Affinity Designer - 3 Questions of Mild Frustration

[Scott.S]

Three questions I was looking for help with.

 

1. A layer locked is still selectable. Why? I lock it so it can't be selected. Is there a way to disable that? So I set an image on Layer 1 as a reference. Draw a shape(s) and want to marquee select some shapes. Nope. Always end up selecting the image ref layer. GRRR.

 

2. Snapping to previous shape. I draw out a polygonal shape with the pen tool. Start a new shape and need some of the points to line up with points on the previous line/shape. Where is this enabled? I can't find it in 'Snapping Manager'.

 

3. Why does every shape appear on it's own layer? It makes everything messy. I do quite a bit of low poly and WPAP art. Why can't I stuff that all on one layer? Soon as I click off the BG layer that's locked so it can't get selected gets clicked and a new shape appears on it's own layer.

 

I'm trying to transition from Illustrator to Designer because I like the features Illustrator doesn't offer. Layer masks, adjustments, fx, etc but these three things are driving me nuts. Any helpers out there?

[gdenby]

Hi, Scott.S

 

1.I have been using AD from 1.4.2 to to the current 1.5.5, and If I lock a layer, it is not selectable. Is the image in the locked layer? Images can be their own layer. If they are placed as a child layer within a shape that is a layer, and then that layer is locked, neither can be selected.

 

2. Turn on snapping by clicking on the red magnet in the topmost bar. Its off by default.Adjust the settings using the pop-down list available from the arrow button next to the magnet image.

 

3. I haven't used Illustrator in years, and then, not much, but my recollection is that in AI the word "layer" meant something quite different than "layer" in AD. Any single object in AD is by default in its own layer. But they can be grouped together as a single layer. The exception is text. All the letters and numbers come in as one layer, but can be converted to a group of curves, which can then be ungrouped and manipulated as separate characters. Note, layers can be locked, and they can be unselected so they disappear, reducing visual clutter.

 

To a certain extent, you need to forget some of what you know from AI to learn some things about AD. This happens when moving between any 2 similar programs.

[Aammppaa]

Further to the answers above...

 

2. There are more snapping options as part of the Pen and Node tools...

 

 

From the Help (under Pen Tool)

• Snap—Controls node snapping:

  These options are independent of the global snapping options.

  • Align to nodes of selected curves—will snap any node you drag to any other node on the same or a different curve.
  • Snap to geometry of selected curves—will snap dragged nodes to the same or different curve's path or node.
  • Snap all selected nodes when dragging—will snap multiple selected nodes, when dragging, to a "target" node on any selected curves.
  • Snap off-curve handles—will align a dragged control handle to an adjacent node.

 

3. You can also create Layers explicitly to organize your work. They act as a folder of objects, each of which can be manipulated individually, or (by selecting the parent layer) as a whole.

 

Layers can also have sub-layers, so you can organize your work in whatever way is convenient to you.

[R C-R]

Regarding #3, you can combine multiple shapes (among other things) into one layer using the Add boolean operation, creating a "Curves" (note the plural) layer, but you probably won't want to do that very often.

 

One reason is in Affinity a layer can have at most only one stroke & one fill (set by the lowest object in the selection) so for example adding a red filled shape with a 10 px thick black stroke to one with a green fill & no stroke that is below it in the layer hierarchy will create a Curves layer with everything in it having a green fill & no stroke.

 

(You can even add multiple curve, shape, text, & image layers together, but if you try it, you will see why that is something you normally would not want to do -- all text will be converted to vector shapes, image layers will be converted to filled or unfilled rectangle shapes, & so on.)

 

So as already been mentioned, in Affinity you can instead use groups & "child" sub-layers as an alternate way to make the layer hierarchy less messy.

[Alfred]

1. A layer locked is still selectable. Why? I lock it so it can't be selected. Is there a way to disable that? So I set an image on Layer 1 as a reference. Draw a shape(s) and want to marquee select some shapes. Nope. Always end up selecting the image ref layer. GRRR.

 

I can select a locked layer via the Layers panel, but I can't marquee-select it on the canvas: I wish I could! Locking is only meant to prevent objects being transformed (i.e. moved, resized or rotated).

[R C-R]

I can select a locked layer via the Layers panel, but I can't marquee-select it on the canvas: I wish I could! Locking is only meant to prevent objects being transformed (i.e. moved, resized or rotated).

Why? As it is, would that not defeat the purpose of locking the layer so it can't accidentally be transformed along with anything else in the marquee selection?

 

The only time I can see this being useful is if there was a contextual menu option to unlock all the selected layers. I would like that very much, better than a global "Unlock all layers" menu item like some of my older vector drawing apps used to offer.

