Jump to content

Recommended Posts

Posted

An Option-drag of a selected object on Mac mostly causes the selected object to be duplicated after it gets released. I'd appreciate to use this GUI behave in Affinity. On document page view and in Layers panel, too.

• MacBookPro Retina 15" |  macOS 10.14.6  | Eizo 27" | Affinity V1  
• iPad 10.Gen.  |  iOS 18.5.  |  Affinity V2.6

Posted

A duplicate function would be great. I use it every time in AI.

I dream of a duplicate function with a group function. In AI, it doesn't exist. You duplicate several times the same shape and you must after select them by hand to group them. Boring...

Posted (edited)

@ lenogre,

fyi, a duplicate function already does exist via menu 'Edit' and/or keys: 'command-J' or 'command-C'+'command-V'.

 

Whereas this topic requests for a duplicate function via mouse-drag + use of mac-like 'Option'-key while dragging.

 

@ MEB,

> There's already a shortcut to do that: cmd + drag

 

Aha, good to know. Any reason for 'cmd' instead mac-like 'option'-key to duplicate any object, intuitivly?

Edited by thomaso

• MacBookPro Retina 15" |  macOS 10.14.6  | Eizo 27" | Affinity V1  
• iPad 10.Gen.  |  iOS 18.5.  |  Affinity V2.6

Posted

I also found it strange.

Even in the old days of MacPaint, MacDraw, MacDraft, etc, the Option key was the usual duplicate/clone key.

But I'm already getting used to the Command key.

Posted

The reason for this non-standard behavior seems to be the selection feature: Alt-dragging changes the way elements are selected. I suggest to switch the modifier keys in order to retain Apple standards.

Posted

I also agree that Apple-standards should be kept as much as possible.
And the Option+Drag action to duplicate goes way back to the start of Macintosh history (1984).

Posted

I want humble recommend to develope Affinity strictly mac-like according GUI (shortcuts, key commands, buttons, windows, ...). It has been also consistency, consequence which made and makes mac applications so intuitive.

Less for my convenience but rather for marketing reasons. I definitly would feel sorry to see Affinities success risked or reduced by breakings with such 'rules'.

 

quote (Matthias, #6):

> "The reason for this non-standard behavior seems to be the selection feature: Alt-dragging changes the way elements are selected."

 

Agree. I'd exspect the cmd-key to alter a selection instead. For instance in mac finder to add/reduce in a bunch of selected files or in InDesign or Quark to jump between object selection of (child-)layers. – So it appears Affinity should simply turn cmd to alt/option and vice versa in affected cases.

• MacBookPro Retina 15" |  macOS 10.14.6  | Eizo 27" | Affinity V1  
• iPad 10.Gen.  |  iOS 18.5.  |  Affinity V2.6

  • 1 year later...
Posted

I really like that option drag has been added to duplicate selections!  Thanks for making that change.

 

However, it would be nice to remove the old command drag to duplicate.  I select objects that are grouped while holding down command and end up making duplicates on accident all over the place without realizing it until I look thru my layers.

 

There seems to be no reason to have duplicate on both option and command drag.

 

Thanks for all your hard work Affinity Designer team!  You have made an amazing product.

Posted

I mentioned this in another request thread. Right click and release brings up the current context menu. Right click and drag duplicates the object. Simple, elegant no keyboard required.

AD 1.5.1.43   /  AP 1.5.0.45

Windows 10 Pro 64bit  -  Intel i7 6700 @ 3.4GHz  -  nVidia GTX 970 4GB  -  32" Monitor 2560x1440  -  32 GB Ram

Posted

There seems to be no reason to have duplicate on both option and command drag.

 

I'm running into the same confusion in the beta version of Affinity Designer on Windows. I expect Ctrl-drag to give me a duplicate of the selected object, but I don't expect Alt-drag to do so.

Alfred spacer.png
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for Windows • Windows 10 Home/Pro
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for iPad • iPadOS 17.5.1 (iPad 7th gen)

  • 11 months later...
  • 2 months later...
  • 2 weeks later...
Posted
25 minutes ago, ShinKaiZen said:

It works now but you need to click alt first before clicking the left mouse button in mac. it doesn't work the other way round unfortunately.

That is because the alt/option key is used to temporarily disable snapping when dragging objects. This is an "on-the-fly" feature that can be used anytime during a drag, which is very handy if you are moving something & it keeps snapping to a position you don't want.

 

Holding down the option key before you drag a selected object tells the app to drag out a copy. The CMD-drag always uses the snapping settings, even if you release the CMD key after beginning the drag, while the option-drag works as above, so as long as you keep holding down the option key during the drag no snapping will occur. Another, more significant difference occurs because the option key can also be used to prevent the object under the mouse pointer from being selected & dragged when you want to drag out a selection marquee instead of dragging (or drag-copying) any object. So to use the option-drag method to drag out a copy, you must first select the object(s) you want to copy, while the CMD-drag can be used to drag-copy single objects in one step, without the need to select them first.

 

If using the alt/option key with the Move Tool only provided a single function, the <ahem> alternate/optional ones would need to be provided by some other means; like adding more context toolbar buttons, additional menu choices or preference settings, or even other tools to the UI (or not providing them at all). As it is, even though it is somewhat unconventional & may take some time to get used to, it makes faster workflows possible by eliminating the time it would otherwise take to go somewhere else in the UI to enable those functions.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.6 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
A
ll 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

Posted
58 minutes ago, R C-R said:

That is because the alt/option key is used to temporarily disable snapping when dragging objects. This is an "on-the-fly" feature that can be used anytime during a drag, which is very handy if you are moving something & it keeps snapping to a position you don't want.

