"Break Apart" Curve?

[Petar Petrenko]

Hi,In CorelDRAW there is a command "Combine" (as in Designer) if you want to make all selected curves into one and "Brake Apart" if you want to do the oposite.

I can't find "Break Apart"  in Designer. Can anybody help?

[Alfred]

There’s no ‘Break Apart’ in Designer, as far as I can see. I think the closest we can get is ‘Divide’, but you’ve probably already discovered for yourself that it’s not really the same thing at all.

[Petar Petrenko]

Yes, "Divide" is not what I need. I wonder how they missed such an obvious feature. And essential one, too.

[firstdefence]

Why not use Layer > Create Compound, to undo use Layer > Release Compound.

You also get a few additional features

[Petar Petrenko]

1 minute ago, firstdefence said:

Why not use Layer > Create Compound, to undo use Layer > Release Compound.

I do not ask for something I do myself.

For example, yesterday on Affinity Group on Facebook I  saw a member asking for some help. I downloaded the JPG file he put it on FB, traced it in CorelDRAW and save it in SVG. When I opened it I couldn't break the curves apart to work on it.

[firstdefence]

I would have thought the problem lay in the file format or export not necessarily Affinity, unless you can do what you want to do with the SVG back in CorelDraw. I don't have CorelDraw although I loved it when I used Windows, never understood why Corel Dropped Mac it would have been the go to vector app by now.

Any chance you could attach the link to the post so we can get a better understanding?

[Move Along People]

-

[Petar Petrenko]

Here it is.

proba.svg

[firstdefence]

From the SVG, the trace has created a negative of the main shapes and text so the yellow is creating the shape. I think it would have been easier to just use the pen tool and find the correct font, the trace isn't that great either.

[firstdefence]

I have a very good tracing app, if you upload the jpg I'll see if I can produce something you can work with.

 

[Petar Petrenko]

1 hour ago, firstdefence said:

From the SVG, the trace has created a negative of the main shapes and text so the yellow is creating the shape. I think it would have been easier to just use the pen tool and find the correct font, the trace isn't that great either.

It isn't mine. I just tried to help a member of yours FB group.

[Petar Petrenko]

Thanks anyway. I just wondered why there isn't a "Break Apart" tool in Designer.

[firstdefence]

There is when using the Node Tool.
 

[Alfred]

35 minutes ago, Petar Petrenko said:

Thanks anyway. I just wondered why there isn't a "Break Apart" tool in Designer.

 

33 minutes ago, firstdefence said:

There is when using the Node Tool.
 

 

Unfortunately, that’s not the same thing at all! ‘Break Curve’ just breaks the curve at the selected node: it doesn’t get you back to the shapes which were combined to give you an ‘Xor’ object.

[mac_heibu]

My god! This is the lousiest vector illustration I have ever seen. Tons of identical elements (rectangles)one behind the other, and vectorised elements in the most crappy way possible.

Nevertheless there is a command to „break“ paths. Look at this screencast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsVL5S-Wh1A

And one more thing: Files like these are the best example, why I can’t assist the request to add a vectoriser into Affinity Designer. At least not as a „basic“, „fundamental“ feature.

[Petar Petrenko]

8 minutes ago, mac_heibu said:

My god! This is the lousiest vector illustration I have ever seen. Tons of identical elements (rectangles)one behind the other, and vectorised elements in the most crappy way possible.

Nevertheless there is a command to „break“ paths. Look at this screencast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsVL5S-Wh1A

Sorry, but I didn't understand the clip. You were only clicking and the menu was in German. 

BTW, what software you used it for creating this clip?

[mac_heibu]

You simply may count the menu entries. As you can see: It is the 6th entry.  In English it would be something like „Revert Compound Path“.

The Software, I us for screenrecording, is Camtasia: https://discover.techsmith.com/camtasia-de-brand/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI5Yaxwsa63AIVwbTtCh20cQXzEAAYASAAEgLlLPD_BwE

[John Rostron]

8 hours ago, Petar Petrenko said:

Hi,In CorelDRAW there is a command "Combine" (as in Designer) if you want to make all selected curves into one and "Brake Apart" if you want to do the oposite.

I can't find "Break Apart"  in Designer. Can anybody help?

If  Combine merges multiple curves into a single curve then, as far as I can see, Break would simply reverse the Combine command, effectively taking one step back in History. There is no way that Affinity would know what the original components were once the combined curve had been worked on.

John

[Petar Petrenko]

Thanks, John.

I think you didn't read all posts.

 

[Petar Petrenko]

1 hour ago, mac_heibu said:

You simply may count the menu entries. As you can see: It is the 6th entry.  In English it would be something like „Revert Compound Path“.

The Software, I us for screenrecording, is Camtasia: https://discover.techsmith.com/camtasia-de-brand/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI5Yaxwsa63AIVwbTtCh20cQXzEAAYASAAEgLlLPD_BwE

Is this from right click flyout menu?

Is Camtasia easy to learn?

Thanks, Mac_Heibu.

[mac_heibu]

Yes and yes!

[John Rostron]

56 minutes ago, Petar Petrenko said:

Thanks, John.

I think you didn't read all posts.

 

I have re-read all the posts and I still think  my response was apposite. The  break command as @firstdefence mentioned in the node tools wll not re-create the original curves.

John

[Alfred]

7 minutes ago, John Rostron said:

I have re-read all the posts and I still think  my response was apposite. The  break command as @firstdefence mentioned in the node tools wll not re-create the original curves.

John

As I said in response to that post, the ‘Break Curve’ command is not the same as ‘Break Apart’. As you can see from the attached screenshot, the ‘Combine’ command in Serif DrawPlus yields a polycurve (or ‘Curves’ object in Affinity-speak) whose attributes are determined by the object at the bottom of the stack. Since the attributes of the other objects are discarded, you can’t retrieve them via the ‘Break Apart’ command, but at least you get the original shapes back.

[firstdefence]

As I have said the Graphic is quite a simple one and tracing seems a bit of a waste considering it would be easier to just draw it with the pen and type the text in seconds, to me this is like trying to put a block of stone back together after carving it into a statue.

If you want a good trace post the jpg and ill use my app.

[John Rostron]

1 minute ago, αℓƒяє∂ said:

Since the attributes of the other objects are discarded, you can’t retrieve them via the ‘Break Apart’ command, but at least you get the original shapes back.

Which is more-or-less what I thought I was saying.

John