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[ADe] Select same color / fill / stroke / appearance


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  • 3 weeks later...

Long term Adobe Illustrator user here. Trying Affinity Designer for the first time today. It's a very nice software, so far, but the lack of this BASIC functionality is baffling..! As already many users pointed out, for people that are editing exported vector graphics (for example CAD drawings) this is definitely a deal breaker.

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9 hours ago, tropilio said:

Long term Adobe Illustrator user here. Trying Affinity Designer for the first time today. It's a very nice software, so far, but the lack of this BASIC functionality is baffling..! As already many users pointed out, for people that are editing exported vector graphics (for example CAD drawings) this is definitely a deal breaker.

 

+1. Just bought Affinity Design to replace AI, and then found the lack of this "select similar" feature... Now I have to keep AI on my mac. 

Hope this feature can be added soon. 

Thanks. 

 

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From what I can tell this is a thread that started off as a redundant request for something that had already been asked for, which was then pointed out by someone else, followed by nearly 21 pages of predominantly "me2" and "how is this not there?" and complaints and repetitive comments that add nothing of value to the discussion.  If the people developing the software are expected to wade through all of this it is no wonder the feature hasn't been implemented yet.  They are probably so fed up with the thread that they don't even want to think about it.  I suspect I would be...  if I hadn't locked it by now.

It speaks well of Serif that they have put up with it as long as they have...

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So...five years of keveching has not brought this one iota closer to inclusion in the software, as far as can be discerned from the continuing occurrences of requests/complaints, and the overwhelming silence on the part of the developers. The most obvious conclusion is that the underlying code/database is structured in such a way that the feature is impossible to implement. Let this die a natural death; those of us for whom this is a necessary part of our workflow cannot fully use AD, and must find another solution. 

Maybe, just maybe, when the devs rework the code to accommodate Apple's newly-stated goal of moving their entire platform to the ARM architecture  (just can't wait for the joy of that transition...) they'll restructure whatever obstacles are currently impeding the feature, and, suddenly, we'll all get what we have been asking for.

I, personally, have moved on to VectorStyler - still in beta, but with >very< responsive devs - and more than adequately functional. AD just might end up as a footnote.

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4 hours ago, fde101 said:

From what I can tell this is a thread that started off as a redundant request for something that had already been asked for, which was then pointed out by someone else, followed by nearly 21 pages of predominantly "me2" and "how is this not there?" and complaints and repetitive comments that add nothing of value to the discussion.  If the people developing the software are expected to wade through all of this it is no wonder the feature hasn't been implemented yet.  They are probably so fed up with the thread that they don't even want to think about it.  I suspect I would be...  if I hadn't locked it by now.

It speaks well of Serif that they have put up with it as long as they have...

What utter garbage. I suppose, to follow your logic to its conclusion, the best way to communicate how many people really want this feature is for everyone to have said nothing. 

This is nothing short of trolling. 

If you haven’t got anything useful to say, just don’t bother. If this thread is annoying you, you don’t have to read it. 

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2 hours ago, robinp said:

I suppose, to follow your logic to its conclusion, the best way to communicate how many people really want this feature is for everyone to have said nothing. 

No, it is to "like" the original post.  That is one of the greatest benefits of having the ratings feature, but only if people actually use it.

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37 minutes ago, fde101 said:

No, it is to "like" the original post.  That is one of the greatest benefits of having the ratings feature, but only if people actually use it.

I had a quick look through the forum, ordering posts by most views and checking the "likes" on the original post. This request has the most votes (54) yet it doesn't have the most views. Seems like people are using it and still our voice isn't being heard/appreciated. The only post that comes even close to this thread is for Autotrace (47 votes) and that was also created in 2014. 

Having been involved in running a forum for a popular application for several years, I can tell you the number of comments says more than the votes. Comments and discussion show passion, votes can be cast and forgotten.

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Affinity Designer is marketed as a Professional creative software.

Why are two essential functions missing?

- dwg/dxf import (with maintaining the source layers)

- selection by color/width/lineweight

 

When working on floor plans/sections for architecture and design, theese are very essential functions.

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Sometimes when something is completely ignored, it’s not a terrible idea to see if any of the organizations endorsing a product might not be willing to do a write up on their user’s experience. A little publicity can go a lot further sometimes in encouraging rapid response. 

