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Feature request- snap anchor handles to grid option


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36 minutes ago, Mithferion said:

Had you searched or asked for it first, you would have known that it's already in the Publisher Beta (its versions is 1.7).

That's great, and I think recent posts have acknowledged that this is going to be implemented in Designer 1.7, but user "lase" was questioning the process rather than the result, and making suggestions for the forums and feature feedback. I guess it's just a worry that a requested capability seems to have been argued against for so long, one that a perhaps small number of users regard as "essential" rather than just "nice to have".  I'd fully understand the argument that "we have prioritised other features in our development budget" but to argue that it's not a valid capability is a bit confounding (unless I'm completely missing something here...)

Windows 7 & 10 64-bit, Dual Xeon workstation(s) 64gb RAM, and single i7 laptop 32gb RAM

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Said user was questioning the position and arguments of one developer, and one part of the statements implied that the feature was not implemented. You can agree or disagree with Ben about this (I was supportive about the feature, by the way), but I can tell you that some users also lacked the proper manners to argue  in favor of this feature.

Best regards!

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  • Staff

@AndyQ

Read back through this thread - I'm not going to repeat all the explanations as to why every example given to me for matching handle lengths and angles, aside from specifically putting a handle on a grid position for that one use case, has been shown to be achievable with the new features and do not require snapping to specific grid points, and that the new features mean you are not tied to just using the grid size or axis directions.

 

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8 hours ago, Ben said:

@AndyQ

Read back through this thread

Ok, I've read through the thread and watched videos. A pretty tedious process. I can see that perhaps some of the reasons for requesting snapping might not convince you. However, the key takeaway is 1) the coordinates of a handle affects the shape of a bezier curve (doh!), 2) there is currently no way to set the exact coordinates of said curve handles.  Is that a correct conclusion or not? Yay or nay? (I don't have Affinity Designers so I can't answer this myself).

 

Windows 7 & 10 64-bit, Dual Xeon workstation(s) 64gb RAM, and single i7 laptop 32gb RAM

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Of course the position of a handle affects the shape of a bezier curve - and that is precisely the point.  But, as I've tried to explain, the properties of a bezier mean that the length of the handle required to form common arcs does not fall into neat grid positions.  So, if you always work to grid, you are never going to get true arcs.  Some of the reasons..... I think you mean all but one of the reasons.

You might also want to read again - the snap to grid feature is currently available in Publisher, and will be in Designer and Photo as soon as they Beta.  Think that might have already been said.

 

And thanks for calling my efforts tedious.  I had hoped that these features might be useful, and offer something not found in other apps.  Anyone that understands beziers and wants to use them for more precise construction should be able to appreciate these features.

SerifLabs team - Affinity Developer
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  • 2 months later...
On 1/22/2019 at 9:09 PM, Metathronos said:

soooo, has this been  implemented yet in Designer?

Yes.

It's available in the latest Beta.

Best regards!

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  • 1 month later...
  • Staff

We've not yet done a Beta for 1.7 on iOS, but when we do these features should be in there.  For the most part, it'll just be a case of adding the required buttons to allow access to the features.

SerifLabs team - Affinity Developer
  • Software engineer  -  Photographer  -  Guitarist  -  Philosopher
  • iMac 27" Retina 5K (Late 2015), 4.0GHz i7, AMD Radeon R9 M395
  • MacBook (Early 2015), 1.3GHz Core M, Intel HD 5300
  • iPad Pro 10.5", 256GB
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  • 3 weeks later...
On 1/4/2018 at 10:02 AM, Ben said:

Ok, here is a selection of videos showing handle snapping.

 

This one shows snapping the node, then constraining the handles in line with the grid axis, and finally snapping the handle lengths to match.

HandleSnapping2.mov 

 

This one shows constraining the handles to diagonals, then snapping the handle lengths.

HandleSnapping3.mov

 

This one shows how you might match up handle lengths between a number of nodes.  Note the different markers to show whether you have matched the length of the partner handle of the owner node (one bar), or the handle at the other end of the curve segment (two bars), or both (showing both one and two bar markers).

