New to AD - artboard questions - RESOLVED

[invgrp2]

Just installed Affinity Designer and it looks very promising (coming from Corel Draw).

I was able to figure out most everything (to my work level) but I've got a couple of questions:

1. when I create a new file and create artboards its numbers them 1,2,3 etc and they are displayed on the screen that way.  But, on the layers tab they are displayed 3,2,1.  Is there a way to sort them so the they are displayed on the layers tab in the same order as the screen?

Comment: I've been manually re-arranging the artboards and 1/2 of the time they get moved under another artboard vs changing its location.

2. if I have an artboard that has guidelines (like for mailing labels) is there a way to "not" print these guidelines "without" making them invisible?

3. when I print, is it possible to remove the "auto rotate" as the default?

4. lastly, find and replace, I can't find it.

I appreciate any comments.

Bruce

 

[firstdefence]

44 minutes ago, invgrp2 said:

1. when I create a new file and create artboards its numbers them 1,2,3 etc and they are displayed on the screen that way.  But, on the layers tab they are displayed 3,2,1.  Is there a way to sort them so the they are displayed on the layers tab in the same order as the screen?

This is one of the things that I don't get and annoys me no end.  My logic is, when you add another sheet of paper to a pile of paper you place it on top of the last one, you don't place it underneath the last one - its not real world behaviour, this shows up even more when you convert text to curves and then open the Text Curves Group, lets say you convert the word "Orange" to curves...

That arrangement of the layers just isn't logical, you would never arrange a set of letters like this. Personally I think they have this wrong but I doubt they'll change it.

This is how it should be.

44 minutes ago, invgrp2 said:

2. if I have an artboard that has guidelines (like for mailing labels) is there a way to "not" print these guidelines "without" making them invisible?

If you are talking about Guides, they are non printable anyway so they can be left visible, maybe show us with a screenshot?

44 minutes ago, invgrp2 said:

3. when I print, is it possible to remove the "auto rotate" as the default?

Are you sure that isn't a feature of your printer software not Affinity?

44 minutes ago, invgrp2 said:

4. lastly, find and replace, I can't find it.

You'll be looking for a while as there isn't currently a find and replace feature in Affinity Designer

[invgrp2]

I appreciate the responses.

I see their logic on the artboards but its probably a 50/50 deal on how the customer would like them displayed....it would be great to be able to sort them.

The "auto rotate" in the AD print window and its always checked.

I'm coming from Corel Draw and I imported PDF's into AD which shows the guides.

What I consider "guides" may not actually be guides and could just be another text layer.

Currently, the guides are locked and I use the guides to place text.  When I print I have to make them invisible so not to print guides.

I can't believe there is no "find and replace".

Bruce

 

[firstdefence]

They look like Boxes imported as curves because there are 10 curve layers and 10 boxes displayed. You could probably convert each box to a Text Frame: Layer > Convert to Text Frame a text frame has no visible boundary unless you select it, then you get the bounding box.

I don't have auto rotate in my Print options But I'm on Mac.

 

[MikeW]

2 hours ago, invgrp2 said:

...

1. when I create a new file and create artboards its numbers them 1,2,3 etc and they are displayed on the screen that way.  But, on the layers tab they are displayed 3,2,1.  Is there a way to sort them so the they are displayed on the layers tab in the same order as the screen?

...

 

Hello Bruce.

Artboards print/export from the bottom up--the bottom most would be page one in a PDF. So if you make Artboard 1 to be on top of the layer stack, it would be the last page in a PDF. Pretty intuitive, eh?

Mike

[MikeW]

Oops. And I meant to also respond to #4...

There is not as of yet a f/r, nor a select same type of function. Dunno when these will happen.

Mike

[invgrp2]

One last question:  can you copy guides from one artbook to another artbook in a different file?

 

[MikeW]

Nope...at least I don't think so. Nor is there a specific layer for guides and so no ability to place lines or shapes as guides either.

And no means to export/import guides.

[invgrp2]

I've been playing with AD for a few days now and lots of nice features but it sure does have some "quirky" things about it.

One good thing is this forum is very helpful.

[R C-R]

4 hours ago, firstdefence said:

That arrangement of the layers just isn't logical, you would never arrange a set of letters like this. Personally I think they have this wrong but I doubt they'll change it.

The layer stacking order determines what overlays what, right? By convention in just about every app that supports layers, upper layers overlay lower ones, so the Affinity apps are no different in that respect.

We don't normally think about that with text because the characters are usually spaced out so that none of them overlays any of the others. But if you think about it, as we type the first character could logically be considered the 'lowest' one -- imagine a typewriter or inkjet printer that did not advance the carriage or print head between characters, for instance.

Or more to the point, consider this (admittedly contrived) Display Type.afdesign file that uses very tight kerning or very tight tracking on stroked characters to move them so close together that the overlay is obvious. In the file there are also duplicates converted to groups of curves for comparison. If they were grouped as you suggest in the reverse stacking order, it is pretty obvious they would look quite different.

Just something to think about.