Arrowheads please. . .

[JET_Affinity]

When an arrowheads feature is added, I hope the implementation will be something beyond a mere "me, too" treatment re-inventing the same old thing common to most drawing programs.

 

This day and age, not just pointy arrowheads and circles, but any graphic stored as a Symbol should be able to be applied as a path end. Options should be provided to orient the line ending to either the page or tangent to the path, to independently scale relative to the as-stored size, and to either take on the color of the path to which it is applied or retain its as-stored color.

 

JET

[Alfred]

When an arrowheads feature is added, I hope the implementation will be something beyond a mere "me, too" treatment re-inventing the same old thing common to most drawing programs.

 

+1

 

This day and age, not just pointy arrowheads and circles, but any graphic stored as a Symbol should be able to be applied as a path end. Options should be provided to orient the line ending to either the page or tangent to the path, to independently scale relative to the as-stored size, and to either take on the color of the path to which it is applied or retain its as-stored color.

 

It would be good to have an option to align the line ending to the inside, outside or middle of the line, and also an option to recolour it independently of the path colour and the as-stored colour.

[MikeW]

...It isn't "fake" if it has been promised, and it's hardly "news" when we've been waiting so long! :lol:

 

Well, promises can be well-intentioned when made and still not be a deliverable in the time-frame given. That scenario has been seen once or twice...

 

But here's the thing to me. Even if time-frames slip and product once promised isn't delivered during an update cycle, it isn't like Serif did it intentionally to mess with people. Disappointing? Yep, but I think Serif wants to meet its promises.

[chirpy]

So after 3 years of people requesting a simple feature like arrowheads, mesh fill tool is on the feature roadmap, but arrowheads still are not? I can only imagine the complexity of trying to create a mesh fill tool over something like arrowheads. Please flip these two and make arrowheads priority over mesh fills. We have the pixel personal for those that need to have nicely rendered "meshy" type things.

[idraw]

I am astounded at how complex features are added on month after month, and there are no arrowheads. There is something weird about this, did someone in the management once make a (drunk) bet that s/he would make an Illustrator competitor without arrowheads?

 

I am a scientist and there is no way that I can regularly use a vector graphics program in my work, if it does not have arrowheads. Given the apparent attitude of the developers towards this topic, I come to this forum, actually this particular post, to only learn lessons about sociology (wow, the aggression of people with nothing at stake in this discussion, railing at users asking for a standard feature).

 

I loved the program when it came out, have never used it for anything useful, and it looks like that's how it's going to remain. A waste of my money and time.

[steves]

I am a scientist and there is no way that I can regularly use a vector graphics program in my work, if it does not have arrowheads. Given the apparent attitude of the developers towards this topic, I come to this forum, actually this particular post, to only learn lessons about sociology (wow, the aggression of people with nothing at stake in this discussion, railing at users asking for a standard feature).

 

I loved the program when it came out, have never used it for anything useful, and it looks like that's how it's going to remain. A waste of my money and time.

Agreed!

 

I think we have been quite patient waiting for this feature. Moreover, I have recommended to others that Affinity be considered on many occassions. For some reason, this feature request keeps getting put off and I have nearly lost all faith amd trust in this company. I can no longer recommend this product.

 

I recall one developer saying arrowheads was a complicated feature. Well, if preview can do arrowheads, I do not understand why we cannot have a basic arrowhead in AD. Maybe management needs to think about hiring a new developer? Or instead of trying to implement arrowhead utopia, they could just give us what we can get with Preview. For heavens sake, its already baked into OSX.

 

Similar to your situation, my use case involves a lot of technical and marketing illustrations and arrowheads are required in nearly everything I do. And likewise, I never seem to be abe to use AD for anything useful. In fact, I use Autodesk Graphic for all my illustrations these days. Apologies for the criticism.

[Teo_]

I think we have been quite patient waiting for this feature. Moreover, I have recommended to others that Affinity be considered on many occassions. For some reason, this feature request keeps getting put off and I have nearly lost all faith amd trust in this company. I can no longer recommend this product.

 

I still have faith in Serif team and I hope this delay is due to implement the best solution as performance, usability and compatibility.

I don’t want a fake vector arrowhead like in Photoshop, but something similar to Illustrator solution. May be there are issues to make it fully compatible with closed standard or to manage with PDF or other vector export, but I’d like to hear a word from developers too.

In past they surprised me: in my wishlist there was the constrains and they implemented the in a maxi release 1.5 constrains with auto layout and symbols, so my faith is still here  :)

[Alfred]

Similar to your situation, my use case involves a lot of technical and marketing illustrations and arrowheads are required in nearly everything I do.

 

How much of the time do you need curved arrows, Steve? For straight ones, the existing Arrow Tool (on the Shape Tools toolbar flyout) should work well in most scenarios.

[Jeffjn]

Have I missed something? When I use the shape tool to create a (straight) arrow, I hardly ever want it to be horizontal, so I then have to rotate it to the required angle. Is there a way of defining the angle as I'm drawing the shape?

