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Changing dimensions of multiple grouped images (Designer)?


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I'm taking on the daunting task of creating an overhead view of a Bosendorfer concert grand piano and have finished placing 200+ tuning pins onto the pin block. Each pin is a grouping of two elements... the base and top of pin, and all pins are grouped as a whole. I've decided I want to make the pins a bit smaller and can type the new dimensions for each individual pin grouping into the Transform area and locking the aspect ratio, but would prefer not to do each individually since it would take quite a while. Is there a way to change the dimensions all at once?

Forgot to specify I'm doing this in Designer.

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What happens when you select all those related pins and alter their w/h settings? - Note that you can also just use relative h/w field input expressions in order to change sizes here:

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When I select the grouping of pins (whether the group layer itself or shift-select all the pins from within the main grouping), as expected, it places a selection box around all the pins and the Transform box only shows the dimensions of that selection box. Each pin is in a specific place, so I can't simply change the overall size of the selection box to achieve the smaller pin size, which will move the pins out of position and cause a real mess. I've already gone ahead and resized each pin individually, but for future reference it would be  good to know if this can be done in one operation without altering the positions of the objects.

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In Designer one can create shared Symbols for those pins (if they are initially equally sized) and then on demand if you edit one such reused Symbol all others should change too accordingly! - See:

Though sizing seems not to take it over here for symbol attributes if they are not selected properly.

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That's a great idea! I had worked a little with Symbols when first starting with Designer a couple months ago, but forgot about this feature. When I'm finished with this project, I will look further into the Symbols feature and how it can relate to this type of project.

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Also take a look into the online help related to these:

Especially how to select them in the layers panel in order to change all their sizes at once etc.

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As mentioned, if you didn't start with symbols then no, can't be done in Designer.
Hopefully in the future we will get a transform each tool.

However, with the file you have without symbols you could have (or if you find yourself in this situation again...):
Saved the pegs as a pdf, open in Inkscape, changed them all (in place) with one click and brought that back into Affinity to replace what you had.
(Wish I saw this earlier, but it seems like you did them all by hand fairly quickly.)

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4 hours ago, Ballyshannon said:

I'm taking on the daunting task of creating an overhead view of a Bosendorfer concert grand piano ...

Just curious, but I find myself wondering how much detail you plan to include, particularly for the bass strings in the area around the PinBlock, Agraffes (sp?), & such; and the copper-wound strings themselves. It seems to me including very many of those details would be a monumentally daunting task!

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If you have Affinity Photo you may be able to step through all 200+ tuning pins layers/groups and use a macro to resize them

If you don't have AP but can upload your designer file here, someone may try to do this for you, if you specify the dimensions you want for the pins

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R C-R, here's the project so far. It's been quite the task and still some detail work to do on a 'wound' effect on the bass strings, and getting the upper two sections of treble strings lined up with the pinblock pins and pegs. Right now I only have one string per pin on those upper two treble sections just to have something there. Also have to do some lining up of the middle section of triple strings with the pinblock pegs. Certainly not perfect, but it's looking better each day. So far, a week-long project. It was a nightmare to get the upper harp section designed so the strings are beneath both the main and upper harp, yet over the top of the upper harp bass string securing pin section. I had to actually create an optical illusion using shadows to make it work and look close to correct. Still work to do! I've also included a side view of the Bosendorfer Vienna Concert Grand, on which I'll probably do a little more tweaking. Been working with Designer for about two months now, learning a lot, and enjoying it.

Bosendorfer grand top view2.jpg

Bosendorfer grand_grey background3.jpg

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1 hour ago, Ballyshannon said:

R C-R, here's the project so far.

Mind blowing, incredible work!

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Very nice.

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32 minutes ago, R C-R said:

Mind blowing, incredible work!

What he said! thumbup1.gif

If I may be permitted to nitpick, the spacing of the white keys doesn’t look quite right, and the black keys are misaligned. But it’s still a hugely impressive piece.

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28 minutes ago, Eℓƒяє∂ said:

If I may be permitted to nitpick, the spacing of the white keys doesn’t look quite right, and the black keys are misaligned. But it’s still a hugely impressive piece.

I am not sure what you mean about the black keys. I am certainly no expert on Bösendorfer pianos (or pianos in general) but check out image 3 of 6 on this webpage for an overhead photo of the Vienna Concert Grand. The gaps between the white keys might be a bit wide, but otherwise the keyboard looks very true to life to me.

Something that does not, at least from what I can tell, is the dampers are under the strings instead of over them, but as the OP said, this is still a work in progress.

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12 hours ago, Eℓƒяє∂ said:

What he said! thumbup1.gif

If I may be permitted to nitpick, the spacing of the white keys doesn’t look quite right, and the black keys are misaligned. But it’s still a hugely impressive piece.

Agreed... there are some issues there.... but I think it's exclusively a sharp/flat placement problem.
The width of the F(4) key right under the "d" of Bosendorfer (and elsewhere) is particularly apparent.
And the G#s start out fine but get shifted off center on the upper half of the keyboard (some more than others).
With so much hard work and attention to detail, it would be a shame not to get those sorted out.

Great work though!!!!!

362889269_ScreenShot2018-12-22at11_35_50AM.png.980ce99750ea57334a7a1c67b5c2946e.png

621230524_ScreenShot2018-12-22at10_56_39AM.png.45039259b59b41eb63a136f71e663a95.png

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I appreciate all the input regarding detail and some things obviously not being 'perfect' but please keep in mind this is still a work in progress, and the fact that I've never used Illustrator and have only been using Designer for a couple months. I'm still in the learning phase and the key spacing will be sorted out, as will other details such as the dampers. With SO much detail to consider, I can only do one thing at a time, figure it out and make tweaks as I go. :)The only overhead template I could find online isn't high res, so I'm having to find various views of this particular piano online to put it together, and there aren't many. But I appreciate the input. The final version won't be perfect since I don't have a real Bosendorfer Vienna Concert grand sitting in front of me (wish I did!), but I'm learning a lot. I'm actually going to take a break from this project for a while and return to it after Christmas.

