Isometric studio is helpful, but when do we get a real free transform tool in Designer ?!

[joro_abv 6]

Hi,

I was trying the isometric studio in the latest beta, in an effort to use it as e replacement for a real "Free transform" tool and ... well ... it does not cut it ! It is hard to use and with a result very far from precise enough to replace a real free transform and distort of an object.

So, I'm trying to rise this question again - when do we get a real "Free transform" tool in Designer (both vector and pixel) ? Since basically every other tool on the market including Illustrator and even the now dead Fireworks has it, I guess it is not that hard to implement, for vectors at least.

[GT70 0]

You're absolutely right. This software promises a lot but then has its legs cut off because there are several things missing to make it really a great softawre to the point that many of us have to go back to using Adobe Illustrator if we need to work with the free transform tool.
I think it's really absurd not to listen to what users have been asking for for a long time as they support you and encourage you to improve more and more.

Honestly, I'm not interested in iPad versions (which I bought) or versions for publication (like InDesign).

I have the impression that they waste of effort and creates a lot of software that is not 100% complete. I think they should first complete one and then switch to the other.
So I add myself to the appeal: when will you insert this blessed function?
Or is the alternative back to Illustrator?

Sorry for my bad english

[Dazmondo77 246]

On 12/6/2018 at 12:04 PM, joro_abv said:

Hi,

I was trying the isometric studio in the latest beta, in an effort to use it as e replacement for a real "Free transform" tool and ... well ... it does not cut it ! It is hard to use and with a result very far from precise enough to replace a real free transform and distort of an object.

So, I'm trying to rise this question again - when do we get a real "Free transform" tool in Designer (both vector and pixel) ? Since basically every other tool on the market including Illustrator and even the now dead Fireworks has it, I guess it is not that hard to implement, for vectors at least.

+1

 

[TLeyva 0]

 I too have loved Designer. I bought it and have begun creating the illustrations for what I hope will be my first book ever. I have been a Photoshop and Illustrator user since the early 1990's. I had so much hope for Designer, but then ran into the same issue of no "Free Transform" option. You can only scale, stretch, skew, and rotate. With no option to make a selection change "perspective", a massive requirement for me is missing!

 Affinity, please get this implemented as soon as possible, since I am willing to go 100% Affinity products of you can get a few much needed features like this added. Thanks.

[grapher 42]

i really dont understand one thing. there are few things, that are making this software a jewel on the market. On the other hand, long-term long-asked features and bugs, that are making professionals move away from it. Why? Such stupid thing like free transform. or broken expand stroke. years here.  Rotating, scaling group of nodes, its finally here! Hurray.  after years asking.

Still, you better develop in meantime version for ipad.

 

 

[MadMak 13]

I guess, this is the way Serif set their business priorities. We can cry and pray, but things are not going to change unless Serif change plans. They try to make money and if a version for iPad will earn them more money in less time, iPad app wins in the priorities list. We can't really do anything about it. This the way modern business models work.

[mmuller 4]

To be fair, I bought both applications as soon as they dropped and have used them extensively and look forward to publisher too. The improvement over two years is startling considering they have not required a paid update yet!

If you absolutely needed those features, you could have been a CC user, but then you will have spent £1408 to have said features... Not the £100 two years ago...

 

But it would be nice to see it added

[TLeyva 0]

 Don't get me wrong. I understand that Affinity has done some amazing work in just a few years. Adobe has been at it for nearly 30 years. The point I guess I'm making is, if Affinity were to ask my opinion (as a user of Adobe software since 1991 and working artist since 1987), is that they should take the input of professionals seriously.

  A survey of pros would be great. That way, they could prioritize new features and maybe put a nail in Adobe's coffin sooner, rather than later. Not only that. The sooner they add the most coveted features, the sooner pros like me will switch over 100%. AND, I would not mind paying for updates occasionally for a good product. I just HATE paying a subscription to Adobe, or anybody.

