Mattie Posted October 29, 2018 Posted October 29, 2018 Hello, I'm new to Affinity (trying to learn it so I can leave my Illustrator subscription). I use vector software to create sewing patterns, so length and measurement are really crucial features for me. If it matters, I'm using the desktop Mac version. I'm having trouble finding any way of measuring things that isn't strictly vertical or horizontal. Illuatrator tells you the length of a line or curve a couple ways (pic below). Does Affinity tell me this information somewhere that I haven't found yet? I know the box in the bottom right has H and W values, but that is only helpful for straight lines that are vertical or horizontal. Please don't tell me I have to rotate every line to horizontal to measure it... Thank you for your assistance! Jowday and Ecifircas 2 Quote
Staff MEB Posted October 29, 2018 Staff Posted October 29, 2018 Hi Mattie, Welcome to Affinity Forums Currently Affinity Designer doesn't provide this info anywhere. I'm moving this thread to the Feature Requests section. johnnyfive, Przemysław and BillCar 2 1 Quote A Guide to Learning Affinity Software
Mattie Posted October 29, 2018 Author Posted October 29, 2018 This is really disappointing. Wish I had known before I spent money on this program BillCar 1 Quote
JET_Affinity Posted October 30, 2018 Posted October 30, 2018 Quote Wish I had known before I spent money on this program. Take heart, Mattie. You made a good purchase. The program has strong underpinnings, but is still under development. The request for display of path length (and area and other things) has been made several times. I'm just a user like you, but I'm confident this and related functionality will be forthcoming. If it's any consolation, I "was there" when Illustrator finally got around to displaying path length (and other specs, like number of nodes, etc, etc.), which its competitors already provided. Given the age of the program, it wasn't that long ago. Prior to that, that information was buried in a "secret" developer's dialog that could be invoked if one knew the undocumented keyboard shortcut to invoke it. As users found out about it, they demanded visibility of such info in the normal interface. That's how it finally got rather crudely tacked onto, of all places, the Document Info palette. (Not exactly an intuitive place to look for path details.) I dare say many Illustrator users are still not even aware of it. But you are right, it is essential to accurate drawing. JET Quote
Alfred Posted October 30, 2018 Posted October 30, 2018 19 hours ago, Mattie said: Wish I had known before I spent money on this program I guess you also didn’t know that there’s a 10-day trial: https://affin.co/designertrial jstnhllmn 1 Quote Alfred 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)
johnnyfive Posted November 9, 2018 Posted November 9, 2018 Yep still waiting on this feature as well. Has been documented elsewhere here. Although there is a cumbersome workaround, it goes to show that the software is capable of measuring paths and just requires a bit of front-end work to show the users. It's the only feature keeping me from recommending AD to others... BillCar 1 Quote
Maijuline Posted February 18, 2019 Posted February 18, 2019 Hello! Like Mattie, I also make sewing patterns in Illustrator, and his reference picture (above) displaying the Document Info > Objects is what I use all the time. I am ready to jump into Affinity Designer but it is not realistic without proper measurement tools. Real-time curve measuring would be so good. I really hope they will be added to AD in the near future. Tjstrand, BillCar and Susan Zakar 3 Quote
AffinityBrah Posted June 22, 2019 Posted June 22, 2019 Dying for this feature, will have to move to Illustrator for the time being unfortunately...Hate paying $20/month. My Sewing Pattern Request Thread: BillCar 1 Quote
ROYGBV Posted June 24, 2019 Posted June 24, 2019 Line length, line angle, & line position, should all be available together. To take a graphics program, from a consumer level toy for making birthday cards, to a professional level, such information and more (area) should be available for every polygon and geometric type shape. For example every polygon should have the option to display its center with crosshairs and to show its basic subdivisions. So a hexagon would be able to show its subdivisions into 6 similar triangles. There is nothing difficult, about this for a computer, or in terms of code. Drawing programs back in the 1990s could do this. There was one dialog box for creating multisided polygons till they became indistinguishable from circles, with or without subdivisions. Not a dumbed down display of 10-12 "favorites. Susan Zakar, AffinityBrah, Przemysław and 1 other 4 Quote
ROYGBV Posted June 24, 2019 Posted June 24, 2019 It also needs to be clear how changing stroke width size, effects both the inside and outside dimensions of a shape, and the resulting size of the group when shapes are snapped together. As when creating a tiling of squares, creating a chess board design for example. Perhaps this is already customizable? Quote
