Angled guides (a la CorelDRAW)

[Phil_rose]

Hi everyone, I really love Affinity Designer and want to stick with it and will! It works really well but it has some really important (to me) features missing. I have used CorelDRAW for a very long time but it is definitely bloated and slow at this point. I guess it is still based on some sort of old technology.

Anyway, something I really like in Corel draw is the ability to have angled guides. You drag a guide onto the pasteboard just the same as Affinity and then as you can see at the top left of the screen grab I'm attaching, you get the option to change the angle. In fact, guides are added to a new layer which is, by default, set not print. This means you can lock the guides layer, move it up and down in the stack of layers et cetera. This is so useful in so many situations. Is this something Serif might consider adding to designer?

Thanks. What do others think?

[dominik]

Xara Designer has a feature, where you have a guides layer on top of all other layers. Any vector shape or line that is placed there turns into a guide. This could be a nice addition to AD, too.

 

I am not familiar with Corel Draw. From your screenshot I see that there is a guides layer, as well. I just can't tell if shapes other than lines become guides, too. Do you know?

 

d.

[Phil_rose]

It is! See my new screenshot.

[Hokusai]

Phil,

 

I agree that having more control over the guides would be a wonderful addition. Until they add that, have you tried setting up a grid with angles? It isn't nearly as easy as being able to have guides at angles but it might work in some situations.

 

Hokusai

[dominik]

20 minutes ago, Phil_rose said:

It is! See my new screenshot.

 

Thank you. This would be a really helpful addition to AD. I support your feature request.

d.

[Phil_rose]

5 hours ago, Hokusai said:

Phil,

 

I agree that having more control over the guides would be a wonderful addition. Until they add that, have you tried setting up a grid with angles? It isn't nearly as easy as being able to have guides at angles but it might work in some situations.

 

Hokusai

Ooo, that's kind of a good workaround! Thanks a so much.

 

Phil

[Hokusai]

Phil,

 

My pleasure, I hope it helps. Setting up the grids takes longer to set up than a guide would and you can't do it on the fly but on the positive side, at least you can do it. 

 

Hokusai

[catlover]

@ Phil-Rose :

 

I too, came from Corel Draw and I find the lack of an all-encompassing guide/ruler feature such as in Corel Draw my biggest disappointment with Affinity Products, both Photo & Designer.

Over the years there have been numerous feature requests by various users, but so far without results.

 

Maybe this could help you :

Forum >Resources :> AffDesigner 1.5.5 - Ruler with Moveable zero point 

There are 3 downloadable files, 2x ruler & 1x Protractor  (work in later versions as well)

Download the Protractors >pick the one that suits your need> open the file> copy the protractor> paste on separate layer in your project.

On that same layer : draw angled lines to serve as guides > Make protractor itself invisible > lock the layer > proceed with your project.

Best of luck

C.L.

[dominik]

1 hour ago, catlover said:

 

Maybe this could help you :

 

This is a very clever workaround. Thanks for sharing!

 

d.

[Phil_rose]

That could be helpful for many! 

Thanks so much for posting it. I have to say I hadn't even noticed that Affinity doesn't allow me to change the zero point on rulers. Thanks for adding something else for me to be irritated by My issue is more with the lack of angled guides but yes, this could be useful too. Thanks again,

Phil

[Maxxxworld]

On 18.1.2018 at 4:57 PM, catlover said:

 

I too, came from Corel Draw and I find the lack of an all-encompassing guide/ruler feature such as in Corel Draw my biggest disappointment with Affinity Products, both Photo & Designer.

Over the years there have been numerous feature requests by various users, but so far without results.

 

 

@catlover same me !!!

[Friksel]

I guess when it would become possible to convert objects to guides, like in Illustrator, that suits a lot of different needs at once. With that you can create angled guides, round guides, etc.

[Dazzler]

On 4/7/2018 at 7:23 AM, Friksel said:

I guess when it would become possible to convert objects to guides, like in Illustrator, that suits a lot of different needs at once. With that you can create angled guides, round guides, etc.

Not sure if this has changed since your post, but you can currently use objects as guides (hovering over gives a nice yellow line along the object you are about to snap to). That includes locked layers, so it would be fairly trivial to add your own angled guides. Also, there's an amazing tool hidden away for some reason called the 'Point Transform Tool'. I'd definitely recommend customising your tool palette and adding that, as it's great for aligning objects to other shapes.

[Phil_rose]

Absolutely. You can do that in Corel too, of course and yes, that would be the better option.

[catlover]

I think the devs have done a really good job with the guide-features since.

Just looked at that little known tool - useful little thing isn't it ?

Here's another one :

When the object is a curve, select it &  place the curve tool anywhere, but exactly on the line.

A tiny little cross-line shows up.

Now drag the line.

[Friksel]

3 hours ago, Dazzler said:

Not sure if this has changed since your post, but you can currently use objects as guides (hovering over gives a nice yellow line along the object you are about to snap to). That includes locked layers, so it would be fairly trivial to add your own angled guides. Also, there's an amazing tool hidden away for some reason called the 'Point Transform Tool'. I'd definitely recommend customising your tool palette and adding that, as it's great for aligning objects to other shapes.

What you describe here is not a guide. A guide is a permanent shape to snap objects to.

[Dazzler]

Just now, Friksel said:

What you describe here is not a guide. A guide is a permanent shape to snap objects to.

I do know what guides are, but ultimately, you can make a shape (whether that's a straight line or angle line or whatever you like), put it on a background layer, lock that layer, then use that for objects to snap to. It's not a guide, but it's the next best thing, and helps overcome the limitations of the real guides. The only real difference is that you can't hide and show that layer with a shortcut key, you'd have to click on the eye in the layers panel to hide it.  Of course, you'd also need to delete or hide it before outputing too.

[Friksel]

On 7/10/2019 at 6:55 PM, Dazzler said:

I do know what guides are, but ultimately, you can make a shape (whether that's a straight line or angle line or whatever you like), put it on a background layer, lock that layer, then use that for objects to snap to. It's not a guide, but it's the next best thing, and helps overcome the limitations of the real guides. The only real difference is that you can't hide and show that layer with a shortcut key, you'd have to click on the eye in the layers panel to hide it.  Of course, you'd also need to delete or hide it before outputing too.

Thanks for your response. Yes, I understand there are different workarounds. But  @Phil_rose didn't put his request in the questions-forum here, but in the Feedback & Suggestions (= wanted features) forum. That's why I responded to your post that what you say is indeed a workaround, but not the same thing he asks for (and a lot of us would like to see in the software).

[LeanneSA]

I've used Affinity Photo and Designer for years and I would love to be able to use this feature as I deal mainly with geometric patterns. Does anyone know yet whether Affinity has plans to implement this or not?

I'm aware of the ability to use isometric and axonometric grids, but sometimes having angle guides come in handy when it's for an isolated part of the design.

Edited December 6, 2019 by LeanneSA