Smooth curves automatically converted to Cusp curves

[Frotz]

Hi,

This is my first post after spending a few days with Affinity Designer.

AD is an awesome app!

Had all may artwork originated in AD, I'd be a very happy guy. Unfortunately, my stuff started in Illustrator. (Beginning with 5.5 almost 20 years ago!)

I've been importing some of my stuff to AD to see how I like working there and am having a very good time, but have a few niggles. One is with curves from AI that are smooth: drag one handle of the curve and the other follows on a circle with the node as the centre. When I've imported these curves into AD, they ALL become smooth cusp-type curves: drag one handle on the curve and the other stays put. The control points for these curves are on a line that goes straight through the node, and so should be smooth curves.

I thought this might be part of the importing and file conversion process, but the same thing happens to curves in fonts when letterforms are converted to curves.

Is there a simple way of converting these smooth-cusps back into smooth curves. Shouldn't AD automatically recognise that these are smooth curves, not cusps simply because all three points are on the same line?

Thank you very much,
Andre.

[Frotz]

Hi,

 

It's been almost a week and I'm losing hope that you'll answer.

 

To make it fast and simple for you I designed a simple protocol to demonstrate the problem.

1 - Start a new document.

2 - Use the pen tool to draw a very curvy blob.

3 - Use the node tool to verify that all the curves are smooth by dragging the control handle of a curve and confirming that the other control point moves in unison.

4 - Export the file as EPS.

5 - Close the document without saving.

6 - Open the exported EPS file.

7 - Use the node tool to check what sort of curves you have.

 

When I tried this this afternoon with the current trial version I discovered that all the smooth curve points had been converted to cusp type: dragging the control of a curve did not cause the other control point to move at all.

 

Also, converting the curve to smooth changes the shape of the curve, which is not handy!

 

Best,

Andre.

[MEB]

Hello Frotz,

Welcome to Affinity Forums  :)

I'm sorry for the delay getting back to you.

Yes, currently all smooth nodes are being imported as "smooth" cusp nodes.

I've logged this to be looked at. We are continuously improving the import/export formats so this should be addressed at some point.

Thanks for your feedback.

[MattP]

This is actually already fixed for the next beta - which will hopefully appear at some point this week :)

[Frotz]

Hi Guys,

 

Thanks for helping me out, and VERY happy to hear that the issue is fixed!

 

Yeah! :-)

 

Best,

Andre.

[Frotz]

Hi MattP,

 

I've downloaded the current beta but the old behaviour persists: all my curves have boxes instead of circles indicating cusp-type curves not smooth-type curves. (I've attached the file I'm using so you can see exactly what I'm seeing.)

 

I also noticed that cusp-curves can be made smooth by dragging one of the control points away from it's original position then back into that position. When the control point once again lines up with the other control point and the node, the square node becomes a small dot. If one lets go of the mouse at this point, the curve will now be smooth. This is a wonderful way of turning a cusp back into a smooth while drawing! Unfortunately, it's not really fixing the import problem as I end up slightly changing my curve to get the smooth point that I made in the other app. :(

 

Best,

Andre.

Curve.eps

[MattP]

Sorry about that Andre, I was under the impression the fix that I saw go in would have resolved the issue you described - but it doesn't seem to have done what I expected. I'll look into that and get it sorted asap. Many thanks again,

Matt