Martin Conrad Posted June 26, 2019 Posted June 26, 2019 Just wanting to add my voice to those requesting a measurement feature for lines/curves. At the moment, I am using a workaround of rotating my design to zero rotation, drawing a horizontal line from point-to-point, looking at the Width measure reported in the Transform window, then deleting the superfluous line and rotating the design back to it's original orientation. AffinityBrah 1 Quote
AffinityBrah Posted June 27, 2019 Posted June 27, 2019 16 hours ago, Martin Conrad said: Just wanting to add my voice to those requesting a measurement feature for lines/curves. At the moment, I am using a workaround of rotating my design to zero rotation, drawing a horizontal line from point-to-point, looking at the Width measure reported in the Transform window, then deleting the superfluous line and rotating the design back to it's original orientation. Pretty much what I am doing. Very inefficient though. But doesn’t work on curves... johnnyfive 1 Quote
johnnyfive Posted August 14, 2019 Posted August 14, 2019 On 10/30/2018 at 3:39 AM, MEB said: Hi Mattie, Welcome to Affinity Forums Currently Affinity Designer doesn't provide this info anywhere. I'm moving this thread to the Feature Requests section. Hi MEB, Any update as to whether this is in the pipeline? I would think that AD is doing all the measurements in the background it just needs to be displayed somewhere in the UI? It's disappointing that this feature has been requested for a couple of years now. It is a crucial tool in many people's workflows that keeps them chained to Adobe. Love the product and just want it to be the best! Thanks for any updates! Susan Zakar 1 Quote
John Rostron Posted August 14, 2019 Posted August 14, 2019 Would the following work? Isolate the target line as a separate layer. Hide all the other layers. Export this layer as an svg file. Use a script that will parse the svg path directive to calculate the length of the path. I know this last step may be a stalling point, but the script needs only be written once. I'm sure that I, or one of the other members here could write such a script for you. Edit: I might have exceeded my capabilities here. If your line comprises a series of straight segments, it will export as a path comprising these straight segments. It would be easy to calculate the total length of the path. If is comprised of curved segments, then the path directive would include curve elements, which would be possible, but more difficult to calculate a length for. Example: a single straight segment produces the following svg path: <path d="M 495.891, 916.137 L 1451.25, 498.692" style="fill:none;stroke:black;stroke-width:1px;"/> Three straight segments produces: <path d="M 495.891, 916.137 L 798.741, 857.875 L 1111.26,547.846 L 1451.25,498.692" style="fill:none;stroke:black;stroke-width:1px;"/> A simple curve between two points produces: <path d="M 495. 891, 916.137 C 875.98, 552.857 875.046, 553.791 1451.25, 498.692" style="fill:none;stroke:black;stroke-width:1px;"/> A more complex curve based on the three straight segments produces: <path d="M 495. 891,916.137 C 682.722, 737.568 844.731, 851.52 961.236, 799.041 C 1081.75,744. 757 1158.28,526. 707 1451.25,498.692" style="fill:none;stroke:black;stroke-width:1px;"/> The 'M' means moveto, the 'L' means lineto and the 'C' means a Cubic Bezier curve. I have added a few spaces above to clarify the component numbers. I have just looked up how to measure the length of a cubic Bezier curve, and the answer seems to be: 'with great difficulty'. There do seem to be approximations which might suit your needs. John Quote Windows 11, Affinity Photo 2.4.2 Designer 2.4.2 and Publisher 2.4.2 (mainly Photo). CPU: Intel Core i5 8500 @ 3.00GHz. RAM: 32.0GB DDR4 @ 1063MHz, Graphics: 2047MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050
johnnyfive Posted August 15, 2019 Posted August 15, 2019 Thanks for the reply John! I require these measurements similar to the OP. Which means we need to see accurate measurements as we adjust many complex paths on the screen. So the 4 steps you mention above would turn into a high multiple of 4 as we design, export, script, adjust, export, script, adjust etc... I didn't mean to make too much work for anyone. I just assumed(maybe incorrectly) the software needs to do these calculations in its code anyway. So would it be too difficult to display these measurements to us in the GUI like AI does? Thanks Susan Zakar and John Rostron 2 Quote
Susan Zakar Posted August 29, 2019 Posted August 29, 2019 I agree. I would like to use the program for 3D papercraft designs. This often requires knowing the precise length of a curve, and is a very high priority need. I hope we will see this feature added soon. (It is something can do in both inkscape and illustrator, so definitely doable.) TIA to the developers for looking at this. Quote
