Placing objects on the artboard?

[Mr. K]

Is there anyway to know that an object has been placed on the artboard? If I place something there it is essentially invisible. I'd really like it to show so I know it's there.

[walt.farrell]

In what sense do you use the word "place", and what kind of object?

Since you mention them being invisible I'll assume you didn't mean Place (File > Place)

So, assuming you meant "draw (for example) a rectangle" then as long as you give it a stroke or fill it will be visible. If you didn't  give it either of those, then yes, it will be invisible once you deselect it.

But in any case, if you select it in the Layers panel you'll see its bounding box on the artboard, and can deal with it at that time. The layer thumbnail may also help you identify such objects.

[jdml]

Hi I would also like to be able to drag images onto the "background" section - ie the greyed out area beyond the page. Sometimes you just need to sort images before placing into a doc- if you drag an image into a doc, then take it off the pages at the moment the image just greys out - yes you can see the bounding box or select the layer, but being able to still see beyond the page would be really really helpful.

[Joachim_L]

I think he wants Menu View -> View Mode -> Toggle Clip to Canvas

[fde101]

10 hours ago, Mr. K said:

artboard

You might want to be careful with the terminology here - "artboard" in the Affinity world has a very specific meaning (from Designer) which is not what you seem to be referring to.  An "artboard" in Designer is roughly along the lines of a "page" in Publisher, except that they can vary in size and be overlapping as they are carved out of a single larger "page" representing the actual artwork.

 

I believe @Joachim_L already pointed you to the relevant menu option above to do what you are asking for.

[Mr. K]

OK, sorry I called it "Artboard," but looking at the prefs I thought that was what Affinity calls it. I see they call it "Background," but seriously, you all know what I mean.

 

So when anything gets fully on the BACKGROUND and deselected it disappears. I need to see those objects.

[Mr. K]

3 hours ago, Joachim_L said:

I think he wants Menu View -> View Mode -> Toggle Clip to Canvas

Thank you Joachim_L, that does appear to do what I need.

[fde101]

46 minutes ago, Mr. K said:

OK, sorry I called it "Artboard," but looking at the prefs I thought that was what Affinity calls it.

https://affinity.help/designer/en-US.lproj/index.html?page=pages/Artboards/artboards_about.html?title=Artboards

 

47 minutes ago, Mr. K said:

but seriously, you all know what I mean.

Yes, just trying to help avoid confusion later on down the road.

[WhiteX]

Is there a way to use Publisher's Spread Background like Designer's Artboard?

There are a few nuisances, for example if you toggle the clip canvas setting, you'll see items placed outside the Spreads, but this way, if you had objects which extend beyond the boundary of a spread are no longer clipped to the edges, which is not what I want. In Designer if you drag an object beyond the edges of an artboard, the object gets clipped, but if you drag it completely outside, it'll become visible. Which is the best implementation of handling temporary working objects I think.

The other thing that bothers me to some extent is the handling of documents with many pages. You'll end up with a way too long column of tiny pages on the background. It would be nice if we could arrange our pages at least into multiple columns, or is this already possible?

[dominik]

23 minutes ago, WhiteX said:

The other thing that bothers me to some extent is the handling of documents with many pages. You'll end up with a way too long column of tiny pages on the background. It would be nice if we could arrange our pages at least into multiple columns, or is this already possible?

Are you asking this in regard to the pages panel? Try to make it wider and see what happens 

If you want to do this with the actual pages and spreads this is not possible.

d.

[WhiteX]

Thanks for the tip @dominik regarding the Pages Panel, that might come in handy. I'd like to see something similar on the actual pages area too, or some kind of sorting / arranging options for better visibility and navigation between the pages.

[dominik]

2 hours ago, WhiteX said:

Thanks for the tip @dominik regarding the Pages Panel, that might come in handy. I'd like to see something similar on the actual pages area too, or some kind of sorting / arranging options for better visibility and navigation between the pages.

Ok, I understand. Let the people at Serif celebrate today's release and then take a deep breath. And then we'll see with what they come up with 

d.

