dizeyner Posted March 9, 2018 Share Posted March 9, 2018 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff Callum Posted March 12, 2018 Staff Share Posted March 12, 2018 Hi Dizeyner, 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 There is no way to do this either just yet I'm afraid. 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. Grids are ArtBoard specific unfortunately. Thanks C Quote Please tag me using @ in your reply so I can be sure to respond ASAP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firstdefence Posted March 12, 2018 Share Posted March 12, 2018 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. 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 Quote 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 (Please refrain from licking the screen while using this forum) Affinity Help - Affinity Desktop Tutorials - Feedback - FAQ - most asked questions Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff Ben Posted March 12, 2018 Staff Share Posted March 12, 2018 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. Quote SerifLabs team - Affinity Developer Software engineer - Photographer - Guitarist - Philosopher iMac 27" Retina 5K (Late 2015), 4.0GHz i7, AMD Radeon R9 M395 MacBook (Early 2015), 1.3GHz Core M, Intel HD 5300 iPad Pro 10.5", 256GB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R C-R Posted March 12, 2018 Share Posted March 12, 2018 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. Quote 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff Ben Posted March 12, 2018 Staff Share Posted March 12, 2018 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. firstdefence 1 Quote SerifLabs team - Affinity Developer Software engineer - Photographer - Guitarist - Philosopher iMac 27" Retina 5K (Late 2015), 4.0GHz i7, AMD Radeon R9 M395 MacBook (Early 2015), 1.3GHz Core M, Intel HD 5300 iPad Pro 10.5", 256GB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firstdefence Posted March 12, 2018 Share Posted March 12, 2018 Thanks for the info on Grids @Ben much appreciated and certainly a step in the right direction. Quote 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 (Please refrain from licking the screen while using this forum) Affinity Help - Affinity Desktop Tutorials - Feedback - FAQ - most asked questions Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dizeyner Posted June 22, 2018 Author Share Posted June 22, 2018 Im glad that the ability to create a preset for grids is coming. I cant wait! Do we have a timeframe for 1.7? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gdenby Posted June 22, 2018 Share Posted June 22, 2018 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. Quote iMac 27" Retina, c. 2015: OS X 10.11.5: 3.3 GHz I c-5: 32 Gb, AMD Radeon R9 M290 2048 Mb iPad 12.9" Retina, iOS 10, 512 Gb, Apple pencil Huion WH1409 tablet Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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