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Has anyone suggested an option for snapping nodes? This could be useful when trying to accurately position shapes and objects next to each other.

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Hi Jack,


You can already snap to nodes in the current version. In the Pen and Node tools check the Snap section on the context toolbar.


The first button lets you snap to nodes of selected objects (so for example, if you want to snap to a node on another object you must have both selected); the second button will snap the handles (for example in a segment composed by a straight line followed by a curve, you can make the handle of the curve align with the straight line); finally the third button lets you snap more than one node at once.


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O dear I never checked those tools. Its amazing how much you can miss when trying to do a regular job. I can't see the wood for the trees. The only time I played with various tools was when I had an answer to a query on the forum.

If voting made any difference it wouldn't be allowed!

Rules are for the guidance of wise men and the obedience of fools.

To be ignorant of world happenings is forgivable - to be willingly ignorant is unforgivable.

Truth does not need to be protected only lies do.

Mac OS Monterey 12.6.4

AD version 2.3.0

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There's a lot to learn, Jackamus. Don't feel bad for not knowing all of it. I still learn something new about the app every day.

Journey forth my friend, by body if needs be...

 

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2013), 2.6 GHz Intel Core i5, 8GB RAM, OS X 10.14 beta || USB Keyboard, Wireless Trackpad, Wacom Intous 3 Tablet

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Thanks Chris. That's kind of advice I give people but never think of applying it to myself!

If voting made any difference it wouldn't be allowed!

Rules are for the guidance of wise men and the obedience of fools.

To be ignorant of world happenings is forgivable - to be willingly ignorant is unforgivable.

Truth does not need to be protected only lies do.

Mac OS Monterey 12.6.4

AD version 2.3.0

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  • 4 years later...
On 1/10/2015 at 3:40 PM, MEB said:

Hi Jack,

 

You can already snap to nodes in the current version. In the Pen and Node tools check the Snap section on the context toolbar.

 

The first button lets you snap to nodes of selected objects (so for example, if you want to snap to a node on another object you must have both selected); the second button will snap the handles (for example in a segment composed by a straight line followed by a curve, you can make the handle of the curve align with the straight line); finally the third button lets you snap more than one node at once.

I have just found this reply to my question about snapping to nodes from MEB. I don't think it applies to 'guides' snapping to nodes. Can someone confirm?

If voting made any difference it wouldn't be allowed!

Rules are for the guidance of wise men and the obedience of fools.

To be ignorant of world happenings is forgivable - to be willingly ignorant is unforgivable.

Truth does not need to be protected only lies do.

Mac OS Monterey 12.6.4

AD version 2.3.0

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OK then I will submit this as feature request or is there a fundamental problem with doing this?

If voting made any difference it wouldn't be allowed!

Rules are for the guidance of wise men and the obedience of fools.

To be ignorant of world happenings is forgivable - to be willingly ignorant is unforgivable.

Truth does not need to be protected only lies do.

Mac OS Monterey 12.6.4

AD version 2.3.0

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Thanks MEB I'll do just that.

If voting made any difference it wouldn't be allowed!

Rules are for the guidance of wise men and the obedience of fools.

To be ignorant of world happenings is forgivable - to be willingly ignorant is unforgivable.

Truth does not need to be protected only lies do.

Mac OS Monterey 12.6.4

AD version 2.3.0

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2 hours ago, MEB said:

Guides only snap to object's bounding boxes, not to objects nodes.

The Snapping Options include Shape Key Points and Object Geometry, which allows snapping to some nodes, though not all, I think:

Quote

Snap to shape key points—when checked, objects can be aligned to key points on shapes, such as the start and end of a rounded corner.

Snap to object geometry—when checked, objects can be snapped to object vertices and not simply to the bounding box or key points. Vertices are object corners or intersections, such as the points of a star, within a shape's bounding box.

 

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
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Hi walt,
I'm aware of these options. That's not what jackamus is requesting. He wants to snaps guides to object's nodes, not the other way around.

23 hours ago, jackamus said:

I have just found this reply to my question about snapping to nodes from MEB. I don't think it applies to 'guides' snapping to nodes. Can someone confirm?

 

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1 minute ago, MEB said:

I'm aware of these options. That's not what jackamus is requesting. He wants to snaps guides to object's nodes, not the other way around.

In my experience those snapping options allow one to snap Guides to some of an object's nodes. Not all of them, perhaps, but some. So it seemed somewhat incorrect to say that Guides couldn't snap to anything but an object's bounding box.

I agree it's probably not what jackamus wants, as it won't help much with nodes on curves drawn with the Pen Tool.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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I assume that if a guide were able to snap to a node it would snap to any node.

