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Convert rectangle with children to picture frame bugs


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First bug:

  • Create a standard rectangle and place an image inside
  • It will appear as a child of the rectangle in the layers list
  • Now select the rectangle and use Layer > Convert to Picture Frame
  • The rectangle will be converted to a picture frame, but in contradistinction to using a picture frame from the outset, the diagonal lines indicating the nature of the object will not go away!
  • I would consider this a bug

Second bug … the story continues:

  • Now select the picture frame you created (not the image inside!) and click Replace Image from the context toolbar
  • Usually you can do this to replace the image inside the picture frame
  • But when you choose a replacement image now, it will be nested underneath the original one
  • This must be a bug, right?

Thanks for having a look … :)

Alex

 

P-Frame.png.e95b15bce5757310e10078998e1827fd.png

P-Frame-2.png.b6ad20995db2da8c8f61e931f8efe404.png

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Hi A_B_C,

A Picture Frame can act as a parent clip object for any number of child objects just like any other Affinity object. In the case of Picture Frames though, one, and only one of those children can be flagged as the ‘content’ (this child object is indicated in Layers by the box with the diagonal cross in it). The object marked as content will scale according to the Picture Frame properties, the others will scale like child objects generally do, and in fact regular constraints can be applied to them. This allows you to, for example set up a frame with adornments, or maybe some kind of watermark.

To add an object as a regular child you can drop it in the layers panel in the bottom third or so of the target parent. You can add as many children as you wish in this way. To add it as content you can drop it, again in the layers panel, in the centre, vertically of the parent. The object will obey the Picture Frame fitting rules and by default will be scaled to max fit the frame. If a child flagged as content already exists it will be replaced. This is equivalent to choosing ‘Replace Image’.

So in your case, in the first instance when you created your picture frame we have chosen not to automatically make any existing children the content object. In fact, if we did, aside from the potential problem of choosing which child should become content, this would typically result in the child being scaled to fit the frame as it would have to obey the fitting rules. So, as the frame still has no special content object it is drawn with a diagonal cross. Then, in your second case, as populating the frame will only ever replace the content object and there isn’t one, the regular child is not removed and the content object is added.

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That was enlightening! Thank you so much for this explanation, Adam! It definitely makes sense. I had never noticed the special way to assign an image as *the content* of a picture frame by dragging it in the middle of the parent. Very smart and helpful. :)

Smart.png.f6a78145e78e04e901128121e5661ae3.png

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Here’s a small UI issue though … see my video:

  • Create a rectangle, place an image inside
  • Nest some adjustment layers to the rectangle
  • Convert rectangle to picture frame
  • Try to make the placed image *the true content* of the picture frame by dragging in the layers list as described above
  • The blue highlight will not appear in the middle of the picture frame entry, but in the middle of the lower-most adjustment layer entry!

This is looking odd. As if the image would be assigned to the adjustment layer. Thanks for having a look … :)

Alex

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Purely a guess, but try adding a layer above all the others, then drag the image up until it's above the picture frame in the layer stack. Then drag it down to where you want it.

It can be difficult to accurately drag layers near the top or bottom of the stack.

-- Walt
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Hi Walt,

it’s not that it wouldn’t work properly … it is just a UI issue … I believe the blue highlight should appear as an overlay to the word “Picture Frame” in such a structure, not as an overlay to the nested adjustment layer.

Sorry for having created confusion. Again, the functionality is correct. It looks just a bit inconsistent.

Thanks, Alex :)

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