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Windows Areo and Beta?


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Hello, I just downloaded my trial of AD and it's not off to a good start. It says I must activate areo (win7) to run the program. There is a work around on one forum post about adding some code to a command line , rofl, like I am supposed to know where that is? The old (2016) post also says it is because of the program being beta and needing this or that, is this still beta as of now? I don't want windows areo on, really not a good start to my first experience with affinity but whatever, maybe someone can help with how to run the program such as where do I enter the suggested line of code exactly.

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Not sure which one you mean, since there are several threads about that Win Aero theme available on the forum. - But maybe you meant this one here?

Well if it's that one you mean, it tells to use --no-dwm-warning on the command line as an argument to start the app. So something you usually would do from inside a DOS or Win cmd shell as ...

"C:\Program Files\Affinity\AffinityDesigner\Designer.exe" "--no-dwm-warning"

However this suppresses just the non Aero error blabla message dialog ("Windows aero is not activated. This leads to rendering problems and slow speed. Please choose an Aero desktop theme.") during app startup, but of course wouldn't fix any possible real runtime problems then if such would occur on your Win7 system. - But you can give it a try and see how the app behaves then on your system.

And since you usually don't want to make a batchfile which you have always to startup more in a console/shell like fashion, you can alter the applications desktop icon accordingly, so that when it is double clicked it will perform then the application startup with that above ""--no-dwm-warning argument option supplied. To do that, you have to right click on the Affinity Designer desktop application icon and look under it's properties (Target?) settings where it lists the applications call entry, aka ("C:\Program Files\Affinity\AffinityDesigner\Designer.exe") then you edit/change that one into ...

  • "C:\Program Files\Affinity\AffinityDesigner\Designer.exe" "--no-dwm-warning"

So far so good, this now should allow you to start the Designer application then without poping up that Aero message window. But if you double click any associated "*.afdesign" file the startup method for that extension does still not take that argument option into account. In order to overcome with that too, you would have to change/alter a Windows registry entry which is associated with that file extension.

Since I don't know if you know how to work and change and add entries to the Windows registry, I think it's better to wait for some demand from your side here for this one then!

(BTW I'm actually not on a Windows system, otherwise would have made some visual explanatiory screenshots for you, which might be here more meaningful and helpful for you.)

 

☛ Affinity Designer 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Photo 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Publisher 1.10.8 ◆ OSX El Capitan
☛ Affinity V2.3 apps ◆ MacOS Sonoma 14.2 ◆ iPad OS 17.2

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I was against it, but surprisingly, after latest Windows updates (you know, the meltdown/Spectra panic attack, hehe), my machine went slower. Still was, even after finding and eliminating some really inconvenient optional update that made its way in, somehow (my bad).... Well, might be coincidence, but getting back to Aero permanently, instead of changing depending on the app to use, showed me a significant improve in the system, in terms of performance (snappier, better memory handling), yet not sure why. Plus, somehow, the way I have it configured now (better than in my own tuts and tips on how to do that, as those are old now) , I don't 'notice' it anymore. Indeed I think it's helping now in several other ways, visually... You probably wont change it, but wanted to add my recent experience.

AD, AP and APub. V1.10.6 and V2.4 Windows 10 and Windows 11. 
Ryzen 9 3900X, 32 GB RAM,  RTX 3060 12GB, Wacom Intuos XL, Wacom L. Eizo ColorEdge CS 2420 monitor. Windows 10 Pro.
(Laptop) HP Omen 16-b1010ns 12700H, 32GB DDR5, nVidia RTX 3060 6GB + Huion Kamvas 22 pen display, Windows 11 Pro.

 

 

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1 hour ago, v_kyr said:

To do that, you have to right click on the Affinity Designer desktop application icon and look under it's properties (Target?) settings where it lists the applications call entry,

 

Right click indeed in the desktop icon, hit "Properties", then in the window that pops up, "Short cut" (not sure on how English versions of Windows put it) tab, and in that part, just you need to edit the "target" (again, if English Windows' wording is so) text field. Is the first field in that tab, tho. Do not forget to include the ""  and properly. Or wont work...