Public App Store ratings are also a good way to provide feedback that the world can see. Forums are much easier for devs to ignore, because most potential customers aren’t checking here first. 
 

I did get a rather swift, though helpless response on reddit: 

 

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For what I understand, the two most requested features for AD are: "select similar" and "vector tracing". In my opinion, these two missing features are very different for what concerns impact on the workflow and difficulty of implementation.

"Vector tracing" is usually something that you do once, at the beginning of your work, when, for example, you want to transform a hand-drawn logo in to the rough vector sketch of what will be the final product. There are other tools, even online, that can do the job quite all right, so this is not killing too much the workflow of many users. Moreover, I guess this is a functionality that requires a lot of work to implement, so I can quite understand why it's not there in the software yet.

"Select similar", on the other hand, is something that, if you use it (for example for editing CAD-exported graphics or geographic maps), you use it all the time, not just once at the beginning. You might have to select tens or hundreds of little vector elements scattered all over the drawing, and that's just too painful to do by hand. So, not having this feature, is definitely destroying the workflow of some users. And for what concerns the implementation, I am quite sure this is much easier to do than vector tracing. I mean, the objects are already there, they have their properties already assigned, it's just a matter of filtering them by stroke, color or whatever. So, I don't get why this feature is not implemented yet.

It would be interesting to have a clarification from the developers on why this highly-requested feature has not been implemented yet after 5 years.

Edited by tropilio
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I am also wondering why they refuse dxf/dwg import.

Tons of architects and designers use Illustrator to work on their plans and graphics created in Software such as Autocad or Rhino.

Allowing them to import vectors of cad programs by keeping the layers is something a "professional" software should be able to do.

It is a shame, I think many architects refuse to switch for that reason.

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8 hours ago, dla_001 said:

I, personally, have moved on to VectorStyler - still in beta, but with >very< responsive devs - and more than adequately functional. AD just might end up as a footnote.

Does this mean you moved on and found this feature in VectorStyler?

[re Select same color / fill / stroke / appearance]

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22 minutes ago, debussy said:

Totally absurd that Affinity does not provide thtat functionality.

And does not have any answer of how to work with dwg/dxf data.

Here is a thought, dwg/dxf import is of little importance to me, but the inclusion of 3rd party presets, scripts and add-ons meant everything.

As I have supposed before, the only development priorities the AD team may be following are their own.

This may well be the most intelligent option considering so many of us need entirely different things all from the same product.

 

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OK, but I work in the architecture business.

Many people are using Illustrator and sticking to it, because it can import dxf/dwg data.

This is a basic workflow in architecture & design. Both in practices and in universities.

This is not a small freak feautre!

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48 minutes ago, debussy said:

OK, but I work in the architecture business.

Many people are using Illustrator and sticking to it, because it can import dxf/dwg data.

This is a basic workflow in architecture & design. Both in practices and in universities.

This is not a small freak feautre!

Indeed. And I never said it was small— what I inferring was that the pressing needs of many will differ, almost finitely.

To repeat, I and possibly others would trade dxf/dwg inport in a heartbeat for fully featured 3rd preset/addons and scipting in AD.

I suspect for others this is heresy.

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7 hours ago, jamesholden said:

Does this mean you moved on and found this feature in VectorStyler?

[re Select same color / fill / stroke / appearance]

It does have at least some of this functionality:

image.png.59d147cbfd30269f8322a114871712a7.png

 

However, every time I take some time to try to work through some of the VectorStyler tutorials I wind up finding one or more bugs that prevent things from working the way the tutorials seem to indicate they should.  I report those bugs, and they are indeed very responsive in getting them fixed, often the next day, but I certainly wouldn't trust it for "production" work just yet - there is a good reason it is still in beta.

I also am not particularly fond of the "kitchen sink" user interface approach it takes, in which the same feature exists in multiple places and they are not interconnected in any obvious way.  Sometimes the properties for a particular modification are in one panel, and sometimes in a different one, depending on how you applied it, and I find it a bit of a maze to navigate that program.  I was finally starting to wrap my head around some of it last time I had a moment to sit down with it before I found a few more bugs that led to my giving up on it again for a while.

We also have no idea what it will cost when it is finally released - they have only indicated that it will not be subscription.  If they keep the price reasonable it may be a great addition to my toolbox, but I certainly won't be giving up Affinity Designer for it anytime soon.

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