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Batch/bulk edit of multiple same shapes


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In my experiences I've found that when I want to edit multiple shapes of the same type (e.g. 10 rectangles) and apply a property across all of them (e.g. rounded corners at 100%) that when I select the 10 rectangles the only batch operations I can perform are generic (e.g. convert to curves).

 

1 selected rounded rectangle:

post-7622-0-97967700-1488365344_thumb.png

 

2 selected rounded rectangles:

post-7622-0-86346000-1488365345_thumb.png

 

What would be great is if I select multiple shapes/paths/items of the same type, that I can then change the type's properties of all those selected items.

 

Edit: To extend this functionality, I'd like expression modifiers (e.g "width: +50px") which would relatively modify each individually selected item's value. I may have 10 selected objects which have varying widths which I just want to increase 50px, rather than set them all to a uniform width.

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In Affinity Designer 1.5 you can create your shapes as symbols. When you update one instance of a symbol, the other instances are updated automatically.

 

As for expression modifiers, we can already use expressions in the Transform panel (e.g. +=10 in the Width control to increase the width by 10 units, or w-10 in the Height control to set the height to 10 units less than the width). See the Help topic 'Expressions for field input' for further details.

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Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for Windows • Windows 10 Home/Pro
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for iPad • iPadOS 17.4.1 (iPad 7th gen)

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I'm aware of the symbol functionality, but it's not what I need. If I want to adjust multiple similar shapes (but not similar objects, like what a symbol might represent) then I'd thought it'd be nice to have the functionality to select multiple and adjust (e.g. converting a bunch of selected rectangles to have rounded corners).

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Thanks for the clarification. I agree that it would be useful to have a 'Select Similar' option in the Affinity apps.

Alfred spacer.png
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for Windows • Windows 10 Home/Pro
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for iPad • iPadOS 17.4.1 (iPad 7th gen)

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  • Staff

Hi lvl99,

Select the shapes you want to modify, change to the Node Tool then modify the properties you want from the context toolbar (fill/stroke colours, line style etc). In the case of rounded corners, with the Node Tool selected, select all nodes from all shapes first, then change to the Corner Tool and adjust one of them. All selected nodes will change accordingly. Currently you can't transform (scale, rotate, skew) each object individually.

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  • 5 weeks later...

Thanks for the explanation MEB. Would be great for future consideration to implement. I've seen similar behaviour like I mentioned in programs like Sketch and Axure RP, if you guys need real-world examples to play with.

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  • 1 month later...
Currently you can't transform (scale, rotate, skew) each object individually.

 

 

MEB,

 

Any chance that may be in the plans? I use Illustrator's Transform Each command quite frequently. It's another easy opportunity for competitive advantage. It's yet another modal dialog. It provides no proportional lock. It provides H and V scaling, but no explicit width and height.

 

It seems to me an elegant no-nonsense way to provide all that functionality in any program would be to simply provide "transform separately" and "random" checkboxes or buttons in the Transform palette. With the Separate option on, each object in the current selection would be transformed relative to its own coordinates, and the Random checkbox would become available. With the Separate option off, the entire selection would be transformed as a whole and the Random checkbox unavailable. A Scale Strokes on/off would also need to be included.

 

(Thanks for your participation in these forums, by the way.)

 

JET

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  • Staff

Hi JET,

I agree, this would be quite useful and as you said could be implemented cleanly/elegantly through a checkbox control in the Transform palette. I will fill an improvement request for this in our log (I don't know if there's already plans for it or not) but, as always, it's up to the dev team to pick/plan items according to their development plans/constraints.

 

You're welcome  ^_^

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