Designer: Is there an angle readout somewhere that indicates the angle at which a line has been created with the pen tool?

[Ballyshannon]

When drawing lines, boxes, etc by eye using the pen tool in Designer, when I end up with a line or edge of a box that's not exactly perpendicular or horizontal to the grid (eg: 90°), is there a way I can quickly correct it without having to drag a guide next to the line onto the layout, zoom in and eyeball it and guess that it's 90°? When creating an arbitrary line at an angle, there's nowhere I can find in the info that gives me the angle of that line or the ability to type in a different angle.

[R C-R]

2 hours ago, Ballyshannon said:

When drawing lines, boxes, etc by eye using the pen tool in Designer, when I end up with a line or edge of a box that's not exactly perpendicular or horizontal to the grid (eg: 90°), is there a way I can quickly correct it without having to drag a guide next to the line onto the layout, zoom in and eyeball it and guess that it's 90°?

For nodes of vector shapes drawn with the Pen Tool, switch to the Node Tool & you can use the "Snap" options on the Context toolbar (separate from those of the Snapping Manager on the main toolbar) to snap-align individual nodes to the horizontal or vertical position of other nodes. You can also select two or more nodes with the Node Tool & rotate them around any of the 9 anchor points in the Transform panel by changing the R: filed in that panel.

For rectangles, pies, cogs, stars, etc. just change the R: value in the Transform panel, or use the Shift key & rotate on the canvas.

[sharpart]

I have the same question, and I don't think the question was answered. I want to find what angle a line is. The line is straight and drawn with the pen tool. Is there a way to do that? I don't want to change the line.

[gdenby]

Hi, sharpart,

As Ballyshannon posted last year, there are only rather cumbersome methods that may not be sufficiently precise. One can make a protractor, and save it as an asset, and then position it over any set of points. 

[Alfred]

14 minutes ago, gdenby said:

One can make a protractor

One can save oneself a considerable amount of protracted effort by using the result of someone else’s labours!

 

[Aammppaa]

7 hours ago, sharpart said:

I want to find what angle a line is.

Affinity Designer is missing a function to do this.

Compare with Xara Designer which will tell you the angle and length of a line segment…

[Gear maker]

I use an app PixelStick by Plum Amazing, https://plumamazing.com/product/pixelstick/ that quickly helps me measure any angle, size (in screen pixels), etc of anything showing on the screen.  It stays on top of everything, but loads and exits quickly.  It shows circles with the center, tangents, right angles, etc.  So I can match one leg to a line drawn then just match what it shows to be exactly 90 degrees.  It will also tell me the exact angle of that line.  The manual gives a better description of it's features.  https://plumamazing.com/pixelstick-manual/ .  It helps make up for this missing feature and much more. 

[R C-R]

2 hours ago, Alfred said:

One can save oneself a considerable amount of protracted effort ...

I see what you did there. 

[Alfred]

44 minutes ago, Gear maker said:

I use an app PixelStick by Plum Amazing, https://plumamazing.com/product/pixelstick/

That looks like a nice app, but unfortunately it’s for Mac only. Curiously, the linked page correctly gave me the price in GBP but the ‘Latest’ date was quoted in US (MM/DD/YY) format.

[sharpart]

Thanks everyone for your replies.

A protractor seems the easiest. For more accuracy I can always calculate the angle by finding the length of each side (opposite & adjacent) and find the inverse tangent (using www.wolframalpha.com/ since my Windows calculator doesn't seem to do inverse tangent functions even in Scientific mode). 

THE BEST SOLUTION WOULD BE HAVING THAT FEATURE ADDED TO AFFINITY DESIGNER. (Hint, hint)

 

[Aammppaa]

20 minutes ago, sharpart said:

since my Windows calculator doesn't seem to do inverse tangent functions even in Scientific mode

You have to click Inv(erse) and then inverse tan becomes available.

7 hours ago, Alfred said:

That looks like a nice app, but unfortunately it’s for Mac only

You might like to try Meazure on PC. Not so pretty looking but lots of functions, including protractor.

 

 

[sharpart]

Quote

You have to click the inv(erse) and then inverse tan b...

Thanks. I found it but it doesn't say 'inv' — it is just an up arrow.

[Eddy-2]

Following a very helpful reply by PixelPest to a question of mine yesterday, the attachment seems to provide one way of finding out a line's angle.

[Move Along People]

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[jackamus]

I find it astonishing that there is not a direct way to measure the angle a line is drawn at. To me it should be a fundamental feature of any graphics app like e.g.Xara. I guess there are apps that have it too!

An extra box in the Transform tab showing the angle from say the horizontal position. It could be call a 'Protractor' box.

[PaulEC]

+1 for a dedicated tool.

In the mean time another way to measure the angle of a line:
1: Drag a horizontal guide across the line.
2: Draw a straight line along the guide with the Pen tool.
3: Use the Move tool to reset the rotation point to where the two lines cross.
4: Rotate your new line to sit along the line you want measure the angle of.
5: The angle is shown in the transform box.

(Fairly accurate if you zoom in and use snapping.)

[jackamus]

Thanks but none of these work-arounds should be necessary. It should be a basic feature. I've put in a request for it.

[room34]

Sorry to resurrect this thread after nearly three years, but I was looking for a solution to this and it does seem to be supported, at least now (version 1.10.5).

Using the Node tool, select both endpoints of the line you want to measure, and look in the Transform panel. The R (rotation) value is the angle of the line.

[jackamus]

Well done room34!

I have just tried it and it works.

Would anyone know when this feature was included?

[walt.farrell]

2 hours ago, room34 said:

Using the Node tool, select both endpoints of the line you want to measure, and look in the Transform panel. The R (rotation) value is the angle of the line.

Thanks.

You an also use the Move Tool, and just select the line. But in both cases, it seems to work only for a straight line with exactly 2 nodes. If the line has a third node, no angle is shown.

[Winsome]

On 6/18/2019 at 1:42 PM, Aammppaa said:

Affinity Designer is missing a function to do this.

Compare with Xara Designer which will tell you the angle and length of a line segment…

Unfortunately, Xara Designer was out of date when we celebrated New Year's Eve in 2000.

The functionality that @Ballyshannon requested in 2018 before he left the forum here in 2019, exists today in two proper programs:

• Adobe Illustrator with Astute Pathscribe plugin (the expensive combi and option).
• Vectorstyler out of the box (the cheaper option)

It's a functionality the impulsive pixel painter hardly misses, but if you're drawing fonts or curved designs where there needs to be harmony, symmetry and consistency across parts or all of the design, it's a magically simple tool.

As I said, it's in Vectorstyler, and as you can see, it's quite simple:

I would appreciate it in Designer too.