Any videos or tutorials showing how to cut a line in Affinity Designer ?

[Steve1]

Hi,

How to cut a line remains a mystery, need to see how its done in a video, not seeing any featuring this so far.

 

I am aware a knife tool is on roadmap and has been there for two years, so aware that we wont have it anytime soon and certainly with what I will be trialling and maybe buying, but need to see how lines and shapes get snipped as I will need to do so a lot.

 

Lets say I am drawing a road map, and have taken my side road a little beyond my main road,..ooops, can I snip it off at the junction with the main road.

 

Also I then apply a round end cap, and that protrudes beyond the main road, I need to snip a little bit more off, can I do that.

 

Need to see how its done pleeeeeeeese.

 

Steve1

[gdenby]

If the road lines are pen strokes, you can use the node tool to create new nodes where you want to break the line. Select the node, and then use the Action/break curve widget. There will then be several separate curves that will have endpoints overlapping, Select a curve in the layer panel, and adjust to where the end point needs to be with the node tool.

[ambiroa]

Hmmm another option, which is not really a very clean one either, is to use bolean actions by using the mainroad shape, to trim off the excess side road, but then it will share some line segments. You could then simply just copy the whole thing so you have two full closed shapes again. But again, it's not clean, but I've been doing these kinds of workarounds with adobe illustrator whenever I have no clue how it can be achieved different xD

[Popple]

You could also create a rectangle filled with the same color as your background and just position this over the offending part of the line to hide it. I have done that sometimes when adding measurements on top of the middle of an arrowed line. It is easier than ensuring two separate arrows line up!

[Steve1]

Hi,

The road lines would be drawn with the pen tool, its a single 'filament' or vector line,

 

There will then be several separate curves that will have endpoints overlapping

so if the vertical single filament line goes a bit beyond the one running horizontal and I need a T appearance, why does cutting it at a node placed at the junction of the two lines create several separate curves when I started with 2 and expected to end up with 3, one of which (the cut off bit)  I then delete making just 2 ?

 

Covering unwanted bits up with coloured shapes is not for me as it will cause further headaches if they occur over gardients etc later on. Vector work must be a tidy approach.

 

What the developers should aim for here (and this would truly make it for me, as a program, given my memories of Freehand) is what I love of CAD, select trim tool, select object to trim with, select object to trim, job done, at whatever magnification its trimmed exactly where the one object crosses the other.

 

Please developers make it do this in the CAD way !!!!!

 

I just wish this existed during Freehand days, rather than having to zoom in, knife cut, zoom out, go to next item, zoom in, cut, zoom out, and lines would kick out a bit, i.e. change position at the cut, you didnt realise this had happened unless zoomed right in.

 

Doesnt sound like the most fundamental function, cutting a line is neat and tidy and doable in any way, not with us yet and I find that unbelievable, especially after two years or so. Vector progs have cut tools, except for AD. To not find even a video of it in use is most odd.

 

Steve1

[R C-R]

If your road lines are not shapes, just unfilled vector paths, with the Node tool you should be able to manually add a node at the junction & then delete the unwanted extra node(s) that extend past that point. You probably will want to choose butt caps for the path so it stops on the node. This won't be precise but with snapping enabled as long as you add the node reasonably close to the intersection of the two road paths you can snap the new node onto the other road path & not change its curvature enough to be noticeable.

[Steve1]

Hi,

So snapping 'on' will detect where the two paths cross and snap the node to that exact cross point ?

Then I cut the path on that node and delete the unwanted bits.

 

I do hope the developers adopt the CAD cut method as in my post #5, its so simple, the best thing I discovered when going over to CAD, to have had that in Freehand would have been absolute bliss, so I hope for it in AD as you will all love it. the worst thing was loss of CMYK colours for creating in CAD then wishing to create 2D from it. There seems to be a massive barrier between thought processes of CAD and Vector prog developers, no overlap. I use Rhino and export options into Freehand or Photoshop dont exist, ai messes up sizes of objects, unless origin is at their corner. Thoughts are that one should not be in two different fields but remain in the one it seems. Anyhow I digress !

 

I hope the AD developers read this and take up on this method.

 

Steve1

[R C-R]

So snapping 'on' will detect where the two paths cross and snap the node to that exact cross point ?

Then I cut the path on that node and delete the unwanted bits.

With the appropriate snapping settings, when dragging a node in one path over another path, that path will outline in yellow when the dragged node has snapped to anywhere along it. It won't be exactly at the original crossing point, which is why I said you should create a node reasonably near the crossing point for best results. That way, you can snap the new node by moving it just the minimal distance to get it to snap to the nearest point on the other path, which will not alter the curve's shape at that node a significant amount. (It is hard for me to describe this very well, but a little experimentation should make it clearer.)

 

If you do this, you do not have to cut the shortened path, just marquee select & delete any nodes that extend past the node you added.

[Boldlinedesign]

This topic is a huge feature that needs to be a part of Affinity Designer if it's a program I can utilize full time. Right now it's an option available in apps like illustrator and in clip studio paint.