clone tool - I don't get it

[st87]

Okay, so I have a general concept about what it does, but I can't really follow or appreciate its behaviour.

When I press alt, and select a spot to clone, and as I drag the cursor to clone an entire sweep, how come it doesn't follow the trajectory of my cursor movement?

 

So say, I want to clone an entire horizontal line about 50 px above. I hold alt, and select the start of the line from the left. I then release alt, and place my mouse where to start, and start dragging in a straight line towards the right. The crosshair indicating where it's cloning, rather than following the straight line per my mouse movement, starts dropping (note, my cursor is NOT drooping), to the extent that it actually CROSSES over my cursor from the top to the bottom. 

 

I don't understand it. Why doesn't it just follow the direction that I'm headed? I can't find any logic in the tool's behaviour. Am I using it wrong or is there an option that I should select that I don't know of?

 

Cheers.

[R C-R]

I think what is causing this are some of the settings on the Context Toolbar that perhaps you can't see because the app window is too narrow to show them all. If that is it, look for a symbol that looks like this  ≫ at the right end of the toolbar. Click it & check the settings that pop up, particularly rotation. 

[st87]

Hmm no I don't see any options that is obvious. However I had to reopen the document and to my shock, it works as expected. No more curly erratic and unpredictable cloning reference. Very weird. Bug?

[R C-R]

20 minutes ago, st87 said:

Hmm no I don't see any options that is obvious.

Below is what the Context Toolbar looks like with the Clone Tool selected when the app window is wide enough to show all of its options. If you do not see all of them, particularly the Rotation item I outlined in red, then it still seems most likely that it was set to something other the 0°, which causes the behavior you mentioned.

[MEB]

Hi st87,

Welcome to Affinity Forums

Make sure the Aligned checkbox is ticked.

[st87]

Thanks guys. Rotation was 0º and aligned was ticked at least during that second time when it was successful. I'll keep this in mind for future references.

Cheers.