 

It sounds to you as veeery technical, as is the explanation of developers, with their own words. This happens a lot, technical people explain things.... correctly, with technical words. :)

Is indeed a console line, but is like... I mean, we've been doing this in Windows for ages, I mean, Windows users. For running a game in compatibility mode, to load a 3D software using or not the GPU, for a thousand of things. And even more, MANY installers do it for you, you just are not aware.  (Affinity doesn't, as this is an unsupported mode! Loading it with Aero disabled, I mean. )

 

As is sth just easy to access, right click over a desktop icon, I'd classify it as quite in the user level area. Just Windows users are way, way less into technicalities than Linux users, or, the older users among us who used DOS a lot before Windows arrived.  Mac users, at least a good number of them are not very familiar with this sort of thing. (a portion of them, I mean)

 

But really, is not some dark magic that only advanced programmers can edit.  :)

 

AD, AP and APub. V1.10.6 and V2.4 Windows 10 and Windows 11. 
Ryzen 9 3900X, 32 GB RAM,  RTX 3060 12GB, Wacom Intuos XL, Wacom L. Eizo ColorEdge CS 2420 monitor. Windows 10 Pro.
(Laptop) HP Omen 16-b1010ns 12700H, 32GB DDR5, nVidia RTX 3060 6GB + Huion Kamvas 22 pen display, Windows 11 Pro.

 

 

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2 hours ago, SrPx said:

...As is sth just easy to access, right click over a desktop icon, I'd classify it as quite in the user level area. Just Windows users are way, way less into technicalities than Linux users, or, the older users among us who used DOS a lot before Windows arrived.  Mac users, at least a good number of them are not very familiar with this sort of thing. (a portion of them, I mean)

But really, is not some dark magic that only advanced programmers can edit.  :)

Well the overall problem is you never know what level of computer and software (IT) experience certain users have and thus if they will understand at all what you are trying to explain them. So that they afterwards don't have any fear to try out these things. Further as a developer you usually tend to use other more technical and domain specific terminologies, since you know the guy next to you is a dev too or at least a sysadmin etc., who has knowledge about those things and thus understands mostly right out of the box what you are talking about. - However the difficulty here is often to explain certain things then to people without any deeper IT background in a way they can follow and understand. As a dev you somehow sadly unlearn this over time, since you tend to do many things automatically without the need of much thinking about it, or how to explain certain for yourself and colleagues easy to follow steps now to others, which maybe don't have any clues about all those things and terminologies.

 

☛ Affinity Designer 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Photo 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Publisher 1.10.8 ◆ OSX El Capitan
☛ Affinity V2.3 apps ◆ MacOS Sonoma 14.2 ◆ iPad OS 17.2

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Thank you all for the replies and understanding.  The main thing is it seems is you guys who are more technical minded than me understand some people don't necessarily understand certain technical specifics, I thank you guys for that. I know what that the command line window looks like for example but it freaks me out thinking of using it, lol. Registry changes, forget that! I will try the icon "target" thing but I think this requirement forcing one who has win7 is not nice overall. I don't like areo and I can't even figure out how to use my own background when in areo. Having said that another option is to simply turn on areo when I want to use affinity and then turn it off when not using it. A complete hassle but only takes 15 seconds or so.

Lastly, I have tried Affinity with areo and all I can say is wow what a great program!!!  It is a bit like blending the way I do things in CAD with the inkscape work space I've been using.  Things are generally very intuitive and I was so surprised how easy it has been to pick up,  however I have hit a stumbling block which no tutorial I have so far seen explain. It is to do with the fill tool, it seems to do everything except the most basic thing of repeatedly filling enclosed spaces with a predetermined "locked" colour when I click on the space. The fill function has some great features (really great, I love it already!) but I simply want it "also" to be like a fill tool the same as in the basic MS paint or inkscpape or many other basic paint software I have used. I hope what I mean is clear needing the fill tool to "lock" a colour to it and be able to just click whatever space and it fills it, just like the MS paint tool does. I am sure this is possible with affinity but I've spent over an hour trying to figure it out, searching tutorials etc... but cant get it to do this very basic function. Can someone help me please :)

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Hi

Re fill tool. I am not sure I am understanding you correctly, so this may help or I am off target.

