Manipulate different objects separately without making new layers?

[squeezeboxpress]

Hi! I'm new to affinity designer and have very minimal experience in the past with illustrator. I'm having a hard time figuring out how to separate different vector objects from each other (I don't need to do anything fancy with them, just adjust size and position) when I import them all in one file, already traced.

 

In illustrator I could simply "ungroup" them, which was exactly what I wanted. Nothing about them was fundamentally changed, they just weren't locked together anymore.

 

I've tried dividing with and without a fill color, and neither is working. Is there a solution that I don't know about?

 

p.s. I've posted in the past and a lot of people tried to convince me that I shouldn't be auto-tracing things. I understand the arguments, and I don't really want to go over that again, I just want a clear answer to my question above: is it possible to manipulate vector objects separately that were imported together without making a million layers or filling things in with different colors, or outlining them all etc.

[R C-R]

With the exception of the "(Curves)" layer type (note the plural) every vector object in Affinity Designer is on its own layer. Grouping some of them into "(Group)" layers is optional but can greatly facilitate editing, moving, clipping, masking, applying layer blending modes, etc. This is essentially no different from Illustrator except for how the various layer types are shown in the Layers panel. So in Affinity, if imported objects are grouped, you can ungroup them if you want. This will display each ungrouped object as a separate layer in the Layers panel, but doing so does not fundamentally change them.

[squeezeboxpress]

Do you understand what I'm trying to do? This answer doesn't help me understand how I can move different objects to different parts of the screen without changing their appearance. My experience with design programs is VERY limited and so far I've found that when things are in different layers it makes them very complicated to work with. I would be happy to ungroup, then select things and re-group them, but I can't even figure out how to select multiple objects without clicking each one individually, and sometimes I have dozens of lines that need to stay together!

 

Also, I haven't been able to click on ungroup with my original file. The only way I've been able to separate them is to "divide", which in my experience so far has made much more work for me and made everything on my screen look completely different.

 

I need to understand this for my work, and I am hoping someone can explain to me clearly and very simply how to move different objects apart from each other without changing the shape of them, outlining them, filling them in with black, or having to click on each tiny line from a different layer by hand in a particular order.

[toltec]

If you have to divide them, they don't sound like grouped items. 

 

Every object in a graphics program like Designer is on separate layers. If not you couldn't move the objects independently, which is what you want to do. You can't have it both ways 

 

It would be very helpful if you can upload a sample file.

[v_kyr]

5 hours ago, squeezeboxpress said:

Hi! I'm new to affinity designer and have very minimal experience in the past with illustrator. I'm having a hard time figuring out how to separate different vector objects from each other (I don't need to do anything fancy with them, just adjust size and position) when I import them all in one file, already traced.

 

In illustrator I could simply "ungroup" them, which was exactly what I wanted. Nothing about them was fundamentally changed, they just weren't locked together anymore.

 

I've tried dividing with and without a fill color, and neither is working. Is there a solution that I don't know about?

 

p.s. I've posted in the past and a lot of people tried to convince me that I shouldn't be auto-tracing things. I understand the arguments, and I don't really want to go over that again, I just want a clear answer to my question above: is it possible to manipulate vector objects separately that were imported together without making a million layers or filling things in with different colors, or outlining them all etc.

Well it depends on how the stuff is traced, combined together and written out by an individual tracing app. I have several tracing apps which optimize objects into paths as one related path, so that there are then no grouped together peaces (layers) available afterwards. Some apps do instead also distribute traced objects among several independent layers, so that there are no successively object layers, which is hard to reuse if there are hundreds of layers inside a vector file.

In short, it highly depends on the app and how the tracing result is generated and looks like.

 

[R C-R]

6 hours ago, squeezeboxpress said:

Also, I haven't been able to click on ungroup with my original file.

In the layers panel, right-click on a group. In the menu that pops up, select "Ungroup." Or select "Ungroup" from the Layers menu on the main menu bar, or use the keyboard shortcut for that. Or, if you want to move some but not all layers out of a group, or into another group, select them in the layers panel & drag them to the desired position in the layer hierarchy.

 

You can select multiple items in the layers panel using the same, standard list-based methods common to your OS, like Shift-clicking to add adjacent items or (on a Mac) CMD-clicking on individual items to add or remove them from the selection.

 

If any of this is new to you, you can refer to the built-in help, particularly the "Getting Started" & the "Layers" sections. There are also dozens of video tutorials that cover various topics in detail.