whitedragon101 Posted March 30, 2018 Share Posted March 30, 2018 Whenever I start a new software project it always starts with making flow diagrams and making very quick block diagrams for the interface. At the moment I do this in open office as it allows for easy drag and drop shapes and editable right-angle/elbow connectors you can drag around and snap to the objects. So if have a group of connected objects you can move them and the connectors stay connected. Can Affinity Designer do this? It would be cool if this were possible as when Affinity designer for iPad comes out I would be able to start diagrams on one platform and continue editing them on another. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firstdefence Posted March 30, 2018 Share Posted March 30, 2018 No, it can't maintain the connection, it can snap to a point, geometry, guides and grids etc but if you move whatever has been snapped to, the connection will not be maintained. If you want that sort of thing try Draw.io Alfred, LeG, kt-affinity and 2 others 5 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...
whitedragon101 Posted March 30, 2018 Author Share Posted March 30, 2018 1 hour ago, firstdefence said: No, it can't maintain the connection, it can snap to a point, geometry, guides and grids etc but if you move whatever has been snapped to, the connection will not be maintained. If you want that sort of thing try Draw.io Thanks. You’re an absolute legend. That tool looks really good and it’s free for Mac/ windows / web . Baffling how they give it away for free. Hope that doesn’t change. I hope they add IOS to that list. firstdefence 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Rostron Posted March 31, 2018 Share Posted March 31, 2018 I find I have to revert to using Corel Draw to do this, and it does the job well. You can get older versions of CD quite cheaply. John Quote Windows 10, Affinity Photo 1.10.5 Designer 1.10.5 and Publisher 1.10.5 (mainly Photo), now ex-Adobe CC CPU: AMD A6-3670. RAM: 16 GB DDR3 @ 666MHz, Graphics: 2047MB NVIDIA GeForce GT 630 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kt-affinity Posted August 19, 2018 Share Posted August 19, 2018 On 3/30/2018 at 1:28 PM, firstdefence said: No, it can't maintain the connection, it can snap to a point, geometry, guides and grids etc but if you move whatever has been snapped to, the connection will not be maintained. If you want that sort of thing try Draw.io This is so helpful. I explored SmartDraw, Creately, LucidChart for flowcharts but didn't want to pay the ridiculous subscription pricing for such a specific use once in a while. Draw.io is perfect since its free and its not just an online-only crap software. You can download the draw.io standalone software for any platform. Great post! firstdefence 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poromies Posted July 30, 2020 Share Posted July 30, 2020 It would be really helpful if Affinity Designer could maintain links. I need to make Process flow diagrams and have been using OmniGraffle for this. However, with Omni’s policy of increasing prices dramatically and preventing old versions from working, I need to find an alternative. I would like it to be Affinity Designer which I use for all other graphics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blende21 Posted July 30, 2020 Share Posted July 30, 2020 Would be a nice feature, but probably using Designer for this is like using a Porsche to pull a dung cart to the landfill. Personally I found the build in ability of PowerPoint or Keynote helpful in creating org charts. Both have this snapping feature, and some templates to start with as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IanSG Posted August 1, 2020 Share Posted August 1, 2020 On 7/30/2020 at 3:23 PM, Blende21 said: Would be a nice feature, but probably using Designer for this is like using a Porsche to pull a dung cart to the landfill. I'll have you know my process flow diagrams were exceptionaly fragrant, Sir! It's been quite a few year, but I was very happy with Smartdraw. This was when Visio was the goto app, and having something that would maintain the structure and links while things were being added and deleted was little short of miraculous! Quote AP, AD & APub user, running Win10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thomaso Posted August 1, 2020 Share Posted August 1, 2020 On 3/30/2018 at 8:02 PM, whitedragon101 said: connectors you can drag around and snap to the objects. So if have a group of connected objects you can move them and the connectors stay connected. Not as comfortable as a flow chart feature but there is some basics when using the Node Tool + snapping. Note this sample is from APub – in AD the background and the text may be 2 objects. text flowchart diagram.m4v Nex0, ybbond and GuyMiklos 2 1 Quote macOS 10.14.6 | MacBookPro Retina 15" | Eizo 27" | Affinity V1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
walt.farrell Posted August 1, 2020 Share Posted August 1, 2020 On 3/31/2018 at 11:15 AM, John Rostron said: I find I have to revert to using Corel Draw to do this, and it does the job well. You can get older versions of CD quite cheaply. For anyone who doesn't already own Corel Draw, I agree with @firstdefence about using Draw.io. It does flowcharts nicely, and it's free. Quote -- Walt Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases PC: Desktop: Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Laptop: Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU. iPad: iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard Mac: 2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian White Posted October 27, 2020 Share Posted October 27, 2020 Still working on the welcome page (marketing / promo content), but this new completely free flowcharter app is available as a web app right now. It also works great on iOS and Android, and will be available in the App and Play stores shortly... Enjoy. http://flowchart.studio Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GuyMiklos Posted December 13, 2022 Share Posted December 13, 2022 (edited) On 8/1/2020 at 5:52 PM, thomaso said: using the Node Tool Thank you Thomaso - this is a very workable way to emulate connector lines, if only I could get it to work. I tried in both AffDes and AffPub - AffDes mode. Snapping on alternating selection and node selection. Tried different marquis settings. Could you please be a little more specific about the setting you used to make this work. Edited December 14, 2022 by GuyMiklos adding more info Quote MacBook Pro, Retina, mid-2015, macOS Monteray, RAM: 16 GB, CPU Quad-Core Intel Core i7, 2,8 GHz. Monitor: 27" (3840 × 2160) DELL U2723QE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GuyMiklos Posted December 14, 2022 Share Posted December 14, 2022 OK, I worked it out - partially. Shapes must be converted to curves. Then it works for the shapes, but I can only get the text frame to follow if the text is converted to curves too, which rather reduces the utility of this work around. How did you get the editable text to follow the connector node? Quote MacBook Pro, Retina, mid-2015, macOS Monteray, RAM: 16 GB, CPU Quad-Core Intel Core i7, 2,8 GHz. Monitor: 27" (3840 × 2160) DELL U2723QE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thomaso Posted December 14, 2022 Share Posted December 14, 2022 2 hours ago, GuyMiklos said: I can only get the text frame to follow if the text is converted to curves too, The clue is to convert the object to curves at first and after that convert it into a text frame. So, create any shape you like (tool doesn't matter), then, if it is not an object of type "(Curve)" already convert it to curves. If you then hover with the Text Frame Tool (T) over this object while its selected then the cursor switches and a mouse click turns the shape into a text frame which may get its nodes selected with the node tool. Quote macOS 10.14.6 | MacBookPro Retina 15" | Eizo 27" | Affinity V1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valentine_224 Posted May 17, 2023 Share Posted May 17, 2023 Hello! I would love to have the dynamic connector capability in Affinity as well. I do a lot of instructional design work, and at the moment I'm using Keynote because the final product is meant for on-screen delivery. However, Affinity Publisher would be perfect to design K-12 learning materials for print delivery, and being able to create simple diagrams with various types of lines/line endings would be extremely useful. Instructional materials is a big (and rapidly growing) market, and I think it would be worth the effort for Affinity to add this feature. Thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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