10 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

In my experience those snapping options allow one to snap Guides to some of an object's nodes. Not all of them, perhaps, but some. So it seemed somewhat incorrect to say that Guides couldn't snap to anything but an object's bounding box.

I agree it's probably not what jackamus wants, as it won't help much with nodes on curves drawn with the Pen Tool.

 

10 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

 

I agree it's probably not what jackamus wants, as it won't help much with nodes on curves drawn with the Pen Tool.

I am assuming that if a guide could snap to a node it would be any node.

If voting made any difference it wouldn't be allowed!

Rules are for the guidance of wise men and the obedience of fools.

To be ignorant of world happenings is forgivable - to be willingly ignorant is unforgivable.

Truth does not need to be protected only lies do.

Mac OS Monterey 12.6.4

AD version 2.3.0

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1 hour ago, MEB said:

Are those nodes overlapping the bounding box? If so the guides are actually snapping to the bounding box. Can you give me a specific example please? Maybe I'm missing something.

Are you asking me the question or Walt?

If voting made any difference it wouldn't be allowed!

Rules are for the guidance of wise men and the obedience of fools.

To be ignorant of world happenings is forgivable - to be willingly ignorant is unforgivable.

Truth does not need to be protected only lies do.

Mac OS Monterey 12.6.4

AD version 2.3.0

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3 hours ago, MEB said:

@walt.farrell

Are those nodes overlapping the bounding box? If so the guides are actually snapping to the bounding box. Can you give me a specific example please? Maybe I'm missing something.

Or I'm not understanding what you mean :)

Anyway, one of the nodes is on the bounding box, but the snapping is to the node in the example I experimented with (but failed to share) earlier.

triangle.afdesign

A vertical guide will snap to any node of the triangle, as well as snapping to the midpoint of the bounding box.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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Try this: Convert the triangle to a curve and then add a node some where and then see if you can get the guide to snap to the new node? This will highlight the problem of the nodes disappearing when you move a guide.

If voting made any difference it wouldn't be allowed!

Rules are for the guidance of wise men and the obedience of fools.

To be ignorant of world happenings is forgivable - to be willingly ignorant is unforgivable.

Truth does not need to be protected only lies do.

Mac OS Monterey 12.6.4

AD version 2.3.0

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Exactly! The guide will only snap to bounding box nodes and not to newly created nodes. I would be interested how you can still see the nodes whilst moving the guide! When I try that with your file the nodes disappear as soon as I change to the Move tool.

Edited by jackamus
word left out

If voting made any difference it wouldn't be allowed!

Rules are for the guidance of wise men and the obedience of fools.

To be ignorant of world happenings is forgivable - to be willingly ignorant is unforgivable.

Truth does not need to be protected only lies do.

Mac OS Monterey 12.6.4

AD version 2.3.0

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4 minutes ago, PixelPest said:

I find the behaviour rather inconsistent:

It is probably snapping to the mid points, not the coincidently placed nodes. For example the apex point is at the middle of the object's Horizontal placement and I would guess the node on the left side is in the middle of the vertical.

Mac Pro (Late 2013) Mac OS 12.7.4 
Affinity Designer 2.4.0 | Affinity Photo 2.4.0 | Affinity Publisher 2.4.0 | Beta versions as they appear.

I have never mastered color management, period, so I cannot help with that.

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6 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

It is probably snapping to the mid points, not the coincidently placed nodes. For example the apex point is at the middle of the object's Horizontal placement and I would guess the node on the left side is in the middle of the vertical.

Yes - but this was by accident. 

SO then it´s just snapping to bounding box and middle of bounding box:

Guide2PointSnapping2.gif.d19b922d0ae18d48f9ef04696303c828.gif

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14 minutes ago, PixelPest said:

You can establish Guides with the Node tool - so you will see the points - but I find the behaviour rather inconsistent

Thanks for the tip about using the Node Tool to draw out the guides. That will be useful.

It works for curves, but for shapes the nodes are still not shown, though.

The behavior in your example is, I think, what @MEB was talking about. The  odes that the guide snaps to are the corners and midpoint of the bounding box. In my example file, as long as the shape remains a shape, the guide will snap even to the off-center vertex of the triangle. Once the triangle is converted to a curve the guide will only snap to the bounding box points.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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23 hours ago, MEB said:

Only Ben (one of Affinity developers) can really tell you if there's any technical reason (or other) preventing this from being implemented.

Just guessing but considering that there could be dozens or even hundreds of very closely spaced nodes on one or more paths, I think a feature like this could easily overwhelm the algorithm that decides which node to snap the guide to.

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
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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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