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Can Affinity designer do flow diagrams with snapping connectors?


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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.

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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 

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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.

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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

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

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  • 4 months later...
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!

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  • 1 year later...

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.

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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.

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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!

AP, AD & APub user, running Win10

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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.

macOS 10.14.6 | MacBookPro Retina 15" | Eizo 27" | Affinity V1

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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.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
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  • 2 months later...
  • 2 years later...
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 by GuyMiklos
adding more info

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 

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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? 

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 

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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.

1197295322_convertcurvetotextframe.jpg.4513e9c1f033615c4b9b95f35ad5dc02.jpg

macOS 10.14.6 | MacBookPro Retina 15" | Eizo 27" | Affinity V1

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  • 5 months later...

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!

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