You can select multiple objects and change the colour in the colour panel (right-side of screen) so all objects get the same colour. You can multiple select by marquee select - dragging around all the objects if close to each other. Anything fully enclosed in the marquee will be selected. Alternatively, you can hold shift while clicking on the objects you want. 

 

The colour you have previously selected in the colour panel, will be applied to new shapes drawn using the shape tool, until changed.

 

I hope this helps.

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3 hours ago, Silver06 said:

Hi

Re fill tool. I am not sure I am understanding you correctly, so this may help or I am off target.

You can select multiple objects and change the colour in the colour panel (right-side of screen) so all objects get the same colour. You can multiple select by marquee select - dragging around all the objects if close to each other. Anything fully enclosed in the marquee will be selected. Alternatively, you can hold shift while clicking on the objects you want. 

 

The colour you have previously selected in the colour panel, will be applied to new shapes drawn using the shape tool, until changed.

 

I hope this helps.

Hi Silver06, thanks a lot it has helped.... Although I can't find where the marquee selection is I do understand the concept of how that is used.   After trying a few variations of the hold shift key down I found the sequence and yes that is what I was looking for although I don't know why a colour can't just be assigned to the tool for repetitive use without having to hold the sift down but anyway it does the job, thanks a lot.

 

 

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Hi RTB,

To marquee select, you need to have the move tool (V is the shortcut) active, then move your cursor over the objects to be selected and drag. Any object fully enclosed will be selected. Note if there is a large object behind one you want to select use the ALT key (or OPTION for a Mac) while dragging so that it is excluded and you only get the top object.

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9 hours ago, Silver06 said:

Hi RTB,

To marquee select, you need to have the move tool (V is the shortcut) active, then move your cursor over the objects to be selected and drag. Any object fully enclosed will be selected. Note if there is a large object behind one you want to select use the ALT key (or OPTION for a Mac) while dragging so that it is excluded and you only get the top object.

Thanks again, I didn't understand the meaning of dragging in this case,I thought you meant dragging the actual objects to be closer to each other, lol.  So I dragged the box over multiple objects (not moving them) and they all  changed colour, very nice and quick. The ATL key tip will come in handy, thanks again.

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On 19/02/2018 at 8:07 AM, RTB said:

I think this requirement forcing one who has win7 is not nice overall. I don't like areo and I can't even figure out how to use my own background when in areo. Having said that another option is to simply turn on areo when I want to use affinity and then turn it off when not using it.

 

The requirement is for the Desktop Window Manager to be enabled, not necessarily Aero enabled (we describe it as Aero, as that's what most users recognise). You can enable the DWM without having Aero enabled, but it's quite a tricky thing to do. When you disable DWM/Aero, you're putting your machine into a legacy mode, where it uses old drivers that are no longer supported. This can lead to bugs/crashes and performance degradation.  We really recommend you enable DWM/Aero for the best experience, but if you're willing to compromise, you can use the --no-dwm-warning flag. If you upgrade your computer to Windows 8/10, then the DWM is always enabled, so this problem goes away.

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2 minutes ago, Mark Ingram said:

 

The requirement is for the Desktop Window Manager to be enabled, not necessarily Aero enabled (we describe it as Aero, as that's what most users recognise). You can enable the DWM without having Aero enabled, but it's quite a tricky thing to do. When you disable DWM/Aero, you're putting your machine into a legacy mode, where it uses old drivers that are no longer supported. This can lead to bugs/crashes and performance degradation.  We really recommend you enable DWM/Aero for the best experience, but if you're willing to compromise, you can use the --no-dwm-warning flag. If you upgrade your computer to Windows 8/10, then the DWM is always enabled, so this problem goes away.

Thanks Mark, I'll just turn the areo off and on when needed, the rest is too technical for me change without detailed instructions, I need a new computer anyway, lol.

The only real issue I am having so far with this wonderfully intuitive software is the fill function. The features are great but the implementation is frustrating to the max and could be so much simpler, at least a better visual highlighting of what is currently selected. It is rare that I like a software program right from the start but I can already see affinity is really nice overall with lots of cool features,  I hope I'll work out the fill problems within the next 9 days of the trial :)

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21 minutes ago, Silver06 said:

Thanks for the feedback RTB. It's good to know it is working for you.

