Transform selection? (Affinity Designer)

[wilson66]

Hi,

 

I am quite new to Affinity Designer, though not new to vector apps in general. I have a little project here where I have combined certain elements into a single layer (like the 2 arms of a character, or his eyes).

 

What if I want to transform only, lets say, the left arm of the character using transform handles? How does this work?

 

I found some older thread somewhere that suggests that this might not be possible? Can't be true, right?

 

Also, when I try to select certain elements from a layer and cut and paste them (CTRL + X -> CTRL -> V), it always cuts all elements from that layer (I selected the nodes). How do I cut only the selected nodes?

[wilson66]

Some hints?

[gdenby]

When you say you have combined several elements in a single layer, do you mean that the vector objects have be combined by the boolean operation? If so, they are now a single vector object, and so do not have separate handles. It would have to be boolean divided to again become individual curves. If they have been grouped, either open the group in the layers panel and select the element, or direct select by clicking while holding down "control,"

 

Nodes cannot be copied and pasted. They are elements of a curve, so any operation on them is actually an operation on the curve. They can be individually added to, or deleted from the curve.

[kaffeeundsalz]

It kind of depends on what transformation you actually want to apply. Individual nodes of a curve can always be manipulated freely with the Node tool. It's also possible to manipulate multiple nodes at once. The question is why you'd want to merge separate objects to a single layer anyway. When you know you want to separately transform them later, just keep them on separate layers and use the grouping functions. In addition to what @gdenby wrote, boolean operators can also be applied non-destructively in Affinity Designer.

[toltec]

On 04/11/2017 at 11:03 AM, wilson66 said:

I am quite new to Affinity Designer, though not new to vector apps in general. I have a little project here where I have combined certain elements into a single layer (like the 2 arms of a character, or his eyes).

 

By combine, do you mean group ?

 

If they are grouped, double click on the item you want to change. Or just double click on the group, then select the item you want.