the shape at that point, but at the other pair of nodes they don't merge into one node at all.

 

It doesn't matter how carefully the nodes are placed on top of each other or whether the combining is done with an add operation or with the Node tool's join & close curve functions -- when two pairs of nodes are coincident, only one pair is merged into a single node.

 

In fact, just separating two nodes by a tiny amount prior to combining them works much better, typically connecting them with a very short straight line segment.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
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1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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The task I'm trying to do is to create a design that has some symmetrical elements. I draw one half and mirror it over. The problem I find is when I come to join pieces. There doesn't seem to be a way to get nodes to merge properly. I can snap overlap them, but that is not ideal and may cause problems later.

 

Perhaps I'm missing something here, but I think you can get the desired result simply by aligning the two copies so that they butt up against each other, and then clicking the 'Add' button on the Geometry toolbar.

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Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for Windows • Windows 10 Home/Pro
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for iPad • iPadOS 17.4.1 (iPad 7th gen)

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Perhaps I'm missing something here, but I think you can get the desired result simply by aligning the two copies so that they butt up against each other, and then clicking the 'Add' button on the Geometry toolbar.

When I try that, two of the nodes merge fine but the other two do not -- they don't merge at all & typically their control handles extend through the opposite node, forming a flat loop.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
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1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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When I try that, two of the nodes merge fine but the other two do not -- they don't merge at all & typically their control handles extend through the opposite node, forming a flat loop.

 

It's probably a question of how the top and bottom pairs of nodes are lined up (or not). Although it may work well in specific cases, I can see that it's likely to be a bit fiddly in general.

 

It would obviously be best if the underlying issue were fixed.

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Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for Windows • Windows 10 Home/Pro
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for iPad • iPadOS 17.4.1 (iPad 7th gen)

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I worked on a heart shape made of 2 copies of a curve, 1 flipped and moved till it snapped.

 

I tried several times. 1st time, the nodes were not quite on top of each other. The next few times they were very close. I tried adding a few times. Typically, I would get 1 node just right, but at the opposite end, 2 nodes slightly mis-aligned. If I deleted a spare, the curve form would warp.

 

I tried in node mode a standard join curves, close curve command sequence. Similar results.

 

Finally, I selected 2 overlapping nodes, used join curves. Selected the others, used close curve. It appeared that I lost 1 handle on each. But they reappeared when I selected the adjoining node on the side where the handles had disappeared. No curve shape info was lost, as far as I could see.

 

In this case, the heart shape tool is probably a lot more convenient.

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It's probably a question of how the top and bottom pairs of nodes are lined up (or not).

Since I started with a lefthand open curve with its bottommost right node snapped to the same x coordinate as its topmost right one (& verified in the Transform panel), each of the corresponding nodes in the duplicated & flipped righthand open curve automatically lined up exactly on top of their lefthand counterparts when I snapped the righthand curve to the lefthand one.

 

This results in perfect symmetry of the two curves with two sets of perfectly lined up nodes. But no matter what method I tried to convert them into a single closed curve, at most only one pair of nodes merged into a single one with its two handles preserving the original shape of the curve where they merged. The other pair of nodes, or sometimes both pairs, did not merge, even though they were at exactly the same x/y coordinates.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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This results in perfect symmetry of the two curves with two sets of perfectly lined up nodes. But no matter what method I tried to convert them into a single closed curve, at most only one pair of nodes merged into a single one with its two handles preserving the original shape of the curve where they merged. The other pair of nodes, or sometimes both pairs, did not merge, even though they were at exactly the same x/y coordinates.

 

Thanks. I hadn't investigated in any detail, but I don't need to bother now! ;)

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Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for Windows • Windows 10 Home/Pro
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for iPad • iPadOS 17.4.1 (iPad 7th gen)

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what a coincidence! I've been perplexed by this exact issue all day long - I too have been trying to create symmetrical shapes; I recorded dozens of videos while trying to find the reasons as to why sometimes it will merge the two zero-distance (overlapping) points into ones perfectly fine, other times will distort the handles warping the shape, while other times will retain both point and connect them by creating a zero length straight line between the two points, even though they are perfectly overlapping!

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