Expand stroke still sucks

[eobet]

I'm sorry to pile on here, but wow, yes expand stroke does suck:

 

 

I've only used it twice so far (and this is the second time), but both time I've had to go in and manually tweak the result.

[MEB]

Hi eobet,
We hope to have this fixed for v1.8. This is particularly problematic with objects with thin/small strokes (<2pt). To work around this you can scale up the object  a x factor (say x100), expand the stroke, then scale it down again the same factor. You should get a more accurate rendition without having to tweak manually. I'm sorry for the inconvenience this is causing you.

[Oval]

4 hours ago, MEB said:

To work around this you can scale up the object … then scale it down again the same factor.

Why not simply using a much higher resolution?

[dsnaps12]

@MEB any info of when a beta of 1.8 will be out? Weeks, months?

[A_B_C]

I guess it will be out soon, given the fact that the Publisher 1.8 Beta is already available. Take a look:

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/101015-affinity-publisher-customer-beta-180499/

[AdrianB]

3 hours ago, smithclarkson01 said:

no reply?

The answer is right here in the thread, just read above. ”We hope to have this fixed for v1.8.”

And the beta of 1.8 will be out ”soon”. 

[Oval]

3 hours ago, AdrianB said:

”We hope to have this fixed for v1.8.”

On 6. November 2019 at 6:04 PM, Patrick Connor said:

1.8.0 is many weeks (perhaps even some months) away from launch.

[AdrianB]

@Oval Yes, it's quite reasonable that the period from first beta to the final coordinated release of 1.8 takes some time, weeks or months.  

[Oval]

6 hours ago, AdrianB said:

1.8 takes some time, weeks or months

13 hours ago, smithclarkson01 said:

when they are going to fix it

This is why we had quoted an official statement of Serif

[Oval]

… unlike to the statements of other companies. 

[ddiomedecipher]

Expand stroke does not produce desired results. When I expand. It converts my plain stroke to a styled brush stroke. I had checked my stroke settings and I do not see what is causing this? See attached screenshots below. 

[MEB]

Hi ddiomedecipher,
Welcome to Affinity Forums
This is a known issue that's being looked at for v1.8. Meanwhile if you enlarge the object a x factor (say x100), expand the stroke and scale it down the same factor you should get a more accurate result.

[ddiomedecipher]

Thank you for the quick response. I tried enlarging and expanding as requested it provides the same result. I look forward to the improvements. 

[Oval]

3 hours ago, ddiomedecipher said:

tried enlarging […] same result

simply use a much much higher resolution (without the need of enlarging etc.)

[ddiomedecipher]

@Oval How is a higher resolution going work for vector? Vector is vector. Requiring a user to do workarounds for a common task is not a solution. It's called a hack. Using a "higher resolution" does not solve the problem. 

[Oval]

1 hour ago, ddiomedecipher said:

How is a higher resolution going work for vector? Vector is vector.

Because of the code of Serif. The accuracy of vector commands like “Expand Stroke ” depends on the chosen “DPI”. For example use 21893dpi if the page size is not bigger than (DIN) A4.

1 hour ago, ddiomedecipher said:

Requiring a user to do workarounds for a common task is not a solution.

Of course not. But we need workarounds since many years for that problem. And you already tried the bad workaround provided by Serif.

[AdrianB]

1 hour ago, ddiomedecipher said:

Requiring a user to do workarounds for a common task is not a solution. It's called a hack.

Of course, I don't think anyone claims it's a solution. It is a known issue with some workarounds that might or might not work, for now. I went back and dusted off my old copy of Illustrator CS5 because I was not happy with the results of expanding strokes in Designer. But I accept that there are missing pieces in this still young software that mostly is a delight. And the good thing is that the solution might be close now, they are working on it and the improvements in 1.8 seem promising. 

[ddiomedecipher]

In my case. I was excited to try it out, because my employer will not pay for Adobe. While there are some nice things. I feel there are too many steps to achieve the same task I would have in Illustrator. I have ben using Illustrator for 30 years now. Typically I am open to change, but the time it takes to do things it too much for me.

