Perfect Tangent to Tangent Circles in Affinity Designer

[Kiarian]

I've been scratching my head trying to think of a workaround for this. As it stands Affinity Designer does not have a 'tangent to tangent' function for when you want to draw multiple circles, or lines to tangents, and make sure the lines and/or circles are perfectly aligned. Note: this is NOT the same as aligning a line to the quadrant of a circle.

Here's my workaround. I use Onshape (free, cloud based technical drawing software) to sketch up the circles in Onshape, save as a drawing, then export as a PDF and bring into Affinity Designer as perfectly editable curves with fills. Perfect for logo design in particular.

 

[stokerg]

Hi Kiarian,

 

Thanks for sharing the work around you've found.

 

It's been requested a few times in Features Requests that we add 'tangent to tangent' support/snapping.  So hopefully it's something that could be included in a future update.

[Kiarian]

Hi stokerg,

No problem. It's something that would be so handy, and could be seamless if implemented well in your workflow.
You could start a curve with the pen tool, draw a line, hold ALT, or a hotkey, select the required tangent/intersection/perpendicular/quadrant, pick, then carry on your linework.
It's been a staple of AutoCAD for donkey's years.

[Qwazwak]

On 1/30/2018 at 8:44 AM, stokerg said:

Hi Kiarian,

 

Thanks for sharing the work around you've found.

 

It's been requested a few times in Features Requests that we add 'tangent to tangent' support/snapping.  So hopefully it's something that could be included in a future update.

Is there any news/change on this? Been hearing its coming for so many years now...

[Tazintosh]

Still missing in V2 or am I missing it?
Extremely annoying specially given the new V2 Shape Builder tool