Tourmaline Posted August 31, 2019 Posted August 31, 2019 On 10/29/2018 at 3:28 PM, Mattie said: Hello, I'm new to Affinity (trying to learn it so I can leave my Illustrator subscription). I use vector software to create sewing patterns, so length and measurement are really crucial features for me. If it matters, I'm using the desktop Mac version. I'm having trouble finding any way of measuring things that isn't strictly vertical or horizontal. Illuatrator tells you the length of a line or curve a couple ways (pic below). Does Affinity tell me this information somewhere that I haven't found yet? I know the box in the bottom right has H and W values, but that is only helpful for straight lines that are vertical or horizontal. Please don't tell me I have to rotate every line to horizontal to measure it... Thank you for your assistance! On 10/29/2018 at 3:28 PM, Mattie said: Hello, I'm new to Affinity (trying to learn it so I can leave my Illustrator subscription). I use vector software to create sewing patterns, so length and measurement are really crucial features for me. If it matters, I'm using the desktop Mac version. I'm having trouble finding any way of measuring things that isn't strictly vertical or horizontal. Illuatrator tells you the length of a line or curve a couple ways (pic below). Does Affinity tell me this information somewhere that I haven't found yet? I know the box in the bottom right has H and W values, but that is only helpful for straight lines that are vertical or horizontal. Please don't tell me I have to rotate every line to horizontal to measure it... Thank you for your assistance! You know about these plug-ins for Illustrator? https://astutegraphics.com/software/vectorscribe/ scroll down to all features, including measurements. Dynamic Measurements Ideal for fashion designers, cartographers and technical illustrators the Dynamic Measure Tool allows quick and accurate measurements, with the option to convert into artwork. All measurements from simple lengths, angles and path area to distances along path remain dynamic, removing any guesswork and tedious calculations. Quote
John Rostron Posted September 1, 2019 Posted September 1, 2019 I have been playing with writing a PHP script to do this job. My first problem was that I had not used php for several years, and my local php/web server was rather out-of-date. However I am making (slow) progress. I see this as a good challenge to keep my little grey cells in good working order. I have an algorithm for measuring the length of a Bezier curve. It can be applied to any required degree of accuracy. It would help if someone could send me a suitable object for me to play with. I would want a single object exported as an svg file. John Quote Windows 11, Affinity Photo 2.4.2 Designer 2.4.2 and Publisher 2.4.2 (mainly Photo). CPU: Intel Core i5 8500 @ 3.00GHz. RAM: 32.0GB DDR4 @ 1063MHz, Graphics: 2047MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050
Wosven Posted September 1, 2019 Posted September 1, 2019 Hi @John Rostron Not sure if it can help your test: ligne_complexe.svg ligne.svg losange.svg John Rostron 1 Quote
John Rostron Posted September 2, 2019 Posted September 2, 2019 Thanks, @Wosven. I had created a few simple svg files similar to these for testing. I will use them to check my processing is OK. I was really looking for the kind of thing that @Mattie and @Maijuline were creating for patterns etc. John Quote Windows 11, Affinity Photo 2.4.2 Designer 2.4.2 and Publisher 2.4.2 (mainly Photo). CPU: Intel Core i5 8500 @ 3.00GHz. RAM: 32.0GB DDR4 @ 1063MHz, Graphics: 2047MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050
Wosven Posted September 2, 2019 Posted September 2, 2019 @John Rostron, No problem, I didn't think it was so advanced! Quote
johnnyfive Posted September 17, 2019 Posted September 17, 2019 On 9/1/2019 at 1:01 AM, Tourmaline said: You know about these plug-ins for Illustrator? https://astutegraphics.com/software/vectorscribe/ scroll down to all features, including measurements. Dynamic Measurements Ideal for fashion designers, cartographers and technical illustrators the Dynamic Measure Tool allows quick and accurate measurements, with the option to convert into artwork. All measurements from simple lengths, angles and path area to distances along path remain dynamic, removing any guesswork and tedious calculations. These are plug-ins for Adobe Illustrator we need a solution for Affinity Designer. Are they planning to release them? Quote
Tourmaline Posted September 17, 2019 Posted September 17, 2019 7 hours ago, johnnyfive said: These are plug-ins for Adobe Illustrator we need a solution for Affinity Designer. Are they planning to release them? I know, but the question was if you were looking for something like this... It has a lot of advanced measuring tools. Quote
johnnyfive Posted September 24, 2019 Posted September 24, 2019 On 9/18/2019 at 12:04 AM, Tourmaline said: I know, but the question was if you were looking for something like this... It has a lot of advanced measuring tools. Ah so are you recommending we use Adobe Illustrator? Quote
SRichter1090 Posted October 23, 2019 Posted October 23, 2019 Is there any update on where this feature is in the development pipeline? I bought Affinity Designer pretty early on thinking that this surely would be a feature that would be quickly added considering it's a basic necessity for a lot of people. Quote
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