curves with arrows

[AlyceG]

Just switched from Illustrator.  How do I draw a curve with an arrowhead?  I found arrows with straight lines and curved lines without arrows, but not the combination.

Thanks

[R C-R]

Unfortunately, arrowheads (or more generally, line endings) is not currently supported in the Affinity apps. This is an often requested feature, & as "Arrow head line styles" is on the Designer roadmap, but for now lines with arrowheads have to be created from a line & second shape like a triangle or with the Pen Tool & (optionally) grouped together. There are some other workarounds, like using a pressure curve or creating assets, but there is nothing that is as easy to use as Illustrator-style arrowheads.

[firstdefence]

You could draw the arrow using the Arrow Shape Tool, convert it to curves and use the node tool to bend the stem of the arrow.

[R C-R]

11 minutes ago, firstdefence said:

You could draw the arrow using the Arrow Shape Tool, convert it to curves and use the node tool to bend the stick of the arrow.

The problem with that is getting a nice, uniform thickness for the curve can take a lot of tweaking, & that has to be redone if the shape is resized.

[firstdefence]

9 minutes ago, R C-R said:

The problem with that is getting a nice, uniform thickness for the curve can take a lot of tweaking, & that has to be redone if the shape is resized.

Yeah its not perfect but with a bit of forethought, grids, guides, several cups of coffee and a free afternoon you can knock out a lot of curved Arrow Assets and or Symbols.

But, for a quickie curved arrow it's a simple technique until "The best arrow creation tool in the history of arrow creation" is built into Affinity Designer, because that's what you are going to do aren't you devs 

[gdenby]

Hi, AlyceG

There is another limited work around. Any pen line has an associated pressure curve, which can be used to modify the stroke width. The pressure can be adjusted to form a reasonable arrow head, and then the line can be saved as a style, and applied to any stroke. See attachment.

Another work around is to use the Artistic text tool, and apply an arrow glyph as a text character.

[R C-R]

2 hours ago, gdenby said:

Another work around is to use the Artistic text tool, and apply an arrow glyph as a text character.

How can that create a curved arrow shape? When I try applying an arrow glyph to a curve, no matter what I do, the arrow glyph does not bend to follow the contour of the curve.

[gdenby]

 

3 hours ago, R C-R said:

How can that create a curved arrow shape? When I try applying an arrow glyph to a curve, no matter what I do, the arrow glyph does not bend to follow the contour of the curve.

I was writing in a more general vein for finding a solution to the lack of an arrowhead line end. What I meant was not applying a glyph to a curve, but finding, perhaps, a glyph that worked in place of of an arrow ended stroke. Much like using the arrow tool, with the attendant problems, but there are quite a variety of arrow glyphs, one of which might work.

[Mr. K]

Yes, this is a big and very long standing problem. It goes way back. I'm still waiting, but in the meantime you can make the arrowhead a separate object and manually place it on the curve. It's a ton of extra work. My. solution has been to abandon AD and create my drawings in my CAD app. 

[firstdefence]

I think simply creating a path with an appropriate width and a triangle shape on the end should accommodate most arrow eventualities.

[R C-R]

51 minutes ago, firstdefence said:

I think simply creating a path with an appropriate width and a triangle shape on the end should accommodate most arrow eventualities.

It is still a PITA to have to adjust the position & rotation of the triangle shape at the end of a curved path to get acceptable looking results. Also, unless you zoom in enough, it is all to easy to mis-align that shape & not notice that until later, after you have done some edits. The pain factor goes way up if you need to change the curvature of the path. 

[firstdefence]

12 hours ago, R C-R said:

It is still a PITA to have to adjust the position & rotation of the triangle shape at the end of a curved path to get acceptable looking results. Also, unless you zoom in enough, it is all to easy to mis-align that shape & not notice that until later, after you have done some edits. The pain factor goes way up if you need to change the curvature of the path. 

True, but as a one or two of, I think its an acceptable method. I suppose the dictator is "intended purpose" If you are creating a diagram that requires displayed measurements then a measurements tool would be a great feature, but we are heading into CAD and CAD features, Hot Doors CadTools for Illustrator are an excellent example for this type of work, if the arrow/s are for pointing or highlighting with notes then it's more about presentations.  I'm surprised that, considering the multitude of uses arrows have, nobody has ever made an arrow plugin.

Its a very fuzzy line to know what to cater for if such a feature were to be added. I don't envy the Dev's tasks on this feature.

[Alfred]

9 minutes ago, firstdefence said:

Its a very fuzzy line to know what to cater for if such a feature were to be added. I don't envy the Dev's tasks on this feature.

They did it many years ago for DrawPlus (which also has a Dimension Tool). And speaking of fuzzy lines, DrawPlus has a Roughen Tool, too.