Drag Selecting Nodes - Aligning Nodes

[stinkykong]

How do I drag-select nodes of a shape? Node tool won't drag select.

 

How do I align nodes vertically or horizontally?

 

 

I come from Illustrator as I'm sure many do and I spend a very long trying to figure out simple tasks. I wish there were more in common with their workflow so I could learn Affinity Designer rather than going back to Illustrator.

[Bri-Toon]

You need to first convert the shape to curves, because it is currently a smart shape. The option lies on the context toolbar.

[gdenby]

Haven't used AI in years. Never used it much. So I'm not sure what you mean by drag select. AD's node tool will select nodes by dragging a marquee over them. Those selected will move all at once if in the tool context bar "snap all selected nodes while dragging" is active.

 

AFAIK, AD doesn't have a routine to auto vert or horiz the nodes. What I do I drag out a guid line. When 1 node I've selected snaps to it, and then another, I delete the ones in-between so I get a straight line. 

 

At this time AD does not have a blend tool that interpolates various nodes, so no reason to keep them.

 

BTW, I'm old enough that I started working before there was a "workflow." What we called it was "line work," or "rote" work.  I.E. what you did over and over on an assembly line or clerking. 

[stinkykong]

Fellas, this helps.

 

The convert-to-curves is not in the context menu and it is greyed out in the Layers menu. So  I believe it's already converted, drawn with the pen tool.

 

I had snapping disabled but enabled snapping to guides so that is one way to do it albeit a number of steps required. But it works.

 

My node tool doesn't select when I drag a marquee over them (which is what I mean by drag-select). Ooops I see it does if I have the shape selected first. AI doesn't need that but I see an advantage to that when close by shapes would be within the marquee's area.

[Bri-Toon]

The convert-to-curves is not in the context menu and it is greyed out in the Layers menu. So  I believe it's already converted, drawn with the pen tool.

 

Okay. When you said "shape," I thought you meant one of the shape tools.

 

My node tool doesn't select when I drag a marquee over them (which is what I mean by drag-select). Ooops I see it does if I have the shape selected first. AI doesn't need that but I see an advantage to that when close by shapes would be within the marquee's area.

 

 

 

Just to confirm, you figured out what was wrong, right? You need to use the Move Tool to make marquee selections. Then while the shape is selected, switch to the Node Tool.