[zozzy]

I have a similar kind of issue: I'm making cutcontour pdf-s from really simple objects, still the pdf contains millions of nodes. The printshop alerted me that my files are not suitable for cutting. I was shocked when realised this issue. This software at its current state doesn't suitable for professional printing work. Waiting years for basic features? I'm working guys! I'd suggest develop first, advertise next. This software is so promising but we cannot wait years for updates! The vectorizer feature has also been promised for years.  

 

[LostInTranslation]

I was just checking in on this again and read the release notes of beta 1.8.
But I still can't find any mention of this being fixed.

Dear Serif, your software is great in general.
But Expand Stroke not working is such a very basic function that it is absolutely not acceptable.
I need this every day but I will never use workarounds that still give bad results, nor will I spend time for fixing it manually.

I already lost hours of work on a logo that was completely unusable after expanding stroke.
I recreated it in Xara and it converted beautifully as it should and as it always has.

Also you are kind of hogging my investment into Affinity, not only money but a lot of time too.
I still can't make the switch and right now I still prefer Xara over Designer every day. In fact, if Xara had your excellent rounding tool, I would not even think of using AD at the moment.  

I try not to be selfish, but I can't think of any single fix that could be more important than this.
It's such a basic function, it should work before anything else.

So pretty please, tell us this will be fixed very soon?

 

[AdrianB]

2 minutes ago, LostInTranslation said:

I was just checking in on this again and read the release notes of beta 1.8.
But I still can't find any mention of this being fixed.

There is not beta of 1.8 for Designer for Mac yet. They did put out a beta of 1.8 for Windows earlier because of some Windows fixes. But the latest info in this thread is that they aim to fix expand stroke in 1.8. You can follow the Mac beta announcement thread to get notified when there's a beta for Mac of Designer.

[LostInTranslation]

1 hour ago, AdrianB said:

There is not beta of 1.8 for Designer for Mac yet. They did put out a beta of 1.8 for Windows earlier because of some Windows fixes. But the latest info in this thread is that they aim to fix expand stroke in 1.8. You can follow the Mac beta announcement thread to get notified when there's a beta for Mac of Designer.

Sorry for not mentioning that, but I am on Windows.
I just posted here, since there seem to be fairly recent comments to this matter.

Also I thought that Win/Mac versions were generally always the same?

In any way it needs to be fixed and soon. 

[HannaCecilia]

Hi everyone, just doing my first projects with Affinity and praying I could swop completely from Adobe. But - the first serious problems sadly already starting. Why is the 'expand stroke' not working with any brush strokes? Only the standard stroke? Or am I missing something? Please help as need this urgently for various client projects! Thank you!

[HannaCecilia]

Hi Adrian. I have the exact same issue. Except - my ancient CS4 is not working anymore on High Sierra. Or you have any tips? I am really stuck with the mad Adobe prices .

[AdrianB]

2 hours ago, LostInTranslation said:

Also I thought that Win/Mac versions were generally always the same?

Yeah, I think they generally are more or less the same when released, but judging by that comment i linked it seems like they wanted to get some fixes for Windows related issues out first. I read the Windows release notes and as you said, there seems to be no mention of expanding strokes there, so that is most likely not ready for public beta testing yet.

2 hours ago, LostInTranslation said:

In any way it needs to be fixed and soon. 

These forums are filled with demands that specific pet peeve issues are prioritized and fixed promptly. Software development takes time and Affinity is a small company with a series of applications for three platforms. I'm sure they're doing everything they can but it's probably more complex than it seems from the outside.

The good news is that this particular issue is actively being worked on, as they stated publicly and showed screenshots of. That is far better than most issues. And they said 1.8 beta for Mac should be out soon.

Until then, don't jump the ship if this is a showstopper (I use Designer daily but I have an old Illustrator version still lying around when I need to expand strokes).