"Bounding Box" Disappears

[mdrisser 1]

I'm seeing an issue in Designer, Photo and the Publisher Beta, where the "bounding box" around objects disappears. There are no specific triggers that cause this behavior, it happens randomly, and in all three programs. Restarting the affected program clears the problem up for a while, but then it randomly occurs again.

I've attached a screenshot to illustrate what I mean by "bounding box" (I have no idea what the correct term would be):

 

[Chris B 1,052]

Hey mdrisser, welcome to the Affinity Forums.

I can't say I've seen this myself. The only way I know of to hide the bounding box is to hold Spacebar or enable Hide Selection while Dragging. Which tool do you have selected when you notice the bounding box has gone? The Move Tool should always show the bounding box as long as you've got the right object selected.

Can you screenshot your entire interface the next time this happens and attach it here as this might give us a clue as to what is going wrong.

[mdrisser 1]

It's not any specific tool, just random. I have an older version of the Adobe Suite, and it doesn't do this, neither do GIMP, Scribus or Inkscape, so I'm pretty sure it's not a computer issue, though it still possibly could be. I've also noticed that in Publisher Beta (but not in Photo or Designer), that when this occurs, the artboard disappears, but that will reappear when I scroll.

If it helps, here's my system info:

CPU: Intel Core i7-4702MQ @2.20Ghz

GPU: Intel HD Graphics 4600

RAM: 12GB

OS: Windows 10 Home

 

[walt.farrell 780]

As you mentioned Publisher, I'll point out that the bounding box for a Text Frame would be visible only if:

1. The Text Frame object is actively selected; or
2. View > Show Text Flow is selected.

Designer does not have that View option, so (in my experience) a Text Frame bounding box shows only when the object is selected. I think that's the general behavior in the Affinity applications, and it's intended. (And this behavior may be different from other applications.)

[mdrisser 1]

Thank you, but the issue is that when the bounding box disappears, even when I select the object, be it a text frame, curve, picture, whatever, the bounding box does not show at all, until I restart the application.

I have been trying to get Designer to do this again, but so far this morning I haven't managed to (funny how it won't do it when I want it to). I'll try again, and I'll see if I can get Photo to do it again as well.

I do have a screenshot of it happening in Publisher Beta, note that in the screenshot I have selected the text frame, but there is no indication that it has been selected. Also note that the artboard has disappeared as well.

[walt.farrell 780]

20 minutes ago, mdrisser said:

I do have a screenshot of it happening in Publisher Beta, note that in the screenshot I have selected the text frame, but there is no indication that it has been selected. Also note that the artboard has disappeared as well

It looks to me like you are zoomed in too far to be able to see the selection box. Could you zoom out so we can get a better view of the whole page?

[anettdc 0]

This happens to me too. I have the Designer on W10. It's always done that, just randomly, the selection box and handles all disappear. I can still move/rotate/resize/etc objects as if the handles were there but it's pretty hard without actually being able to see them. Only way I've found so far to bring them back is to restart the program.

I haven't yet figured out exactly what triggers it to disappear but it seems like when I do a lot of moving, copying, duplicating, things like that,  it tends to happen more.. I don't know. Could be that my 5yo laptop just can't keep up?

[Chris B 1,052]

Hey anettdc,

Welcome to the Affinity Forums

I've been keeping my eye out for this since it was reported and the only way I can reproduce it is if my mouse touches any of the UI but it always comes back once I release the object again. It seems yours is just getting stuck somehow...

[Bob C 1]

Did anyone find a solution to this problem?  I bought the Affinity Designer software today and have been going through some tutorials and have the same problem.  I had the problem happen while following along with a tutorial demo and the bounding box went away and I couldn't get it back.  I closed the program without saving and reopened it.  I got about half way through the demo and the bounding box went away again.  I then saved the file, closed the program and reopened the file and the bounding boxes were there.  Started working through the rest of the demo.  I had only  resized a couple of objects, added a triangle and moved around a few layers and the box went  away again.  I saved the file and opened it back up without closing the program and the bounding boxes were back.  Not sure what is going on.

 

 

[mdrisser 1]

Still haven't found a solution, although I'm wondering if it might be a graphics card issue. I installed Affinity on my new laptop and haven't seen the problem since. Different manufacturer, different graphics card, no problem.

[Bob C 1]

I uninstalled the program and reinstalled it but am still having the same issue of the border box disappearing.

[Bob C 1]

This has gotten really annoying.  It happens all the time after about 5 min of use.  I'm getting tired of closing the program and opening it back up.  I have updated the video drivers but not sure why that would effect this.

[Chris B 1,052]

Still no solution or recipe yet. I've seen one or two reports since this thread was made...

@Bob C - Can you link me to the tutorial you were following? There might be a clue. Perhaps there's some hidden shortcut that is causing this which we don't know about? 

[Bob C 1]

It was the "Affinity Designer: The Complete Guide to Affinity Designer" course at Udemy.  I'm having the same issue when not following tutorials also. 

[Chris B 1,052]

10 hours ago, Bob C said:

It was the "Affinity Designer: The Complete Guide to Affinity Designer" course at Udemy.  I'm having the same issue when not following tutorials also. 

I realise it's happening away from the tutorials but I was thinking that maybe there's a specific trigger somewhere that I could have picked up on if I followed it myself. 

I'm still keeping an eye out for this and I've asked my colleagues to as well as we've had lots of reports with no recipe which is really frustrating. 

[Bob C 1]

Here is an update.  I downloaded a free graphics package from a website.  It had an ai file with sample swooshis on in it.  I was clicking on different ones to see which parts were on different layers.  On the 3rd one I clicked on, the bounding box went away.  I actually thought all of a sudden I wasn't able to select something until I tried to move it.  The only thing I did in the program besides selecting a couple objects was to move the undocked transform window.

[Chris B 1,052]

Interestingly my colleague who doesn't have a dedicated graphics card can often reproduce this. Can you all let me know if you have dedicated cards or integrated graphics please. 

[mdrisser 1]

I'll have to check my old laptop, which was having the issue, but I believe that it has integrated graphics, while my new one, which does not have the issue, has a dedicated graphics card. I think you may be on to something there Chris B.

[Bob C 1]

I have Affinity Designer installed on my laptop. It is a HP ENVY TouchSmart 15t Quad.  It does have a dedicated Nvidia GeForce GT 740M graphics card with 2048MB of dedicated video memory.  In device manager, Intel HD graphics 4600 is also listed but I believe that is the one built into the CPU.

[Bob C 1]

I went into the Nvidia control panel and the integrated card was the default.  I switched it to the Nvidia card and it seems like that might have fixed it.  I've been doing different things in Affinity Designer for about 15 minutes and I haven't lost the bounding box.  Normally I would loose it in 5 minutes or less. As for now, it seems like changing the video card fixed the problem but will report back after more testing.  This will make the program actually usable for me now.

[Chris B 1,052]

That's interesting... This still seems like a bug to me as I wouldn't expect it to disappear if you're using integrated graphics.

Thanks for the feedback  

[mdrisser 1]

So, I just checked my old laptop and it does have integrated graphics. Definitely seems like a bug to me as well.