Workflow issues assigning strokes and color

[Cobalt]

Hi,

I am encountering a hitch (coming from Illustrator).
Been used to selecting a curve and having its attributes stick even after it is de-selected. The next curve can be drawn with the same stroke and color which allows for fast transition and continuation.

Right now Affinity reverts to some default every single time. Is it a setting somewhere ? If not, how have you guys stand been dealing with it ?

[Gabe]

Hi @Cobalt,

Welcome to the forums. 

That should be the normal behaviour by default ( keeping the previous settings ). Check below. You can try to reset the app to its default settings by holding down the CTRL key while launching the app. When the Clear User Data window appears, click Select All and then Clear. 

Be aware that reseting your app back to its default settings will lose any custom settings such as keyboard shortcuts and brushes etc. To backup such settings before resetting the app, please watch our Affinity - Exporting User Settings and Keyboard Shortcuts video.

Thanks,

Gabe. 

[toltec]

3 hours ago, Cobalt said:

Hi,

I am encountering a hitch (coming from Illustrator).
Been used to selecting a curve and having its attributes stick even after it is de-selected. The next curve can be drawn with the same stroke and color which allows for fast transition and continuation.

Right now Affinity reverts to some default every single time. Is it a setting somewhere ? If not, how have you guys stand been dealing with it ?

It won't remember settings if you just select something. If you draw something with attributes applied, Designer will keep using those settings, as Gabe says.

 

You would really be better off using the Defaults settings

Select something with the attributes you like and go Edit > Defaults > Synchronise from Selection, Designer will now draw everything with those attributes. You can set a keyboard shortcut for that if you use it a lot.

You can change the defaults, e.g. select something you like and go Edit > Defaults > Save and everything in future will use those attributes.

Go Edit > Defaults > Factory Reset to restore to Factory setting.

Edit > Defaults > Revert will apply the saved defaults to any object you select.

Also, don't forget using Styles. If you set something, right click and save it as a Style and it will appear in the Styles panel. That is very useful because you can apply a saved style, then go Synchronise from Selection  and now, everything will be drawn with those attributes. A good way of saving sets of attributes.

[Cobalt]

Ok, thanks for the responses guys.

Gabriel, In your animation image you are just manually changing the setting every time and they stick. Sure, but I wasn't quite referring to that.
Step 1: Change stroke and color manually and draw a curve.
Step 2: Change stroke and color again manually to draw another curve.
Step 3: Click the curve of step 1 to select it (its color and stroke settings now populate the panel).
Step 4: Select the pen tool and try to start a new curve. 
Problem: The new curve is not using the "loaded" settings from the curve you just selected (keeps using settings from Step2).

This might seem minor, but it adds up after the 1000th time

[Cobalt]

Toltec, thanks for the suggestion about  saving defaults. It's what I ended up doing last night. I assigned the "synchronize defaults from selection" action to one of the keys. Feels a little better.

One of the reasons that Adobe has been so dominant for decades was precisely because of their attention on user workflow (ergonomic details), small things that you wouldn't think matter they usually have thought of and that's why a lot of people could just "fly" with it when using it.

[Gabe]

I was just about to say the same @Cobalt. I will move this to Feature Requests. 

[toltec]

4 minutes ago, Cobalt said:

Step 3: Click the curve of step 1 to select it and load it's settings.
Step 4: Select the pen tool and try to start a new curve. 
Problem: The new curve is not using the "loaded" settings from the curve you just selected (keeps using settings from Step2).

This might seem minor, but it adds up after the 1000th time

That's where Synchronise from Selection comes in. 

If you make a keyboard shortcut, you won't notice doing it after 500 times 

If you save the settings of Step 1 as the default, you won't even need to select the item as you can apply a shortcut to Revert.

[Cobalt]

3 minutes ago, toltec said:

That's where Synchronise from Selection comes in. 

If you make a keyboard shortcut, you won't notice doing it after 500 times 

If you save the settings of Step 1 as the default, you won't even need to select the item as you can apply a shortcut to Revert.

Yeah, I ended up making a shortcut for it last night.

About "revert" ... keep in mind, in a large illustration with a few thousand curves in it you don't have just two types of curves so "revert" wouldn't help me all that much. I could be zoomed in somewhere and need to continue an element based on some adjacent one and should be able to just pick up its style fast (selecting a sample curve nearby is just the fastest way like AI does).

Again, thank you for the suggestion about "synchronize defaults from selection".

[toltec]

 

8 minutes ago, Cobalt said:

need to continue an element based on some adjacent one and should be able to just pick up its style fast (selecting a sample curve nearby is just the fastest way like AI does).

You could copy (Ctrl + C) the object you like the attributes of and go paste style Edit > Paste Style (Ctrl + Shift + V) to apply the attributes to the new object.

I know none of these are quite perfect, but everything helps. Hopefully !