How to select single path

[Kook Kai]

The main problem I have encountered using AD is selecting. I love the drawing aspects, smooth like butter. But selection, meh... Cannot select a path by clicking. I click every spots on the path, nothing works. Gotta drag to select object. Is it normal? Another problem is when I use "V" shortcut, it many times goes to pen tool, or node tool, not a move tool that I need. The Esc button is unnecessarily needed too many times to get to where I want to go. 

 

Another selecting problem is how to select single object within group. I posted earlier about selecting group object, in my case - grouped text object. I couldn't select it with clicking, gotta go to layer to select. It's not the easy task if there are a number of elements within the group. According to MEB, it should be fixed in the code already. After a few weeks away from AD ( crawl back to AI....sigh...), I use AD again today. Selecting the single path within group is not possible by clicking on the object. Gotto go to layer and dig for the single curve that I want. There should be better way to handle this selection issue.

 

One more point, any time I create group, it is always nested under artboard layer. I have to manually drag it out from the nesting, which again has a specific way to deal with. In the help file, it is just as easy as in AI, but in reality one must hold the drag layer to the most left to avoid it being nested under something else. If MEB didn't tell me, I would have been in the dark. I have to do this every time I created group to avoid the selection problem. I wonder how other newbies handling this, lots of them are not forum members. 

 

AD is good for drawing, but its cumbersome workflow is something cannot be overlooked for the projects with deadline. In other word, is it meant for a professional graphic designer? I seriously doubt.

 

[toltec]

You can select any path or shape by clicking on it with the Select Tool or (if you want to edit the nodes) the Node Tool.

 

 

You can also click on the item in the layers panel.

 

[gdenby]

I rarely use art boards, so I can't help  w. any problems w. those.

 

Am I understanding how you are working? I'm guessing you are making artistic text, and converting it to curves. These groups may be positioned such that the letter forms are overlapping in space.

 

If using the move tool, the 1st click will select the group. A double click will pick out the member of the group. From what I can tell, after the single curve is picked, one can continue picking other items from within the group. If clicking out of the group, you need to go thru the double clicking again. If the groups are nested within each other, one must go thru a series of double clicks to dig down.

 

Sometimes if I have a particularly complex set of groups, all entangled in the same area, but in layers that are far apart in the hierarchy, I will switch to outline view mode, and click directly on the vector line I want. That way I can get to any single item without digging down in the groups

[firstdefence]

Selecting a particular item nested in a group can be accessed using Cmd + Click, once you are into the sub/child layers of the group you should be able to click any letter without the Cmd modifier key. (This is from the workspace/Canvas) or you can just find the layer in the layers panel.

 

Something that is odd about groups is... 

1. Type some artistic text
2. Convert to curves
3. All the letters are under a Group
4. With the group selected, flip the letters so they are back to front and upside down.
5. The letters shown in the layers remain facing the right way and the right way up. 
6. Undo the flipping.
7. Now ungroup those letters and do step 4. again.
8. The letters now reflect the flipping transforms.

 

[firstdefence]

5 hours ago, Kook Kai said:

One more point, any time I create group, it is always nested under artboard layer. I have to manually drag it out from the nesting, which again has a specific way to deal with. In the help file, it is just as easy as in AI, but in reality one must hold the drag layer to the most left to avoid it being nested under something else. If MEB didn't tell me, I would have been in the dark. I have to do this every time I created group to avoid the selection problem. I wonder how other newbies handling this, lots of them are not forum members. 

Logically, whether the document has a Specified Canvas size or is set up with an Artboard, Affinity will want to keep objects on that Canvas or on the Artboard because that is the designated work area, so it would make sense for Affinity to create a group nested on the selected Artboard and I don't see this as a poor workflow issue. You can drag the group off the Artboard into the clipping area and show any objects that are placed there by pressing Backslash "\" this is a toggle switch so pressing it again will hide objects that sit within the clipping area whether wholly or partially.

[Kook Kai]

@gdenby The outline mode switching works great. Thanks. I hate digging up layer panel.

 

@firstdefence My group text consists of simple 2 words, nothing complicate. I uploaded the file as MEB requested as it doesn't look like how it should be.

 

Regarding the workflow, I always have problem selecting objects so I have to recheck every time I create object(s) to see where it is (they are) in the layer panel. If it is nested under something unintentionally ( this is where the problem is), I have to drag it off. I usually don't create group within group and so on, but I find it happens a number of time without my consent in AD.

 

Thanks for your input. I am going to try the / trick.