If Affinity Designer boasts on precision, then what in the world is this??

[IcyPRO]

 

 

 

 

(Affinity Designer 1.6)

[MEB]

Hi IcyPRO,

Welcome to Affinity Forums

We are aware of those issues. We intend to improve the boolean operations code in a future version.

I'm sorry for the inconvenience.

[IcyPRO]

I understand, though think it should be on the high priority list for many reasons..

[MEB]

I understand that's an important feature. Unfortunately it's also something that's not trivial to get right.

[Aammppaa]

@IcyPRO I was curious to see how some other vector apps handled your test…

 

 

Not the most recent versions of any of the apps (just what I have on available right now) - perhaps the current versions have the problem sorted.

 

Certainly indicates that this really isn't a trivial problem to crack.

[IcyPRO]

Well, I'm a graphic designer and I work with CorelDraw all the time and even though that program is nowhere near perfect, it handles boolean opearations perfectly.

And for things like posters and business cards this IS a trivial problem for me..

[Pšenda]

Select all undesirable nodes

 

and delete

 

[Mithferion]

It's an excess of precision.

Let's hope they can solve it soon.

Best regards!

[Michelangelo_]

2 hours ago, Pšenda said:

Select all undesirable nodes

 

reasonable approach, it needs less time than a post in the forum

Affinity Team are working on it, in the meantime we have a fast solution, is enough....

[IcyPRO]

Show me the fastest way how to do something like this in Affinity Designer (this was done in Corel, took less than 1 minute).

 

 

 

I'm not asking because I want to argue, but because I'm looking for some solution so I can use Affinity Designer for what I need..

 

11 hours ago, Pšenda said:

Select all undesirable nodes and delete

Well, it's not always so simple as you've shown. And any unnecessary work only slows you down.

 

9 hours ago, Michelangelo_ said:

reasonable approach, it needs less time than a post in the forum

That's quite an arrogant answer. Of course it takes less time than posting it on forum, but I took my time to post it here so that that the problem gets solved.

And even that statement might not be entirely true, because if you deal with the same problem over and over, then it eventually wastes more of your time than posting it in forum..

[Michelangelo_]

@IcyPRO I'm sorry, I did not want to be polemical. It's a problem already discussed long ago.

[Aammppaa]

@IcyPRO I am always interested in questions like yours because exploring the current situation and comparing / contrasting with alternatives, is a really good way to learn more about the product.

 

I totally agree that Boolean operations should work seamlessly, and as expected, but my experimentation with other apps (I don't have a copy of Corel Draw to test) shows that the problem exists beyond Affinity.

 

I have every confidence that Affinity will listen to their customers and fix the problem - they have already done so with numerous other issues. Frustrating as it is to wait, we must accept that it is just going to take time.

 

As for your later query: Show me the fastest way how to do something like this in Affinity Designer.

 

Here is one approach… Took 12 seconds (GIF recorded in real time, after one practice run).

 

 

And here is what I did…

• Draw two rectangles. (Keypress M)
• Select both (Keypress V) then Boolean Add (Custom shortcut, set in Preferences - Ctrl+1).
• Switch to Corner tool (Keypress C).
• Drag and snap the two corners.
• Finally use the context toolbar to change the second corner to Concave.

 

I am sure that there are other approaches ( there always are).

 

 

[IcyPRO]

Thank you for taking your time giving me a detailed reply with visual representation of your steps. I appreciate that.

Though you missed one thing - if you look closer, second curve was made out of elipse and not circle, like you made with corner tool. I think you would need at least one more step to achieve that.

 

I admit corner tool is a very useful thing in Affinity Designer and I really like how it works, but it's always making mirror curve to both sides from the corner..

 

Though that got me thinking. I wish there was this kind of shape tool, that we could use to connect to other objects:

 

Or even better - custom shape tool. Now THAT would be amazing.

[IcyPRO]

After more fiddling with Affinity, sometimes it does the same problem even when using Add boolean operation.

I've created multiple objects using grid, having them next to each other side by side and I still get these artifacts and unconnected walls. It's super frustrating..

 

How can anyone say this is NOT a trivial thing? This is literally the core of vector graphics!

[Aammppaa]

Ah yes - you are right, I overlooked the ellipse.

 

That certainly complicates things. A bit more toying does indeed show up just how frustrating the Boolean operations can be.

 

Here's hoping Affinity can improve things asap.

[Pšenda]

The problem is if the curves are only "touching". Then it is a problem to accurately evaluate which points it belongs to.

If curves intersect, it's fine.

 

In IcyPRO first example Affinity result is practically correct.

If substract circle from rectangle, in result is any point from the substracted circle.

If we add the same circle, so the areas have no common points, so that it does not form a uniform area.

[Aammppaa]

@Canuck IcyPRO's example is not supposed to be a practical example of how to make a particular shape, but rather a theoretical worst case scenario that shows the type of issue that arises when curves have points that touch but do not overlap.

[Alfred]

4 hours ago, Aammppaa said:

Ah yes - you are right, I overlooked the ellipse.

 

That certainly complicates things. A bit more toying does indeed show up just how frustrating the Boolean operations can be.

 

Here's hoping Affinity can improve things asap.

 

It doesn't complicate things that much! Having started by using the Corner Tool on a square, you just need to bake the corners and then drag the right-hand side to get the rectangle you want.

 

[Aammppaa]

@Alfred Yep tried that, but…

• Stretching by dragging a single node doesn't create a section of an ellipse.

• Baking the corners currently creates unneeded nodes: one in the center of the arc, and doubled up nodes at both ends of the corner. These can obviously be sorted out but it does rather defeat the simplicity that I was trying to demonstrate!

 

 

[Alfred]

6 minutes ago, Aammppaa said:

• Stretching by dragging a single node doesn't create a section of an ellipse.

 

I wasn't dragging a node with the Node Tool, I was dragging the right middle adjustment handle with the Move Tool. Sorry if that wasn't clear!

 

9 minutes ago, Aammppaa said:

• Baking the corners currently creates unneeded nodes: one in the center of the arc, and doubled up nodes at both ends of the corner. These can obviously be sorted out but it does rather defeat the simplicity that I was trying to demonstrate!

 

 

[Aammppaa]

2 minutes ago, Alfred said:

I wasn't dragging a node with the Node Tool, I was dragging the right middle adjustment handle with the Move Tool. Sorry if that wasn't clear!

 

That will work fine if you are only dealing with the quarter circle cut out, but if there are other nodes in the shape (such as IcyPRO's example) then they will be stretched too - so that approach can't work here either.

 

I've enjoyed playing around with possible solutions and workarounds, but end up agreeing with IcyPRO: there is no ideal workflow for these (seemingly simple) examples.

 

I also acknowledge that Affinity don't dispute that there is an issue and (as I said earlier in the thread) trust that it will be fixed.