Stroke Align change

[lepr]

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[dutchshader]

25 minutes ago, owenr said:

I may be misunderstanding your question, so in what way are you considering the problem of grid-aligning a stroke on an open path to be different to the problem of grid-aligning a stroke on a closed path?

if you have a stroke set to outside and draw a line from left to right, and a opposite line from right to left they won't aline with the grid.

it'just that i think that it would make things more complicated, and what is the advantage having a stoke not centerd

 

 

[lepr]

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[dutchshader]

@owenr i took me a while, bit i think i get you point.

and have to agree that it might be usefull to have this option

 

 

[lepr]

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[AdamW]

I can 'fill' an open path, so it must have an inside and an outside, right?

[dutchshader]

3 minutes ago, AdamW said:

I can 'fill' an open path, so it must have an inside and an outside, right?

good point, why did'nt i think of that

[R C-R]

1 hour ago, dutchshader said:

@owenr i took me a while, bit i think i get you point.

and have to agree that it might be usefull to have this option

Maybe I am just being denser than I usually am, but what in your example makes anything besides the center option useful for alignment purposes?

 

1 hour ago, owenr said:

Yes, clearly the words inside and outside are only sensible when talking of closed path, but given that these are the words currently in the UI, I've been trying to explain how these current alignment buttons could be applicable to open curves by considering the path's left to be the inside and right to be the outside (or vice versa).

Again, maybe I am being denser than I usually am, but I am having problems reconciling your first clause about what is sensible with the rest of it, particularly the "or vise versa" part. That just seems to me to be the kind of nonsensical arbitrariness that I would find confusing & completely non-intuitive. Apart from that, it still seems poorly adaptable to many of the open curves posted as examples in this topic where the left or right side has little or nothing to do with what would logically end up being the inside of the curve.

 

Regarding filling an open path, the same thing applies: what is filled depends only on the position of the end nodes, which often has little or nothing to do with what would logically be considered the inside of the curve. For instance, in my earlier 'rough draft' example (which was actually taken from a real world project I was working on, if you were wondering about that) it would be counterproductive to fill the initial open C-shaped path. I did eventually fill the final open curve, but that only made sense because I did not need to close it since its ends were behind another object, in that instance what became a closed & filled curve.

 

I get that there might be a few uses for something like this, but at least for me the downside far outweighs any upside they might have. YMMV, & I am OK with that. 

[dutchshader]

@R C-R the stroke only allignes with the square with stroke center alligned, so if one could have a stroke left or right alligned they would snap to the squares with stroke inside or outside.

[JET_Affinity]

Just as all paths are either open or closed, all paths have a direction. That, in combination with another attribute called the "winding rule" is what determines whether a sub-path of a compound path creates a "hole." (Such fundamental concepts should be explained in the introductory chapters of documentation of Bezier drawing applications, rather than just "which button to push.")

Several other drawing programs provide options for display of path end nodes as tiny arrows, indicating the direction of the path. That addresses the complaint (confusion) about what "left" and "right" mean in the context (although, while convenient, it really isn't necessary once the concept is grasped, since paths are assumedly deliberately drawn).

A button (or context menu selection) should always be provided for reversing the direction of any path (as in FreeHand), not just for compound sub-paths (as in Illustrator).

JET

[sheriffderek]

Quote

I can't seem to get the Stroke Align to change.

I know this discussion became about more than the question --- but in case anyone is trying to change the alignment and it's not taking effect, check if you are using starting or ending arrows. I couldn't understand why my closed shape wouldn't apply alignment changes - and it turns out that with the arrows on, it doesn't. (which kinda makes sense - but maybe those alignments should be grayed out or something)

[GRAFKOM]

Here you are.

Vectorstyler can position a stroke outside or inside an open curve. There's no problem with that here.

Maybe Serif should hire a Vectorstyler guy to bring this feature (and many others not present in AFINITY) to the program.

During normal work when designing, for example, graphic signs, many times it would be useful to be able to set the outline of open curves differently than only in the middle of the line.

8 years Serif - 2 years VectorStyler

[Boldlinedesign]

@GRAFKOM yes that was an impressive feature to see and use in Vectorstyler. There's also an option in the same stroke panel to manually adjust the percentage of the change in stroke offset amount. So you can set it 37% to the inside or outside if that suited you best... Really amazing stuff. 

I use Vectorstyler for most of my vector work and use designer on occasion on desktop and on my iPad. I like affinity overall but need tools for my professional work still missing in designer, so I use other programs like VS 

It's on a 50% discount this week.