[Guest]

Have I missed something? When I use the shape tool to create a (straight) arrow, I hardly ever want it to be horizontal, so I then have to rotate it to the required angle. Is there a way of defining the angle as I'm drawing the shape?

Hi Jeffjn,

 

Once the arrow has been drawn, you can adjust the angle of rotation in the "Transformation" tab of the studio.

[MEB]

Have I missed something? When I use the shape tool to create a (straight) arrow, I hardly ever want it to be horizontal, so I then have to rotate it to the required angle. Is there a way of defining the angle as I'm drawing the shape?

Hi Jeffjn,

Welcome to Affinity Forums :)

You can also press ⌃(ctrl) to change it's angle while drawing.

[Jeffjn]

Yes I know they can rotated after they have been created. I thought that Alfred was offering in practical workaround.

[Jeffjn]

Hi Jeffjn,

Welcome to Affinity Forums :)

You can also press ⌃(ctrl) to change it's angle while drawing.

On a PC in Photo?

[Jeffjn]

On a PC in Photo?

 

Right, so if I hold down both mouse buttons that works.

 

So now what I need to do is work out how to define the default arrow to have the right sized head and only have one.

[MEB]

Hi jeffjn,

On the PC ⌃(ctrl) is replaced by the right mouse button as you discovered.

To change the ends (including removing the arrow) check the context toolbar Ends section (select what you want from the dropdown). Regarding the size you can use the Thickness (context toolbar) to change the proportion between the head and the line.

[Jeffjn]

Hi jeffjn,

On the PC ⌃(ctrl) is replaced by the right mouse button as you discovered.

To change the ends (including removing the arrow) check the context toolbar Ends section (select what you want from the dropdown). Regarding the size you can use the Thickness (context toolbar) to change the proportion between the head and the line.

Thanks. Is there a way of making the choice of ends or single ended arrows the default? I know how to adjust the head length, but can I make my new choice the default?

[Alfred]

To change the ends (including removing the arrow) check the context toolbar Ends section (select what you want from the dropdown). Regarding the size you can use the Thickness (context toolbar) to change the proportion between the head and the line.

 

There doesn't seem to be any way to save the end style settings as the default for new arrows, at least on Windows. When I customized an arrow to my preferred style and chose 'Defaults > Synchronize from Selection' on the Edit menu, only the colour was carried over to the next arrow that I drew.

 

Another problem I encountered is that pressing the right mouse button to get an angled arrow resulted in the thickness changing (in both absolute and relative terms).

[Jeffjn]

Thanks. Is there a way of making the choice of ends or single ended arrows the default? I know how to adjust the head length, but can I make my new choice the default?

I think I've worked it out for a single document

 

Being a PC user, I didn't realize that the Rt-click button added functions.

[Alfred]

I think I've worked it out for a single document

 

Please share. As you can see from my previous post, I can't persuade my choice of end styles to stick.

[Jeffjn]

Please share. As you can see from my previous post, I can't persuade my choice of end styles to stick.

If I change the context toolbar setting for arrowhead types and proportional size without an object selected these become active for all future uses in that document. But how to make this the program default?

 

Edit - sorry, that stays the default for new documents as well. However, the setting still seem to revert when you close and restart the program?. I'll stop posting and research this a bit more - it doesn't look like the proportional setting can be increased above 100% without an object selected?

[Alfred]

If I change the context toolbar setting for arrowhead types and proportional size without an object selected these become active for all future uses in that document. 

 

Thanks. That works for the arrowhead types, but it still doesn't seem to sort out the thickness problem.

 

But how to make this the program default?

 

Edit - sorry, that stays the default for new documents as well. However, the setting still seem to revert when you close and restart the program?. I'll stop posting and research this a bit more - it doesn't look like the proportional setting can be increased above 100% without an object selected?

 

I thought 'Edit > Defaults > Save' should make the setting persist between sessions, but it doesn't.

[Jeffjn]

Of course, the other issue with using the shape tool is that the arrow head length is proportional. So if I need a series of arrows pointing at various things, either the length of the arrows all need to be the same size or the size of the heads will be different - unless I do a secondary edit operation to lengthen the arrow once it is created.

 

So although I use the shape tool in AP/AD, and now I know about how to rotate it at the time of creation that's going to help, the line drawing function with fixed size arrow heads that I was using in photoshop was far, far quicker. Click where you want the line to start, drag to where you want it to end. No key/mouse button combination to remember, job done.

[michaelrbuley]

Well, I've been using AD for 8 months. Love it, but for the missing arrows tool. Just odd. I've used Corel Draw since the late 80s. It always had an arrow feature, easy, simple. It still does. While I don't like using Corel Draw any more over AD, sometimes I have to because of this missing feature. Bizarre, really. To be able to draw an arrow ... 

[PeanutsA]

Anybody willing to bet that we will hit the 3 year anniversary of the road map, 21st Aug, without arrow tool appearing?

Please Note: Members of the Affinity Development Team are not allowed to participate - even if they know no more than we do.

 

[Oval]

                   

 

Zzz … They are on the road map since three years.