Union Feature bug?

[W10M]

Hi, I have two questions:

1 - when I try to use the union tool to combine more than two curves, the program freezes. I've just discovered this tool and really like the idea of it. Is the freezing a bug or am I using it incorrectly?

2 - I just converted my own text to curves and want to overlay the series of curves on top of a photo, so that the text cuts out the photo and makes it look like the letters are full of the original picture (badly explained...sorry)...is this a boolean tool? Can you tell me how to do this with multiple shapes? I can get a picture to jump into one shape, but not into multiple shapes (which is why I was excited for the union tool in #1). Can you give suggestions?

 

Thanks

[Callum]

Hi W10M,

 

Does the program freeze until you close it or is it just for a moment?

 

I'm not sure If I understand you correctly but it sounds as though you want to clip the Photo to your curves if possible could you provide the file in question so I can make sure I understand you fully?

 

Thanks

Callum

[W10M]

Yes, I do want to clip the photo to the curves. And yes it freezes until I have to close the program. I've attached the file. Thanks! I'm really just trying to learn how to do more in the program. I used to work with illustrator, but this is a bit different. 

Riley.afdesign

[W10M]

I have figured out my own problem! - some of my curves were not closed (even though they looked like it) and so they were not able to combine. When I went through with a close zoom, and closed all the curves, I was able to combine all the text curves. 

[Move Along People]

-

[Alfred]

7 minutes ago, W10M said:

I have figured out my own problem! - some of my curves were not closed (even though they looked like it) and so they were not able to combine.

 

That’s very odd! Any time I’ve tried to perform geometry operations with unclosed curves in either of the Affinity apps, the app has automatically closed the curves for me.

 

10 minutes ago, W10M said:

When I went through with a close zoom, and closed all the curves, I was able to combine all the text curves. 

 

It would be helpful if the labels in the Layers panel distinguished between closed and unclosed curves.

[R C-R]

39 minutes ago, Alfred said:

It would be helpful if the labels in the Layers panel distinguished between closed and unclosed curves.

That would be very helpful indeed!

[smth]

Union is hanging for me right now. Progress bar has been at 100% for a few minutes. This has happened after dividing some curves, making some adjustments, then attempting to unify them again. We're probably talking about 50 curves, nothing too complex.

[MEB]

Hi smth,
Do you mind uploading the .afdesign file using this link (or attach it to your reply as you prefer) for us to take a look please?

[smth]

I don't have the file in that state any more I'm afraid. Upon retrying, the process completed, but gave unexpected results - some of the curves were being excluded. I guess this might be related. (This issue seemed to be caused by paths that had somehow ended up something like the attached. Tidying them up, resolved the issue).

example.afdesign

[MEB]

Hi smth,
Yes, in some cases the boolean operations still fail to calculate the end result properly. We already have quite a few files/cases logged. We hope to improve this as we move forward.
Thanks for the details and sample file. Glad you've sorted them with some tweaking.

 

[simonlayfield]

Hey all,

I'm also having an issue whereby AD hangs when selecting multiple complex curves and selecting Add. There's unfortunately no way to cancel the action or engage with the UI, and so forcing the software to quit from within Activity Monitor seems to be the only way out.

I don't tend to work with crazy complex curves or shapes, but in this case it's unavoidable as I've opened an old AI with a vectorised illustration. All I need to do is unify the two areas of the illustration (the black 'outline' as one shape, the white 'fill' the other) but this involves selecting many, many small shapes (curves) of the same colour and combining them - which is where AD appears to struggle.

Is this expected?

I can understand that performing operations on complex curves can require some processing but, in the event that it takes an unexpectedly long amount of time to process it would be worthwhile having a Cancel button beneath the Union dialog so that an alternative method of unifying curves can be attempted without forcing the software to quit.

Loving AD, though. Massive fan right here.

 

 

[firstdefence]

On 3/15/2018 at 12:25 PM, haakoo said:

Easier way to achieve this is;

Convert all your text to curves>Expand stroke>drag the image inside the curves-layer.

 

_Hans

No need to convert to curves just make the image a child of the text and the text will clip the image.