How can I set a custom grid setting to be visible as default when creating new drawing documents?

[Popple]

Hello

 

I am used to Serif for Windows. Before I bought Affinity I was using Serif V8.

 

I design sewing patterns that need to be accurately sized. In Serif I could set the grid to 1" with 1/4" subdivisions, and the grid would open on every new document without me having to change anything.

 

I cannot see how to set this in Affinity. Is there a way? 

 

I've worked out how to set the grid to the measurements I need, but I cannot see anywhere that I can set this as the default for all new documents. Every time I create a new document the grid is invisible and when I tick it in the dropdown menu it has switched back to automatic and changed the default square size back and I have to reset it from automatic and select the advanced option before I can see my preferred grid style.

 

The only way I can work round this at the moment is to save a document with the grid switched on and set to the defaults I require, and open this and do a save as for any new documents.

 

Surely there must be a better way?

Thank you for any help you can give.

 

[Callum]

Hi Popple,

 

At the moment the workaround you have been using is the only way to get the app to open with the same grid each time. We have had a lot of requests for a way to save a grid as default in the past so this is something we may consider for future updates :)

 

C

[Ben]

Grid presets are already on my to do list.

[HisUnholySquatchiness]

Greetings from low in the High Sierra Nevada foothills,

As a long-time CAD-monkey, I am very comfortable with the idea of setting up many customized aspects of my workspace.  I'm also accustomed to doing my homework via search engine, so in nearly twenty years of drafting with different flavors of AutoCAD, I've had many questions, but have never needed to post one online - they've always been adequately answered in some forum or other, or a pointer to an acceptable workaround was provided, or I found a workaround myself.

I switched to Affinity from the Dark Side (Thank You to all who helped make it available!) a few years ago and won't look back.  I've had many how-to questions, and until now all have been well-answered in one corner of this forum or another.  Today I have two questions, one serious, and the other just a wonderment.

1.  I have a gridline problem.  I believe I've done due diligence searching online about it, finding no positive response, plus several responses from well-intended forum members who didn't seem to grasp quite what the problem is. Here's my two cents, along with a request.

To me, and maybe it's just me (I'm old), but grid lines should be a fully-customizeable component of any workspace.  I would like to have a default grid of my own devising, adjusted for the work I do (nearly always starting out at the same size and scale), which appears every time I open a document.  I can handle the rare occasions when I don't need that grid or want to change it for a specific job.  As far as I can tell, and having read all the posts which come up when I search on this topic, the closest any of us who would like this feature have come to seeing it are two responses, quoted below.

From Callum, in a thread titled, "How can I set a custom grid setting to be visible as default when creating new drawing documents?", January 10, 2017: We have had a lot of requests for a way to save a grid as default in the past so this is soething we may consider for future updates.

From Ben, also in the same thread, January 10, 2017:  Grid presets are already on my to do list.

I know what happens to the bulk of the lists I make. 

It sure would be nice to have this feature:  the ability to define a custom grid and set it as default, to appear every time a document is opened.

2.  In Preferences - Miscellaneous, what does "Reset Default User Defaults" mean?  I know this was developed in the U.K., the only culture which could have spawned Monty Python, but really . . . .  Until I saw this I had believed that I could, in time, understand any English phrase, but this one has me buffaloed.  No worries - I'm chuckling over this one.  But I don't know what it means.

Thanks in advance for the sort of good advice and positive feedback this forum is known for.

Aaron

[R C-R]

5 hours ago, HisUnholySquatchiness said:

 In Preferences - Miscellaneous, what does "Reset Default User Defaults" mean?

 The first time you start the app, each of the various per user application preferences has a default setting or value, but you can change any of them to something else. So "Reset Default User Defaults" resets all of them to the initial default starting settings & values.

[thomaso]

If you launch an Affinity app with the CTRL key (macOS) pressed then an options window opens before app launch which lets you choose parameters to get reset to factory defaults. One of them is "Grid Presets".

[PaulEC]

I'm probably missing something (nothing new for me!), but isn't the easiest thing just to create a template with the grid you want, rather than creating a new document each time? (Yes, I know you'd need a different template for each page size, but how many different page sizes do you actually need?)