How to set exact size of object

[Hat Man]

I cannot see any way of setting the exact size of an object other than dragging it to size it with a mouse.  This is far too difficult to be be useful I expected to be able to select an object e.g. circle, rectangle etc etc. and have a properties box where I could input the exact size required.

 

does anyone know of a way of doing this ?

[Callum]

Hi HatMan,

 

You should be able to do this using the Transform panel towards the bottom right of the app.

 

C

[Alfred]

As in DrawPlus, you can draw a circle (or a square) by holding down the Shift key on your keyboard while dragging out an ellipse (or a rectangle). Unlike DrawPlus, you can type expressions in the width and height controls in the Transform panel (so, for example, you can type w in the H control to set the height to the current width).

[Hat Man]

Thanks - I was not looking at that side of  the App. I need to open my eyes more :-)

[mkalt0235]

I am aware of the transform control, but is there a way of setting the size of a rectangle on creation?
In photoshop you can double clic the tool in the tool bar, which prompt a creation window where you can enter the desired dimensions.

If I'm only using the transform, I need to drag a rectangle at whatever size, then go over the transform panel to adjust its measurements, which is less efficient.

[Move Along People]

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[Alfred]

29 minutes ago, haakoo said:

Create it once > Save it as an asset
Now whenever you start new project > drag the asset to the canvas and you have the same shape every time

That’s great for multiple copies across different projects, but I don’t think that’s what @mkalt0235 is asking about. In some applications (including Serif’s own DrawPlus) you can set the attributes of a new shape before actually placing it on the page.

[Move Along People]

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[R C-R]

4 hours ago, mkalt0235 said:

If I'm only using the transform, I need to drag a rectangle at whatever size, then go over the transform panel to adjust its measurements, which is less efficient.

Is it really that much less efficient than double-clicking the tool icon to open a new window, enter the values there, & then close that window?

If you don't like having to move the pointer very far to get to the Transform panel, you can drag it out from the Studio group & place it anywhere convenient on your screen as a floating panel. It doesn't use much screen space to begin with, but if it gets in your way you can reduce it to just the title header by double-clicking on the title text, & expand it when needed by single-clicking on that.

The Transform panel also has some hidden features for adjusting its values. You can click & drag left or right on any value name (W, H, X, Y, R, or S) to adjust it. You can click in a numeric field & use the cursor up & down keys to increment or decrement the value, & use the alt/option or shift keys to change values by 1/10 or 10 x increments, respectively. If you have a mouse with a scroll wheel, you can place the pointer over a numeric field & use the scroll wheel to change values without having to click into the field. You can enter numeric values in any unit type you want, so for example if the document default units are cm, you can enter "100 px" or "0.1 in" or whatever & it will automatically be converted to the cm equivalent when you exit the field.

As already mentioned, you can also use expressions for field values. This means you can enter precise values that can't be expressed as rational numbers, so for example you could enter "w*pi" in the Height field to make the height π times the width of the shape, or "Sqrt(w)" to make it the square root of its width. Since all expressions are evaluated using the internal precision of the app, which is around 8 decimal places, these values will be very precise.

[icr]

I'm using Affinity 1.7.2 (iMac 10.12.6) and there is nothing at the bottom right of the screen. The HELP function for "Studio->Transform" does not do anything in my version other than toggle a check mark on the menu item. Am I doing something wrong? Do I need to hold down a key?

I need to make a box an exact size and can't figure out how to do it. 

SOLVED: I made the box in another program and 'placed' it into the document. But I'd still like to know how to do that easier. 

 

[Old Bruce]

Do you have View > Studio > Show Right Studio checked?

[icr]

It is checked but grayed out. 

[walt.farrell]

53 minutes ago, icr said:

It is checked but grayed out. 

That probably indicates that you have View > Hide Studio checked.

[icr]

This is the appearance of my menu. I don't see anything different when "Transform" is checked or unchecked. 

[walt.farrell]

Thanks. Next possiblity: it's showing but you don't recognize it. For example, in the lower right studio, do you have a tab labeled Xfm?

[icr]

Seems on another project the "transform" panel does show, so maybe a bug. I just downloaded the newest version and I do now see the transform panel now I can't get it to skew or shear. Is there a trick. The "S" key brings up the "Save" dialog box. 

In the attached screen shot I'm trying to get the letters "Valco"  to match those created Freehand MX where they are skewed. Is there a way to do this without exporting to MX and then re-importing?

 

[carl123]

6 minutes ago, icr said:

I can't get it to skew or shear

What happens when you change the "S" value as shown in the Transform Panel in your screen shot

[h_d]

If you use Artistic Text to create the text box, you can shear/skew it with the cursor:

 

Cheers,

H

[icr]

1 hour ago, carl123 said:

What happens when you change the "S" value as shown in the Transform Panel in your screen shot

Ok, buy clicking on the little down arrow near the "S" in the box it brings up a slider that does the shear or skew. Thank you!

They should update the "help" at the top of the screen to explain this important function. According to wiki there are 74992 words that begin with "S" 

[R C-R]

3 hours ago, icr said:

They should update the "help" at the top of the screen to explain this important function.

If you hover the pointer over the "S:" in the Transform panel for a few seconds, a tooltip will pop up showing that the name of that item is "Shear."

Tip: when learning the Affinity UI, it helps to temporarily set the tooltip delay (in Preferences > User Interface) to a small value (slider far to the left) so the tooltips appear quickly.