[Alfred]

I can select a locked layer via the Layers panel, but I can't marquee-select it on the canvas: I wish I could!

 

 

Why? As it is, would that not defeat the purpose of locking the layer so it can't accidentally be transformed along with anything else in the marquee selection?

 

I see I phrased that badly: I only want to be able to marquee-select, or click to select, a locked layer on its own. As things stand, if we want to unlock a locked layer we have to hunt for it in the Layers panel and select it there.

[R C-R]

OK, I can see that being useful if the preference option to Show Selection in Layers Panel is enabled (so it could be unlocked from there), but even that might not be very useful if a lot of different layers are selected by the marquee drag & they are scattered all over a complex layer hierarchy.

 

I still would prefer an 'unlock selected layers' option in the popup context menu that would unlock every layer contained in or touched by a marquee selection. For that to be useful, I think an initial marquee drag would have to select locked layers (which would still have the "x" selection box corner marks so we would know they are locked) but unless that contextual menu item was selected, any subsequent transforms would ignore the locked ones, automatically removing them from the selection.

 

Does that make sense?

[Alfred]

Yes, that makes sense. The bottom line is that being unable to select locked objects on the canvas (whether by clicking on them or by dragging a marquee around them) is unnecessarily restrictive.

[ambiroa]

Regarding #3

 

I might have read it in the wrong context, but isn't this something that could be turn on/off in setting, I think I read that somewhere else on the forum.

[Scott.S]

I put a better look in a youtube video. Sorry there's no audio my kids won't stop screaming at one another and my two German shepherds bark at everything outside. We have a very busy and noisy house :/

 

As you can see about selecting WHY does AD do selecting like this??? And the curves just keep being created instead of being contained in the current active layer. Why if I lock the BG layer can it still be selected? Isn't the point of locking something so it can't be selected nor manipulated. I've never used any software that does that 2D or 3D.

 

https://youtu.be/KUQqQIYkbEo

 

EDIT: I put a comparison of AI in the first part. I really want to like AD but these two things are driving me nuts.

[R C-R]

It is is kind of hard to tell what you are demonstrating in your video. For one thing, unless I missed it, you never tried to select anything in Affinity after you locked the background layer. For another, you don't expand layers in either app so we can't see the parent/child relationship among their objects.

 

So maybe try this in Affinity:

1. Create a background layer with an object in it.

2. Create a second layer with something in it.

3. Drag the second layer onto the first one, making it a child layer of the first one.

4. Lock the parent layer.

5. Now try to select anything with the Move or Node tool on the canvas.

[gdenby]

I've looked at the video. From my recollection of AI, a layer is sort of like a sheet of paper. This seems to be what the vid shows. Any drawing/object that is made and modified on the "active layer," which I believe is the same size as the page, happens in the layer. My recollection is that AI layers are sort of like working an a stack of onion skin paper. 

 

If you want to work in that fashion, in the layers panel, use the widget to create a new layer. That layer will be active, and any shape creation and modification will then happen in that layer.

 

Otherwise, every specific shape becomes a layer. Other objects can be placed in it when selected and the "insert in selection" widget at the top right is active.

[Scott.S]

R C-R thank you for replying so quick. My house is still too busy to record with audio. I think gbendy sorted what I was thinking. In AI no matter where I place shapes they drop on whichever active layer is selected. In AD say I'm working on 'Layer 1' and select the locked BG layer which I shouldn't be able to click on but AD does it for some reason. Should I forget to click back on 'Layer 1' and start drawing shapes again they all create their own layer. I'm sure this works as designed not an error on my part.

 

I'm still uncertain why I can click on the locked BG layer and do nothing with it besides take focus off the active layer.

 

I'm still trying to sort out marquee selection(s) too. I really want to get off the Adobe subscription.

 

http://imgur.com/8k4g3Bc

[R C-R]

Scott, in your imgur post, you expanded the AI "poly" layer to show its contents but not the Affinity "Layer 1" one. Do that for Affinity & you should see that even though the labels are different, every path in the poly layer is a separate item, just as they would be in Affinity. So basically, both apps layer things using a similar parent/child hierarchy, & in each app they can be hidden or locked at either the parent or individual child level.

 

In Affinity, to nest a layer as a child of another layer, you can either do as gdenby suggested with the "insert in selection" widget, or just drag a layer into any one you want in the Layers panel after you create it. Affinity is agnostic about this -- the child layer does not have to be a path, the parent layer can be locked or hidden in the workspace, & a child layer can be a parent layer for layers deeper in the layer hierarchy. I assume this is also true for AI but since I don't use it I am not certain about that.