Merry Christmas everyone!

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2 hours ago, Ballyshannon said:

The only overhead template I could find online isn't high res, so I'm having to find various views of this particular piano online to put it together, and there aren't many.

Did you check out the webpage I mentioned above (https://www.coachhousepianos.co.uk/product/new-bosendorfer-280vc-grand-piano/)? Click on the second small image on the page, the one that looks like this:
883383739_overheadview.jpg.c577f80b7949f38a606cb85443f1f861.jpg
Do that & it should expand to the full width of the browser page. Click on the magnifier glass at the top & it will enlarge even further, so you can pan around at much higher resolution & take screen shots of selected areas, like below:
783646624_closeupbosend.jpg.d432c85edeffb7405a8c6ea4b5a589dc.jpg

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An effort worth the quality of a Bosendorfer. I knew a fellow who was the top piano mechanic in the area, and he showed me some of the high precision the brand had, well above anything else he worked on. He worked on my K. Kawaii, which he considered a better than average instrument. It also has a slight off center for the black keys compared to the white. I was never enough of a pianist to know, but I suspect it is so the centering of the raised keys is similar to the lower white ones.

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23 minutes ago, gdenby said:

I knew a fellow who was the top piano mechanic in the area, and he showed me some of the high precision the brand had, well above anything else he worked on.

Totally off topic, but since the band I worked with used concert grand pianos that by contract had to be tuned to A440 after being placed on stage & touched up after sound check before live shows, I worked with a lot of piano tuners. Some were worthy of the title "piano mechanic," others not so much. One of the ones who was told me something that surprised me: of all the concert grand brands he worked on, one held pitch between tunings & after being moved better than all the others, & it was not Bösendorfer or Steinway,. It was Yamaha.

He also said they were the least susceptible to pitch shifts due to changes in temperature & humidity, both overall & note-to-note. Go figure. :o

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1 hour ago, gdenby said:

An effort worth the quality of a Bosendorfer. I knew a fellow who was the top piano mechanic in the area, and he showed me some of the high precision the brand had, well above anything else he worked on. He worked on my K. Kawaii, which he considered a better than average instrument. It also has a slight off center for the black keys compared to the white. I was never enough of a pianist to know, but I suspect it is so the centering of the raised keys is similar to the lower white ones.

All the sharps/flats are always off center except for the G#/As on every keyboard I've seen.
Afaik, it's to keep all the skinny sections of the white keys the same width (except for the end keys of course).
Otherwise the G and A keys would be much thinner there and weaker. 
The only time I've seen all the black keys centered in between the naturals is on drawings (...just 'cuz it's easier I think).

From @R C-R 's reference image:

734784027_ScreenShot2018-12-22at5_07_31PM.png.c8c739323f35d4ed67839d730195ae55.png

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R C-R, thanks for that link. Although it's not the same piano (it's the 9' Imperial Grand while the one I'm emulating is the 6' grand) and some things are different, it's a big help. I've already corrected the key spacing and dampers on my project, so it's looking better. I know I said I was going to take a break, but I wanted to get some of those things taken care of. Still a few tweaks to be made.

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15 hours ago, R C-R said:

Totally off topic, but since the band I worked with used concert grand pianos that by contract had to be tuned to A440 after being placed on stage & touched up after sound check before live shows, I worked with a lot of piano tuners. Some were worthy of the title "piano mechanic," others not so much. One of the ones who was told me something that surprised me: of all the concert grand brands he worked on, one held pitch between tunings & after being moved better than all the others, & it was not Bösendorfer or Steinway,. It was Yamaha.

He also said they were the least susceptible to pitch shifts due to changes in temperature & humidity, both overall & note-to-note. Go figure. :o

The guy I mentioned opened his own shop, which I visited after he started tuning my piano. (He only took me on 'cause the tuner I had been using was an old friend of his who passed away.) He would show me the various brands. He had a tool that he would run over the sound bed. He only had one Bosendorfer, and it was almost completely flat. The Kawais were slightly bowed, and the Yamahas the least good. He showed me other stuff, among which I remember was how easy it was for him to get the weight for each key equal on the Bosendorfer. I was clumsy enough that I could not tell that 3 of the keys at one point varied by +/- 1 g. He said that a good concert pianist would pick out a single key that was .5 g off. 

I can only guess, but after seeing the piano movers work, big ones like the Bosendorfer or Steinways must have had considerable stress placed on them when moved.

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2 minutes ago, gdenby said:

I can only guess, but after seeing the piano movers work, big ones like the Bosendorfer or Steinways must have had considerable stress placed on them when moved.

It probably depends how you move them!

 

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41 minutes ago, gdenby said:

I can only guess, but after seeing the piano movers work, big ones like the Bosendorfer or Steinways must have had considerable stress placed on them when moved.

Well in the past I worked sporadically for a concert hall and one of the most heavy to handle things (beside cable cases and certain PA cases) was a bloody huge acryl piano from Steinways & Sons. That monster came in a special case with (we always hoped so) good roles and we always needed 6 to 8 people in order to take it out of the case and set up only on it's foothold. The case of that piano was always a huge help since it offered to have a folding mechanism. - These are always difficult to handle and do have enormous weight, so you best know where it's final stage place is and hopefully don't have to move it afterwards again!

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