Power Rotate & Duplicate with Precision

[FredLarson]

Hi,

 

I am trying to do a power duplicate while rotating an ellipse. the amount of rotation needs to be as precise as possible. I and trying to create seven ellipses in a perfect circle. The attached file shows what I am trying to do.

 

I need seven smaller ellipses equally spaced around a larger ellipse. I have created one and changed its rotation point to the center of the larger ellipse.

 

It works fine if I manually rotate it but if I enter a precise rotation value (51.428571429) in the transform panel, the rotation point is ignored and it just rotates around itself. Thanks.

 

 

[MEB]

Hi FredLarson,

Welcome to Affinity Forums :)

To rotate with precision use 360/7 in the rotation input field instead.

Currently the Transform panel in Affinity Designer don't work with the external reference point (Rotation Centre icon in the context toolbar), only with the anchor points you find in the Transform panel.

To workaround this draw an auxiliar line from the center of the small circle to the center of the main circle, select both the auxiliar line and the small circle, change the anchor point in the Transform panel to middle on the bottom row and enter 360/7 in the rotation input field. You should be able to achieve what you want with Power Duplicate. You can then delete the auxiliary lines.

 

For more information about expressions you can use in the input fields please check Help ▸ Affinity Designer Help ▸ Workspace ▸ More ▸ Expressions for field input.

[Guest]

Hi FredLarson,

Welcome to Affinity Forums :)

To rotate with precision use 360/7 in the rotation input field instead.

Currently the Transform panel in Affinity Designer don't work with the external reference point (Rotation Centre icon in the context toolbar), only with the anchor points you find in the Transform panel.

To workaround this draw an auxiliar line from the center of the small circle to the center of the main circle, select both the auxiliar line and the small circle, change the anchor point in the Transform panel to middle on the bottom row and enter 360/7 in the rotation input field. You should be able to achieve what you want.

Hi MEB,

 

Thanks for the tip with the line connecting the two centers, it brings a solution to a rather painful problem.

[MEB]

You're welcome @reglico ^_^

[FredLarson]

Thanks for the help. It worked perfectly.

[andrew_p]

I just ran into this problem as well. I think it'd make a lot of sense to be able to do precise rotations about the "external reference point", instead of points on the bounding box. Most of the time I want to rotate about the reference point because it is much more powerful (you can move it wherever you want and snapping rules apply to it). It is really frustrating not being able to do precise rotations without tricks like this. Are there plans to include an option for it in the transform panel?

[R C-R]

16 hours ago, andrew_p said:

Are there plans to include an option for it in the transform panel?

That was implemented long ago.

[Alfred]

OT, where did Régis (@reglico) disappear to??

On 4/27/2017 at 8:48 PM, MEB said:

You're welcome @reglico

 

[andrew_p]

5 hours ago, R C-R said:

That was implemented long ago.

Oh I just checked the desktop version, indeed, you’re right. However I was using the iPad version and there precise rotation only works around bounding box points, even when the reference point is activated. Sorry for the confusion, I should’ve clarified.

Edit: then I guess my question is, are there plans to implement this on the iPad too?