Affinity Designer Brush UI enhancement

[Craig Deeley]

 

After downloading the newest beta 1.7.0.3 I noticed that the Brush related UI hasn’t changed in several years and would like to suggest some productivity improvements.

This is my situation.
I am looking for a way to identify and switch to a brush quickly and easily from both the Brush menu(s) AND by means of clicking a brush stroke in an image.
I have at this point, hundreds (and hundreds) of custom brushes. The previews of these brushes are in some cases very similar. I need a faster way to identify a Brush that may be stored in any of a large number of collections without having to hunt for the brush thru trial and error.
My productivity problem: The sheer number of brushes I have makes searching for a specific brush from among many collections an extremely time-consuming task.
 
Here is my first suggestion:
Missing from the Brush palette is an easy way to spot a brush by name. Where the Brush palette shows a visual preview of the look of the brush and a size indication on the left, having the name of the brush appear in the palette would be far more helpful than the default size listed for quickly identifying a specific brush. See example:
http://i-toons.com//storage/adbr04.jpg

Being able to identify a brush in the Brush palette - by name - would make hunting for brushes in the Brush palette a little less time consuming
However...
My real desire would be the ability to do a fast switch to a Brush from a selection of the stroke that is already in a piece of art.

I may be missing something that may have been changed in the newest beta - but what I still find is this: If I click on a stroke applied to the "canvas" I do see an indicator of the brushes identity in the menus top left. 
See upper portion of this image:
http://i-toons.com//storage/adbr01.jpg
A small preview of the brush. Clicking on this brings up a nice editing shortcut - but…
This mini palette does not tell me what the brushes name is - nor does it give me an option to switch to the indicated brush
See image:
http://i-toons.com//storage/adbr02.jpg

If I click then click the Properties button in this mini menu I do get a more involved Brush Editing menu - But - this menu also does not have the brushes name. See image: 
http://i-toons.com//storage/adbr03.jpg

This is odd because the Brush Edit menu from the Brushes menu does have the name.  This editing menu seems to be a different version of the full Brush editing menu. See image:
http://i-toons.com//storage/adbr05.jpg
Nor is there any option to switch to the selected brush from this Edit menu.
 
Second suggestion:
What I would like to see would be a way (or tool) to select a Brush stroke already applied to the “canvas” and have the brush both identified (named in all Brush menus) and the brush tools attributes switch to those of the selected brush stroke. Select stroke. Brush (tool) changes to (inheruts) the selected stokes attributes. Be able to immediately draw with those attributes.
This fast switch would be a MAJOR productivity enhancement and time saver.
If this feature doesn't exist - I would dearly love to have it added. Either in the form of a new selection tool addition or as something similar to the functionality of the Freehand tool or arrow tool in the application Expression3/Microsoft Expression Design. In those versions of the application, click (tap) a brush stroke on the “canvas” with the Freehand Pen or arrow selection tool and the tools attributes immediately switch to the clicked objects attributes. 
 
An example of why this would be useful. 
If I have several brushes in use in a drawing and want to use one of the strokes in my drawing... Just clicking on the stroke would switch me to the Brush. The drawn stroke would double as a palette and the file could even double as a Brush category - saving tons of time that is presently lost hunting up a brush in the Brushes/brush collections menus.
 
 
Thanks
 
Craig