HandleSnapping4.mov

 

And, showing the last example constraining the handle direction to grid axis.

HandleSnapping5.mov

 

Note: in none of these examples is "Snap to Grid" turned on.  The grid is only displayed as a visual cue.  The constraining directions are taken from the grid axis directions and intermediates/diagonals.

 

Just to be a contrarian to most here it seems, I just wanted to say I really appreciate Ben's implementation of this (after discovering this thread last night and grabbing the Beta to play with it). It's actually something I really disliked in Illustrator, as it was always a choice between being able to replicate what I was doing or getting the exact curve I wanted, and rarely did the two ever meet. Being able to do that now without wrangling and praying is wonderful. So, thank you for that.

Though, to add a potentially silly question... Is there something that needs to be enabled to get the numbers on the red line as shown in the "Snapping2" video?

And the "construction mode" that the extended features of this became, I've seen that the mode should be activated by clicking a fifth icon in the tool snap labelled "Perform construction snapping", but this isn't present on my machine. Is there another element to activate it? (Windows 1.8.0.258)



Thank you greatly!

Edited by EchoPenguin
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Construction mode has been (temporarily) removed while we make it more of a general feature (rather than just the Node tool).   It will re-appear soon.

 

I think the button for Construction snapping was accidentally removed for the last Beta.  It should be back in the next one.  That button opens up all the snapping for handle directions and lengths, and should include the snapping shown in video 2.

 

SerifLabs team - Affinity Developer
  • Software engineer  -  Photographer  -  Guitarist  -  Philosopher
  • iMac 27" Retina 5K (Late 2015), 4.0GHz i7, AMD Radeon R9 M395
  • MacBook (Early 2015), 1.3GHz Core M, Intel HD 5300
  • iPad Pro 10.5", 256GB
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  • 6 months later...

It looks like this feature has already been implemented. THANK YOU! :) This helps me with symmetrical object creation and node joining. 

After playing around I finally discovered how to do it because it wasn't clear and simple. 

This is how I got the node handles to snap to a grid intersection:

1. Turn on Snapping, preset: Object Creation. 

2. Turn on 'Snap to grid' in the preset snapping menu.

3. Turn on 'Align handle positions using snapping options' in the context icon toolbar at the top. 

4. Move anchor handle point to a grid intersection and it snaps to it.

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1 hour ago, Fun Art Sam said:

It looks like this feature has already been implemented. THANK YOU!

It came with the 1.7 version, which is when I bought the suite of products (I've only used Designer thus far, but have done some minor testing on Publisher/Photo). I'm pretty happy with the snapping capabilities in general, and snapping handles to grid was essential feature I was waiting for (logo and icon design work).

Windows 7 & 10 64-bit, Dual Xeon workstation(s) 64gb RAM, and single i7 laptop 32gb RAM

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  • 2 years later...
On 1/3/2018 at 4:45 PM, filip89 said:

 

 

How would you achieve a shape similar to this using Affinity? You could eyeball it but it's not accurate.

 

 

asdasd.png

Seconded. That’s is a perfect example. Here’s an additional screenshot of my scenario as I’m working on a font and cannot align the inner curve precisely without snapping the handle to a grid point. I was working on this in Vectornator which supported the handle snap but had some other UI issues, but I’m not sure how I can finish this without snapping the handles correctly.

4004B5DB-8615-4DDF-86B4-1EC614FA7407.png

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  • Staff

Hi @dantaylr,
First make sure you have Snap to grid activated in the Snapping Manager (tap the document icon on top then Snapping to access the Snapping options) and enable it.
Then with the Node Tool selected, go to the context menu (on bottom) and enable the fourth top icon counting from the right. You should now be able to snap node's handles to the grid.

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3 hours ago, MEB said:

Hi @dantaylr,
First make sure you have Snap to grid activated in the Snapping Manager (tap the document icon on top then Snapping to access the Snapping options) and enable it.
Then with the Node Tool selected, go to the context menu (on bottom) and enable the fourth top icon counting from the right. You should now be able to snap node's handles to the grid.

Ah hah it’s been implemented! Thank you much!

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