 

Please try what I suggested in my previous reply, noting that the canvas (workspace) is not the same thing as the Layer Panel, so it makes a difference in which of them you try to select anything. I hope that will make things a little bit clearer, but regardless, try to keep in mind that the two apps do not use exactly the same terminology for very similar things or work in exactly the same way.

[nresnik]

THE SOLUTION  for ex Ai users for “palette-mess“ IS HERE!

If you want to avoid the layer-mess in Designer, do two things.
1. First create empty layer my clicking “add layer“ icon at the bottom of layer palette and then work in that layer. Similar to Ai, FH etc.

2. at the upper-right part of layer palette there is a small button that toggles palette view preference called “auto-scroll“. This is strangely named , since it has almost nothing to do with scrolling. Instead, it keeps your layer “folded“, “shut“. it should be DESELECTED.
If you compare it to Ai, it is exactly the same as an expand layer contetn arrow in Ai palette next to the layer name.
So, Ai and Designer do work ecactly the same in regard to layers, exept for two things: 

1. the default in Ai is for the layer to be “collapsed“, and the default in AD is “expanded“ view of the sublayers, and

2. AD places everything you draw on its new “layer“, if you do not create empty layer prior to doing anything, while Ai puts everything on a previously created layer.

I have oversimplyfied it a little (laters, sublayers, nest, child, parent..), but in essence this is it, and there is no need to complicate the things by throwing names.
I hope this would help you,m since I was mad from AD palette-mess, but now I am a happy clicker  :o)

 

Screenshot- 2017-12-07 at 08.26.08.pdf

[nresnik]

THE SOLUTION  for ex Ai users for “palette-mess“ IS HERE!

If you want to avoid the layer-mess in Designer, do two things.
1. First create empty layer my clicking “add layer“ icon at the bottom of layer palette and then work in that layer. Similar to Ai, FH etc.

2. at the upper-right part of layer palette there is a small button that toggles palette view preference called “auto-scroll“. This is strangely named , since it has almost nothing to do with scrolling. Instead, it keeps your layer “folded“, “shut“. it should be DESELECTED.
If you compare it to Ai, it is exactly the same as an expand layer contetn arrow in Ai palette next to the layer name.
So, Ai and Designer do work ecactly the same in regard to layers, exept for two things: 

1. the default in Ai is for the layer to be “collapsed“, and the default in AD is “expanded“ view of the sublayers, and

2. AD places everything you draw on its new “layer“, if you do not create empty layer prior to doing anything, while Ai puts everything on a previously created layer.

I have oversimplyfied it a little (laters, sublayers, nest, child, parent..), but in essence this is it, and there is no need to complicate the things by throwing names.
I hope this would help you,m since I was mad from AD palette-mess, but now I am a happy clicker  :o)

[verysame]

1 hour ago, nresnik said:

THE SOLUTION  for ex Ai users for “palette-mess“ IS HERE!

If you want to avoid the layer-mess in Designer, do two things.
1. First create empty layer my clicking “add layer“ icon at the bottom of layer palette and then work in that layer. Similar to Ai, FH etc.

2. at the upper-right part of layer palette there is a small button that toggles palette view preference called “auto-scroll“. This is strangely named , since it has almost nothing to do with scrolling. Instead, it keeps your layer “folded“, “shut“. it should be DESELECTED.
If you compare it to Ai, it is exactly the same as an expand layer contetn arrow in Ai palette next to the layer name.
So, Ai and Designer do work ecactly the same in regard to layers, exept for two things: 

1. the default in Ai is for the layer to be “collapsed“, and the default in AD is “expanded“ view of the sublayers, and

2. AD places everything you draw on its new “layer“, if you do not create empty layer prior to doing anything, while Ai puts everything on a previously created layer.

I have oversimplyfied it a little (laters, sublayers, nest, child, parent..), but in essence this is it, and there is no need to complicate the things by throwing names.
I hope this would help you,m since I was mad from AD palette-mess, but now I am a happy clicker  :o)

 

Auto-scroll does actually scroll to the layer containing the selected object in the page.

This has been introduced only in the latest builds in the Windows version (isn't available in the official build). I'm running 1.6.3.96 beta and the auto-scroll is there.

The only glitch right now is that it doesn't matter whether is selected or not, it always scrolls to the selected object/layer.

 

Fold/Unfold is done by Right/clicking on the layer and then Expand/Collapse Selection.

[nresnik]

Sorry to hear that in Win version it works erraticakky.
On  a Mac it works fine.
They should fix it then, ASAP.