 

Yes, it is working basically but I'm still have real issues with filling thing that I would have thought would be easy. Sometimes the hold shift works the way I think it should then sometimes it doesn't. I really don't understand how this is working yet but I'll keep trying. At least with your help I am closer to figuring it out :)

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22 hours ago, RTB said:

Yes, it is working basically but I'm still have real issues with filling thing that I would have thought would be easy. Sometimes the hold shift works the way I think it should then sometimes it doesn't. I really don't understand how this is working yet but I'll keep trying. At least with your help I am closer to figuring it out :)

Hi RTB,

Another way to select objects is to select them in the layers panel.

Each object is in its own layer in the layer panel.

To select a sequence of layers. Click on the 1st one in the sequence,hold SHIFT then click on the last one in your sequence.

To select layers out of order use CTRL. Hold CTRL and click on the layers/objects you want.

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On 2/21/2018 at 10:06 AM, Silver06 said:

Hi RTB,

Another way to select objects is to select them in the layers panel.

Each object is in its own layer in the layer panel.

To select a sequence of layers. Click on the 1st one in the sequence,hold SHIFT then click on the last one in your sequence.

To select layers out of order use CTRL. Hold CTRL and click on the layers/objects you want.

Hi Silver06,

I will certainly use layers with affinity if I buy it (probably will). The problem atm is I am so busy with a cad project I don't have too much time for affinity and my trial will end soon, lol. Ok, I'll have to spend some time with it later today and try what you suggest :) I really do like the program but my problem is understanding how this graphic software is designed to be used as in the workflow. For example what is best practice for using layers, colours etc...Graphic designing is just something I like to do sometimes, usually I'm using cad to make physical stuff.

An example of the colour fill again is something really simple like MS paint, all I have to do is select the fill tool and click on a space and it changes colour, easy, but it doesn't do it like that in affinity. Even using the colour picker (eyedropper) is problematic, idk why but in MS paint I have no problem, it's easy. There must be a reason these tools are designed the way they are (probably to make things easier overall) so I need to understand what is the way it was designed to be used then I will have no problem.  There is obviously so much affinity can do and a lot of it has been easy to understand so far, I'm sure the fill tool issue will get sorted with practice. Then the next thing will pop up, lol.

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I would not worry if the trial will expire before you can test everything you'd wanted. The tool is freaking awesome by itself, covers a ton of areas, and at some 50 bucks is really a no-brainer.  You can have later on more or less issues if you expect the features to behave like other software apps you have used, but it will have in any case a bigger -by very, very far- value that those 50 bucks, even if you use it for certain things and not for other uses, finally.... My 2c.  :)  

 

Also, you seem to be very specialized in ...CAD/CAM? which is a very different discipline, but having a bit less familiarity (as your tool of reference here is being MS Paint, hehe, no offense... ;) )  with advanced pro 2D image editors (which ALL are complex beasts to handle). I agree on the eyedropper thing, specially... It could have a faster (alt - click while with the brush or fill, etc tool) workflow for painting, but it is feature-wise very advanced. But trust me, the alternatives at even higher price (or free but way, way less complete (till an extent that a bunch of average cost or free are not fully usable for professional use) than A. Photo) all have their own weird approaches in UI matters, some being way crazier that the worst scenarios you may find in A. Photo. Which indeed has imo one of the the most user friendly UIs I've found for a general editor. Xara comes close, but very far - IMO - in the capabilities and features of the pure raster nature .

 

 

AD, AP and APub. V1.10.6 and V2.4 Windows 10 and Windows 11. 
Ryzen 9 3900X, 32 GB RAM,  RTX 3060 12GB, Wacom Intuos XL, Wacom L. Eizo ColorEdge CS 2420 monitor. Windows 10 Pro.
(Laptop) HP Omen 16-b1010ns 12700H, 32GB DDR5, nVidia RTX 3060 6GB + Huion Kamvas 22 pen display, Windows 11 Pro.

