Rotating guidelines

[Artgyenes]

I am using Corel Draw since many years. One of the great features, I love with their program, is that the guidelines are possible to rotate.

After drawing one from one of the side rulers, you can drag them around via the inherited original direction, it was drawn from (horizontally if drawn from the left side ruler, vertically, if drawn from the top ruler).

When you click on the line, it can be selected (highlighted, etc.). But when you click on it again, if selected, it shows a center point, that can be dragged anywhere, and then you can rotate the guide in any angle around the center.

It can be very useful, when you have to snap very precisely along non vertical or horizontal lines. 

Please consider this feature. I am using mac since many years, and the only thing, I am keeping a windows based machine or bootcamp is because of Corel Draw. Right now, this is the only feature, that is missing from other software, and I really would like to channel my workflow to a more simple structure. This feature can be very important, when precision is a must.

[Aammppaa]

Could you do the following?

Create a layer called GUIDES.

Draw a line with the pen tool. 

Rotate it to any angle you like. 

Ensure that snap to geometry is turned on. 

You now effectively have a rotated guide! 

You can also set a look for the guides layer, such as 0.25 point, dashed, magenta lines, to keep your guides distinct from your design. 

[JET_Affinity]

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Create a layer called GUIDES.

Draw a line with the pen tool. 

Rotate it to any angle you like. 

Ensure that snap to geometry is turned on. 

You now effectively have a rotated guide! 

Except that you now cannot:

1. Select a pre-existing path.
2. Select all of its Nodes.
3. Mousedown on one Node and drag to snap that Node to the "guide."
4. Snap the Transformation Anchor to that Node. (Transform Anchor is not available with the white pointer active, and black pointer active only lets you rotate by dragging bounding box handles.)
5. Rotate the selected path by dragging one of its other Nodes and snapping it to the "guide."

The core problem is that all of Affinity's interface for manually performing on-page rotations is based on bounding box handles (i.e., being selected with the black pointer), which quite often (in my use, most often) does not correspond to the selectable detail of the path which needs to be snapped to angular alignment. And entering the rotation value numerically in the Transform palette does not serve this common need either, because it also is based on the orientation of the bounding box (or the 9-point proxy), and because the program does not tell you the rotation or length of a temporary construction "guide" (straight, single-segment path) which was drawn by dragging the Pen in it Line Mode.

This fixation and dependency upon bounding boxes for transformations (i.e., absence of transformation tools) is one of the most debilitating foundational aspects of Affinity Designer's interface.

 

Quote

You can also set a look for the guides layer, such as 0.25 point, dashed, magenta lines, to keep your guides distinct from your design.

But that is a sub-standard throwback to the days before FreeHand allowed you to convert any path(s) to proper "Path Guides"; which nowadays is provided in other mainstream drawing programs. Proper guides (and pathGuides) are displayed as "hairlines" so their width is always drawn as thin as the display allows.

(Hairline stroke weight for ordinary paths is another feature that sorely needs to be added to Affinity Designer; one of many opportunities to surpass standard-fare. I get so tired of having to use a .25 pt (or smaller) stroke weight in Illustrator as a workaround for the needed hairline feature.)

JET

[Artgyenes]

Yes, the topic is not, how it might be done with current tools. Feature request is not about workaround possibilities. I think JET got it the right way. That is exactly what I was trying to say. However, I think, the guys with SERIF might pay attention to forum feature requests, when they proove to be useful in the user experience of the program.

Corel Draw and Adobe Illustrator are the two big time players of the market. One loves this, others love that. Every platform has its advantages and disadvantages. Serifs Affinity Designer is a new player on the field. The professional audience might love a lot, if the best thing of both worlds are coming into one platform, that is developed by small company, that can react, instead of huge giants, who already are to heavy to move, if requests come up. Corel Draw is not present on the MAC platform since it has switched to INTEL. I think this is something, that made Adobe much stronger and uppity in the last decade.

Lets hope SERIF's good direction keeps up!

[Nawordar]

After all this time and threads I don't think, there is any chance for them to add this feature