Outer Shadow angle control in Designer is a pain

[Ballyshannon]

When adding an Outer Shadow in Designer and rotating the angle control line within the circle using the mouse pointer, it snaps only to specific angles...0, 45, 90, 135, 180, 225, 270, and 315. There have been many times I want a different angle and I realize I can click on the angle readout and type in any angle, but that's a pain to get the angle I want, and counterproductive . Is there any way to turn the snap function off and allow the user to drag the line and move the shadow smoothly without snapping to the predetermined angles?

[carl123]

On Windows, you can hold the shift key to disable the 45 degrees snapping

[firstdefence]

On Mac you Press Alt to disable snapping if you are pulling the angle dial line around the circle.

 With the mouse, place the cursor within the bounds of the angle dial and just move/stroke your finger up or down on the mouse surface to scroll around the angle dial freely.

[Pšenda]

A good way to adjust the angle is scrolling.

Scroll with Shift:

- cursor over angle number = step 10,

- cursor outside number (but inside circle) = step 5.

[R C-R]

2 minutes ago, Pšenda said:

A good way to adjust the angle is scrolling.

Scroll with Shift:

- cursor over angle number = step 10,

- cursor outside number (but inside circle) = step 5.

At least on my Mac, that doesn't work. Instead, wherever the cursor is inside the circle, scrolling with the Shift key down just locks the steps to clockwise increments regardless of which way I scroll, which continue to change in one degree steps. Not very useful. 

Weirder still: with or without the Shift key held down, without the alt key held down, if the angle is initially set to 0°, scrolling will not go past 0° when scrolling clockwise to increment the angle -- it gets 'stuck' toggling between 0° & 359°. But that doesn't happen when starting with any other initial angle. 

Also, I checked what happens with the current Mac beta, & it is just like retail version in this respect.

[Pšenda]

It's true, that zero is somehow jamming - if it scrolls (with Shift) above the number, so it hangs at 0/360. Outside, it works reliably. Maybe there is a problem in that, if I start with zero, it always goes over again (2, 1, "0", 359). Sometimes, however, if I use the scroll + Shift above the number, the zero will replace the 360 (2, 1, "360", 359).

It is also interesting, that the scroll + Shift above number, the steps is after ten (7, 10, 20), while outside number adding/subtracting 5 (7, 12, 17).

[Gabe]

Hi all,

It seems to be a difference between the Windows and the Mac version. Windows is fine, while Mac is currently different:

# Scrolling over the number, starting from a value of 0:
    #* Scrolling up > OK
    #* (x) Shift + Scrolling up > It switches from 0 to 359 but always goes back to 0. Shift changes the direction of the scrolling action
        #** Windows Behaviour: It changes the values in increments of 10 degrees
    #* (x) Scrolling down > It switches from 0 to 359 but always goes back to 0. 
        #** Windows behaviour: It stays on 0
# Scrolling inside the circle, but not on the number, starting from a value of 0:
    #* Scrolling up > OK
    #* (x) Shift + Scrolling up > Shift changes the direction of the scrolling action
        #**  Windows Behaviour: It changes the values in increments of 5 degrees
    #* (x) Scrolling down > It switches from 0 to 359 but always goes back to 0. 
        #** Windows behaviour: It changes the values counter-clockwise
# Scrolling over the number, starting from a non-zero value :
    #* (x) Scrolling up > It does not stop at 360
        #** Windows behaviour > It stops at 360
    #* (x) Scrolling down > It does not stop at 0
        #** Windows behaviour > It stops at 0
# Scrolling over the number, starting from a non-zero value :
    #* (x) Scrolling up > It does not stop at 360
        #** Windows behaviour > It stops at 360
    #* (x) Scrolling down > It does not stop at 0
        #** Windows behaviour > It stops at 0
# Scrolling inside the circle, but not on the number, starting from a non-zero value:
    #* Scrolling up > OK
    #* Scrolling down > OK

[Gear maker]

I never noticed, or tried shift scrolling on my mac.  Odd that it only scrolls down, and will not go up.

[MEB]

On 2/8/2019 at 6:07 AM, Ballyshannon said:

Is there any way to turn the snap function off and allow the user to drag the line and move the shadow smoothly without snapping to the predetermined angles?

Hi Ballyshannon,
With the object selected, go to the Effects panel (near the Layers panel), expand the Outer Shadow, click the Offset Tool and drag the shadow directly on canvas as you see fit.

 

[v_kyr]

14 minutes ago, MEB said:

With the object selected, go to the Effects panel (near the Layers panel), expand the Outer Shadow, click the Offset Tool and drag the shadow directly on canvas as you see fit.

BTW, any reason why on the non-modal panel that feature access is missing?

 

[MEB]

No, as far as I know, I've noticed that too. Passed to the dev team for consideration.