 

Holding down the option key before you drag a selected object tells the app to drag out a copy. The CMD-drag always uses the snapping settings, even if you release the CMD key after beginning the drag, while the option-drag works as above, so as long as you keep holding down the option key during the drag no snapping will occur. Another, more significant difference occurs because the option key can also be used to prevent the object under the mouse pointer from being selected & dragged when you want to drag out a selection marquee instead of dragging (or drag-copying) any object. So to use the option-drag method to drag out a copy, you must first select the object(s) you want to copy, while the CMD-drag can be used to drag-copy single objects in one step, without the need to select them first.

 

If using the alt/option key with the Move Tool only provided a single function, the <ahem> alternate/optional ones would need to be provided by some other means; like adding more context toolbar buttons, additional menu choices or preference settings, or even other tools to the UI (or not providing them at all). As it is, even though it is somewhat unconventional & may take some time to get used to, it makes faster workflows possible by eliminating the time it would otherwise take to go somewhere else in the UI to enable those functions.

 

Cool! i didnt know it disabled the snapping when pressing it after drag! It sure is going to be useful to me someday in the future.

  • 5 months later...
Posted
1 hour ago, yeffdaley said:

I want to command+click+drag to select and move a layer in a single gesture.

Maybe I have misunderstood what you meant but you can simply click & drag a layer now -- no need for the CMD key -- so why would you want to add any modifier key to that?

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.6 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
A
ll 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

Posted
1 minute ago, R C-R said:

Maybe I have misunderstood what you meant but you can simply click & drag a layer now -- no need for the CMD key -- so why would you want to add any modifier key to that?

 

Command+click targets grouped layers.

  • 1 year later...
Posted

Nice to know that option disables snapping mid-drag.

I want to add a suggestion to this one — even though I replaced Illustrator with Affinity Designer years ago, I still find myself trying to use Illustrator behavior. Namely, being able to option-drag to copy not just for move, but for other transforms like rotate. It's incredibly handy to be able to quickly create a bunch of duplicates around a common center.

  • 2 years later...
Posted

Sorry if this is not the right place for this, but frustrated with lack of any drag to duplicate feature in Affinity photo.  Every graphic app on Mac uses option-drag to duplicate.... I can see from the thread above that it was added to affinity designer at some point, but never made its way into Affinity Photo?  No modifier key seems to work, I have to copy and paste....

Posted
12 minutes ago, Odebek said:

any drag to duplicate feature in Affinity photo

At the same time, according to the information / help in the StatusBar, this should be done with Ctrl. Unfortunately, this is not the case.
image.png.852dfc5956ff3564f62ed1a10b44b293.png

Affinity Store (MSI/EXE): Affinity Suite (ADe, APh, APu) 2.5.7.2948 (Retail)
Dell OptiPlex 7060, i5-8500 3.00 GHz, 16 GB, Intel UHD Graphics 630, Dell P2417H 1920 x 1080, Windows 11 Pro, Version 24H2, Build 26100.2605.
Dell Latitude E5570, i5-6440HQ 2.60 GHz, 8 GB, Intel HD Graphics 530, 1920 x 1080, Windows 11 Pro, Version 24H2, Build 26100.2605.
Intel NUC5PGYH, Pentium N3700 2.40 GHz, 8 GB, Intel HD Graphics, EIZO EV2456 1920 x 1200, Windows 10 Pro, Version 21H1, Build 19043.2130.

Posted
3 minutes ago, Pšenda said:

At the same time, according to the information / help in the StatusBar, this should be done with Ctrl. Unfortunately, this is not the case.

It should work, as stated, to clone an object. It will not work to clone a pixel selection (which is not an object).

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
    Laptop 2: Windows 11 Pro 24H2,  16GB memory, Snapdragon(R) X Elite - X1E80100 - Qualcomm(R) Oryon(TM) 12 Core CPU 4.01 GHz, Qualcomm(R) Adreno(TM) X1-85 GPU
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 18.5, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sequoia 15.5

Posted
Just now, walt.farrell said:

It should work, as stated, to clone an object. It will not work to clone a pixel selection (which is not an object).

So why is this help provided if you have a selection of pixels? !!! Doesn't the programmer know that pixel selection is not an object?
By the way, if you have an active pixel selection, cloning doesn't work with "objects" either - although the StatusBar still states it (it's not above good help).

Affinity Store (MSI/EXE): Affinity Suite (ADe, APh, APu) 2.5.7.2948 (Retail)
Dell OptiPlex 7060, i5-8500 3.00 GHz, 16 GB, Intel UHD Graphics 630, Dell P2417H 1920 x 1080, Windows 11 Pro, Version 24H2, Build 26100.2605.
Dell Latitude E5570, i5-6440HQ 2.60 GHz, 8 GB, Intel HD Graphics 530, 1920 x 1080, Windows 11 Pro, Version 24H2, Build 26100.2605.
Intel NUC5PGYH, Pentium N3700 2.40 GHz, 8 GB, Intel HD Graphics, EIZO EV2456 1920 x 1200, Windows 10 Pro, Version 21H1, Build 19043.2130.

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Guidelines | We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.