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Snapping Mid-point geometry ?


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Hello

 

Am learning AF designer via tutorials and working on a logo - I have couple elementary questions

 

1. Can one snap to the mid point of the sides of the hexagon like shown in the figure marked by a black line.

 

I am trying to divide the side into 2 line segments

 

 

post-33533-0-03523600-1491554921_thumb.png

 

2. How to create a 3 point star like in the figure below ( it's a rough diagram )

 

post-33533-0-79600300-1491555047_thumb.png

 

 

I do have the snapping enabled

 

post-33533-0-31545900-1491555206_thumb.png

 

 

Thanks 

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Hi moksha!

 

Your #1 is not as elementary as you might think because there is no way (that I know of, anyway) to create & snap a node to the midpoint of a line segment that is not aligned to some other existing snapping point.

 

There may be some other ways to do this but what I ended up doing is as follows (modifier keys are for a Mac):

 

1. Duplicate the hexagon with CMD+J

2. Hold down CMD & SHIFT (to scale proportionally from the center) & drag a corner handle of the dup inward until it snaps to the vertical sides of the original hexagon.

3. Hold down SHIFT & rotate the dup by 45°.

At this point the corners of the dup should be touching the midpoints of the segments of the original:

post-3524-0-83351500-1491560612_thumb.png

4. Convert the original to curves & with the Node tool add a node anywhere on the segment you want to divide.

5. Drag the new node to the corner of the duplicate. It should snap there if the 'Snap to shape key points' snapping option is enabled.

6. Delete the dup, break the curve at the new node, & go from there.

 

Your #2 is much easier: Just create a 3 sided polygon (or a triangle), convert to curves, add a node on the bottom segment, & drag it wherever you want. With snapping enabled you can position it horizontally aligned with the top node if you want.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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Re #1: maybe easiest to start over with a 6 point star? Pull the inner adjustment handle all the way out.

post-12544-0-03022500-1491612790_thumb.png.

 

Otherwise, as RCR says, you'll need to snap to geometry..... or guides.

Another geometry option is to draw out a simple rectangle over half of the hexagon.

 

New points A & B will snap to the horizontal midpoint. New point C will snap to the vertical midpoint.

Points for the right side will snap in line with the new points you just created on the left.

(just make sure you use shift drag when moving the nodes to constrain to the segment's direction)

post-12544-0-23956600-1491617547_thumb.png

 

 

.... but yes, an add midpoints feature would be very nice.

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JimmyJack,

 

Your first method is brilliant -- much quicker & easier than mine. But I ran into a problem with the rectangle one: even if I shift drag on the new nodes A or B, there is some uncertainty in the vertical (y direction) point they snap to. It is small, less than a pixel on a hexagonal shape of about 500 px wide, but it is there.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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Re #1: maybe easiest to start over with a 6 point star? Pull the inner adjustment handle all the way out.

attachicon.gifstar to pent.png.

 

Otherwise, as RCR says, you'll need to snap to geometry..... or guides.

Another geometry option is to draw out a simple rectangle over half of the hexagon.

 

New points A & B will snap to the horizontal midpoint. New point C will snap to the vertical midpoint.

Points for the right side will snap in line with the new points you just created on the left.

(just make sure you use shift drag when moving the nodes to constrain to the segment's direction)

attachicon.gifUsing rectangle.png

 

 

.... but yes, an add midpoints feature would be very nice.

I Like the 6 point star idea - will try it out later for faster workflow. Am using 150 x 150 px box for the design....

Thank you

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Hi moksha!

 

Your #1 is not as elementary as you might think because there is no way (that I know of, anyway) to create & snap a node to the midpoint of a line segment that is not aligned to some other existing snapping point.

 

There may be some other ways to do this but what I ended up doing is as follows (modifier keys are for a Mac):

 

1. Duplicate the hexagon with CMD+J

2. Hold down CMD & SHIFT (to scale proportionally from the center) & drag a corner handle of the dup inward until it snaps to the vertical sides of the original hexagon.

3. Hold down SHIFT & rotate the dup by 45°.

At this point the corners of the dup should be touching the midpoints of the segments of the original:

attachicon.gif2 hex.png

4. Convert the original to curves & with the Node tool add a node anywhere on the segment you want to divide.

5. Drag the new node to the corner of the duplicate. It should snap there if the 'Snap to shape key points' snapping option is enabled.

6. Delete the dup, break the curve at the new node, & go from there.

 

Your #2 is much easier: Just create a 3 sided polygon (or a triangle), convert to curves, add a node on the bottom segment, & drag it wherever you want. With snapping enabled you can position it horizontally aligned with the top node if you want.

Ha - thank you

 

Got it working  - ya I was wondering -  since they construct the polygon shape, there must be mid point geometries available for each element of the shape...

 

I had to rotate by 90 degrees to get to your result - figured thats what you meant anyway..

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(modifier keys are for a Mac)

 

Cmd on a Mac is Ctrl on Windows. (For what it's worth, I find it easy to remember by thinking of "command and control".)

 

Re #1: maybe easiest to start over with a 6 point star? Pull the inner adjustment handle all the way out.

 

The same applies to #2: instead of starting with a triangle, start with a 3-pointed star so that you have a ready made midpoint (which you can Shift-drag to keep it central).

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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