 

 

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On 2/23/2018 at 4:53 PM, SrPx said:

I would not worry if the trial will expire before you can test everything you'd wanted. The tool is freaking awesome by itself, covers a ton of areas, and at some 50 bucks is really a no-brainer.  You can have later on more or less issues if you expect the features to behave like other software apps you have used, but it will have in any case a bigger -by very, very far- value that those 50 bucks, even if you use it for certain things and not for other uses, finally.... My 2c.  :)  

 

Also, you seem to be very specialized in ...CAD/CAM? which is a very different discipline, but having a bit less familiarity (as your tool of reference here is being MS Paint, hehe, no offense... ;) )  with advanced pro 2D image editors (which ALL are complex beasts to handle). I agree on the eyedropper thing, specially... It could have a faster (alt - click while with the brush or fill, etc tool) workflow for painting, but it is feature-wise very advanced. But trust me, the alternatives at even higher price (or free but way, way less complete (till an extent that a bunch of average cost or free are not fully usable for professional use) than A. Photo) all have their own weird approaches in UI matters, some being way crazier that the worst scenarios you may find in A. Photo. Which indeed has imo one of the the most user friendly UIs I've found for a general editor. Xara comes close, but very far - IMO - in the capabilities and features of the pure raster nature .

 

 

Hi, Thanks for the reply and yes I agree that for what is offered the price is very reasonable, a bit more than $50 as it's in pounds but still that is negligible. It's true I'm not very much into graphic design as the MS paint reference shows although I do have Inkscape which is good with it's trace feature. I was using AD last night and am starting to really like this program even though there are things I just can't understand like why I can't use the fill tool to fill in a "donut" to see the effect? I could simply close the donut to make it a solid fill that's true, HAHAHA i'm such a donut!    Anyway, the other thing I don't get yet is how to use the erase tool. Like in MS paint I just select the erase tool or lasso and start erasing. With AD I instead use the eyedropper to pick the surrounding colour and fill in the bits I wanted to erase, it's the opposite way to erasing but it works.

Having said all that, could I ask you about the 3D feature I have read about for Affinity Photo to make mock up's of presentation boxes or other containers, has this been implemented yet in the latest version? To clarify my question, if I design something in AD can I take that design and export it to AP and wrap it onto a 3D box?

 

 

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2 hours ago, RTB said:

Anyway, the other thing I don't get yet is how to use the erase tool.

Like the Fill (paint bucket) Tool, the Erase Tool is for pixel-based (also called 'raster' or 'bitmap') layers -- the little colored squares you see if you zoom in far enough on those layers. Donuts & the other shapes are vector objects, which despite appearances are defined geometrically by the position of their points & the shape of their curves & the color they are filled with. So you can't 'erase' part of that geometry with a pixel-based tool.

 

But the Erase Tool should work as expected on a pixel layer, the ones that are identified on the Layers panel with a "(Pixel)" suffix. 

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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5 hours ago, R C-R said:

Like the Fill (paint bucket) Tool, the Erase Tool is for pixel-based (also called 'raster' or 'bitmap') layers -- the little colored squares you see if you zoom in far enough on those layers. Donuts & the other shapes are vector objects, which despite appearances are defined geometrically by the position of their points & the shape of their curves & the color they are filled with. So you can't 'erase' part of that geometry with a pixel-based tool.

 

But the Erase Tool should work as expected on a pixel layer, the ones that are identified on the Layers panel with a "(Pixel)" suffix. 

Hi,and thanks. I thought it might have something to do with the vector/raster thing. So there is no way to cut up a vector object?

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4 hours ago, RTB said:

Hi,and thanks. I thought it might have something to do with the vector/raster thing. So there is no way to cut up a vector object?

In Affinity, you can do this by using the "Break Curve" button on the Context toolbar when the Node Tool is active. It can only be done on existing nodes, but you can add nodes at the points you want to cut the vector object. Some vector apps have a Knife Tool that will cut a vector shape at any point on its path. A Knife Tool is on the Affinity roadmap, so we can expect it in some future free update, but there is no ETA for that.

 

You can also use the Geometry operations like Divide to cut several overlapping vector shapes into separate objects.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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