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Im having a couple of problems with grids. 

 

I have a distinct way I prefer to use grids and Im not able to figure out how to get affinity to do what I want. In photoshop and fireworks etc when I select to view grid it stays behind all my design elements just as I prefer. Affinity seems to prefer to obliterate all my design elements by putting the grid over top of everything. This is counter productive when Im working with semi transparent items and need to see what they look like. In addition to using grid for placement its how I test the level of transparency I want to have.

I also find it more than irritating that whenever I open a new document the grid is not present. Not only is it not present but when I go in and AGAIN have to elect to show grid it has again reset itself to that single pixel grid. Which must be operator error on my part but I cant figure it out.

and since I blather on Ill say this is exactly what I want:
1. change grid default to what I want it to be (and have that remain as default until I say otherwise)
2. have application default to show grid ON not off (AND remember my last settings for grid)
3. have grid be background not foreground (this is required for my work)
4. have grid not disappear when I go to another artboard (this is vital when I am comparing elements on multiple artboards against one another)

Images attached: first image is how things are in fireworks and photoshop. Just the way I want them. Second image is how affinity is doing things. Need to get affinity to do what I want for the grids please.

Thanks for any help. 
 

what I do want in a grid.png

what I do not want in a grid.png

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  • Staff

Hi Dizeyner,

 

  1.  Unfortunately there is no way to change the default settings for the grid I'm afraid however this has been requested in the past so may be added in a future update :)
  2.  There is no way to do this either just yet I'm afraid.
  3. There is no way to have the grid be background. As far as I'm aware the screenshot you have provided of PhotoShop is a checkerboard grid to show transparent pixels and isn't for designing with. You can make something similar in Affinity by selecting transparent background in document setup.
  4. Grids are ArtBoard specific unfortunately.

Thanks

C

 

Please tag me using @ in your reply so I can be sure to respond ASAP.

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Another thing to note is if you move the document about, the transparency checkerboard (Not Grid) is static, whilst the Document Workspace, Artboard is moving about.

 

5aa662532ca5a_ScreenShot1.png.e8ce36cc162a525a8a12452bb67031c3.png 

 

ScreenFlow.gif.844dd8146fe5fa109f7e14c456d95fbd.gif

 

You could always drop the opacity of the grid lines in the grid and guides manager but I absolutely agree you should be able to have a default grid that you can set, it absolutely should be able to be turned on or off for new documents and grids should absolutely have presets that are global or workspace specific.

 

We need Grid Grids, the equivalent of Guide Guide but for Grids

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Grids in Affinity are document-centric.  They are not a general setting.  This is intentional.

 

The comparison with Photoshop is not ideal.  Photoshop works entirely in pixel coordinates, and is primarily intended for bitmap documents (though they have forcibly smashed in some poor concept of vector).  Consequently, their grid setup is fairly limited - 2D grids with a single sizing for both axis.

 

Affinity mixes both pixel and vector concepts more evenly.  We offer much more advanced grids which are intended to facilitate both pixel and vector.  Consequently it would be difficult to offer a general grid setting.

 

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21 minutes ago, Ben said:

Grids in Affinity are document-centric.

Because they are document-centric, one way to create a template of sorts for a specific grid pattern is to create a new document with just the desired grid pattern but nothing else, save it, & lock the file. It then will open as a read-only document. Add whatever you want to it & then use "Save as" to create a new file. (Because it is locked, if you just try to save it normally you get a warning that lets you bail out of the save, so it is sort of a failsafe feature.)

 

There is also a keyboard shortcut available to show & hide the grid, so if a document with a grid opens with it hidden, it just takes a moment to show it. 

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There will be presets for Grids in 1.7.

 

So, you will be able to create a preset for applying to any document.  Grid presets will be categorised into 'physical' and 'pixel' types - so you'll define grids in real world sizes (independent of DPI), or a pixel size (appropriate for raster documents).  The presets available will then depend upon whether your document units are pixels or physical.

 

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Thanks for the info on Grids @Ben much appreciated and certainly a step in the right direction.

iMac 27" 2019 Somona 14.3.1, iMac 27" Affinity Designer, Photo & Publisher V1 & V2, Adobe, Inkscape, Vectorstyler, Blender, C4D, Sketchup + more... XP-Pen Artist-22E, - iPad Pro 12.9  
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  • 3 months later...

One thing that perplexes me somewhat. Why is it important to have the grid as a background element, as apposed to an overlay?  If I'm stacking objects while snapping to grid, it makes it so much easier to see the grid, rather than have to approximate where I might get a snapping indicator.

Myself, I can judge the transparency levels as well w. the grid visible or not.

There is a keyboard shortcut for toggling the visibility. On or off is just a key combo press away. I toggle it allthe time.

Agreed, defaults would be useful for projects that will span multiple documents.

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