layers and slicing problem

[jaunt]

Hi, I'm really loving this so far.  Ran into a roadblock today:

 

I've created several layer groups, each of a black circle with a white number in it.  Very simple -- think calculator buttons.  They are all on the same page which I set up as an iPad Retina project.

 

I want to set up slices for each of the identical calculator buttons so I can export them all at once into PNGs for my project.

 

I go to export persona, select all the layers, and select "create slices".  This works***  

 

Except I notice that the slices are slightly different sizes.  For example some are 142x142 and some are 141x141 and some are 141x142 etc...  So I went back to draw personal and noticed that the layer groups were also different sizes, even though they were made with the exact same copies of the original surrounding circle with a number in it.  I thought, maybe I can go through and make sure they are all the same size, but as soon as I do that the circle and number inside gets stretched.  I can clearly see on the screen that that layer boundary is not touching one side of the circle on some of them, but there appears nothing I can do about it?

 

It's important that all my slices are exactly the same size.  Any advice?

 

Thanks for the help!

 

PS. I've added a screen capture to show how Affinity has chosen layers sizes differently for identical objects.

 

 

*** (Note that before I grouped each number with its circle, the layers-to-slices function stopped working and kept putting all slices in the same place, or then it started putting them in the the complete wrong place.  I downloaded the beta to see if it fixed anything and it did't.  So I grouped each number with their surrounding circles and the slice from layer function started working again).

[Ben]

Can you upload your afdesign file so we can see exactly what you have. I suspect that it's because your objects are not all aligned perfectly to pixels.

[jaunt]

Hi, thanks for the help.  Amazingly, I've been so busy getting work done with this software after only a few hours of using it that I haven't had a chance to come back to this issue.  Awesome really.

 

Anyway, you are right, the objects are not aligned perfectly to pixels.  I actually thought they were because I went and selected them and using the transform dialog typed in numbers.  It let me type numbers in with multiple objects selected but apparently this does not update all selected objects like it does it programs I'm used to.  I want to be able to select three objects and type in the x value and have them all jump to the location.  How do I do this without individually selecting each one?

 

And then I've been further confused because I would select one object with an integer y value and select the adjacent object with a non integer y value and click "align to vertical bottom".  The first try I see that the integer value drops down to the non integer object, so I undo thinking it has to do with the order I selected the objects.  I reverse the order and do it again and this time the the integer object yet again drops to the non integer value.  Scratching my head here:  I'm at a loss how to do this easily without manually typing in values for every single object.

[Ben]

Currently, our transform panel operates on your selection bounds.  So, if you have multiple objects selected it behaves as if they are grouped, just as Move tool does when you have a multiple selection.

 

You could use the align function to align all the objects to one edge first, then enter your X position - that would achieve the result you want.