 Then again, their goal may be to pick up the casual user with the iPad app version, and not to win over professional desktop users. I don't know, since I'm not in the meetings.

[joro_abv 6]

Yup, I also think a voting system for new features would be the most fair way to prioritize what to implement next. But again - free transform is really basic, essential tool, doesn't mentioning it is available even in Affinity Photo, but not in Designer.

[Tupaia 41]

On 12/9/2018 at 9:47 AM, grapher said:

Rotating, scaling group of nodes, its finally here! Hurray.  after years asking.

True, but it misses a Center! That cripples it, because how do you rotate/scale about an arbitrary center now?

Illustrator can do this!

Posted this here already. Sorry, bit OT.

 

+1 for Free Transform!!

[fde101 126]

 

[JET_Affinity 325]

If I may…

I don't mean to come across like some kind of self-appointed "forum sheriff", but you guys would do well to better explain the specific functionality you desire. You're referring to a proprietary tool in a specific program; Illustrator's so-called Free Transform Tool.

No doubt countless skilled users of programs other than Illustrator have no idea what you're talking about as a "real free transform tool." In fact, having spent decades in the Illustrator user forums, I dare say even many, many Illustrator users don't know what it's for, and seldom touch it. It's certainly not among the most commonly used features.

When it comes down to it, Illustrator's Free Transform Tool is just another bounding box based scaling tool. As such, its behavior probably could be integrated as a few more keyboard-modified behaviors of Affinity's existing and (sometimes oppressively) omnipresent bounding boxes, rather than as another dedicated toolbox icon.

Illustrator's Free Transform Tool is kind of a pre-cursor to more capable envelope-based distortion features that came to most programs later. (And envelope-based distortion—warping, etc.— is on Affinity's roadmap, and none of us, as yet, have any idea how the interface of that will work.) That's why you need to describe or demonstrate the specific functionality you are desiring instead of just invoking the little-understood proprietary name of a program-specific feature.

Illustrator's Free Transform Tool is, frankly, also rather poorly implemented. Long time Illustrator forum regulars (including myself) have many times tediously explained to other users (and not just beginners)  the tedious sequence of multiple keyboard momentary modifiers required to invoke its faux "perspective" thing ("mousedown then Ctrl-Alt; mousedown then Ctrl-Alt!"). Further tedium stems from its most potential-killing aspect: that its bounding box resets to a rectangle after each and every move of one of its handles . FreeHand's similar tool, for example, didn't do that. It held its transformed shape (like an envelope), so it was much more useful for the most common purposes, like moving each corner of the bounding box to corresponding corners of an obliquely-viewed surface by a series of moves.

But my larger point is this: In this thread, some of you associate words like "crippling" with this request. But if there's anything actually debilitating about Affinity transformations at the moment it's that all of its on-page interactive (pointing device driven) transformations are based on dragging the infernal bounding box handles. That's the real issue that needs to be addressed; not just a "me, too" copy of Illustrator's specific treatment of a rather dated and limited bounding box-based warp behavior.

Think bigger. Forget Illustrator.

JET

[Dazmondo77 246]

2 hours ago, JET_Affinity said:

I don't mean to come across like some kind of self-appointed "forum sheriff", but you guys would do well to better explain the specific functionality you desire. You're referring to a proprietary tool in a specific program; Illustrator's so-called Free Transform Tool.

When it's just a taken for granted feature you've used for around 15 years, it's really frustrating when you want to grab a corner and tweak but you can't which is a feature I used to use all the time in Illustrator 

Heres what I mean using Illustrator CS5

[TLeyva 0]

Dazmondo77,

 

This is EXACTLY what I've been talking about! The ability to not only skew, scale, and rotate, but to actually distort to match perspective. Warp would be awesome, too. But, I would love to at least be able to do what you just did in the video. And since Designer does pixels, as well, it should work in both Personas.