Edited June 19, 2019 by dominik
Typo

[kurtedward]

Clip to Canvas doesn't seem to do anything in Publisher 1.7.1.404  In fact once an object is fully moved off the page and once it is no longer selected it seems to just disappear and you can't click (where it used to be) or drag over the selected area (where is used to be) it's just gone? although if you click through your history it will then be re-selected at that point... odd

I too would like to arrange items off the page then move groups back, like a work area that I am use to in PagePlus.

[fde101]

10 minutes ago, kurtedward said:

once an object is fully moved off the page and once it is no longer selected it seems to just disappear and you can't click (where it used to be) or drag over the selected area (where is used to be) it's just gone?

First of all, are you moving it to the sides of the page, or above/below the page?  If you drag it too far above or below the page, it may not show up - this was discussed in another thread.

 

11 minutes ago, kurtedward said:

if you click through your history it will then be re-selected at that point...

You should also be able to select it using the Layers studio.

 

11 minutes ago, kurtedward said:

I too would like to arrange items off the page then move groups back, like a work area that I am use to in PagePlus.

One thing to understand is that the "work area" in Publisher is distinct for each page, rather than the shared one that PagePlus had.  If that meets your needs, it should be possible.

[kurtedward]

It doesn't look like the Artboard process works in Publisher yet (the box is grayed out)... Although I did set up an artboard in Designer but am unsure what good it is for? you can't drag your objects to another page or across to another running app like Publisher... so it seem to just be a page to copy and paste from. so why not just use a blank page to do essentially the same thing? I much preferred the ability to edit objects on the 'background' I guess I'll just have to wait until Serif fixes the Clip to Canvas function?

[MarkDaniel]

@kurtedward I wonder if you are confusing Arboards and paste boards? There is a tutorial here about artboards in Affinity Designer. If you just want to see things off the sides of your pages in Publisher just make sure Preview Mode is off and Clip to Canvas is off. You can find both these options in the View menu.

[fde101]

6 hours ago, MarkDaniel said:

just make sure Preview Mode is off and Clip to Canvas is off

Agreed, this is working just fine for me.  It even carries over to the Photo persona, in spite of the fact that you can't do it in Photo itself...

[kurtedward]

for some reason it started working, it may have been the PDF that I had opened it in. Although MarkDaniel mentioned something about 'Paste boards' is that a thing?

Also can someone tell me where the (user added graphics) Asset packs are kept? when I export them they are given an extension of .afassets but that extension doesn't exist in either the Affinity folder under ProgramFIles or in the Affinity folder under the userdata folders. My goal is to synchronize that folder to my Pcloud account so I can use the resources no matter where I am working. Import/export can work but that can lead to mistakes possibly overwriting a newer file in the process...

 

Thanks

[walt.farrell]

On 6/19/2019 at 3:00 PM, kurtedward said:

It doesn't look like the Artboard process works in Publisher yet (the box is grayed out)...

I'm not sure if this is what you're talking about. However, if you use File > New from the Designer Persona in Publisher there is an option to create an Artboard in the new document. It is initially grayed-out because the Default Master option is checked, and an Affinity document can have either Artboards, or Pages, but not both. Turn off that option, and you can set the Artboard option.

[kurtedward]

I did figure out how the Artboard function works. At first it didn't seem to work but the next day it did for some random reason.

I also found where the (graphic) Assert resources are kept in case anyone else is looking for them in Publisher

C:\Users\ 'your user name' \AppData\Roaming\Affinity\Publisher\1.0\user\assets.propcol

Thank you all for your help.

[Kev Borg]

Hi Designers,

Quickly before I update you, When I turn my Clip to Canvas On,

all my images disappear when they are outside the artboard

and sitting on the background surroundings.

So I have to turn my CTC to Off so I can see the images,

I don't know Why.

 

CRASH UPDATE

I just popped back to  update you on how the progress results.

After doing those 3 Steps I posted here, with the screenshots,

I have Not had one crash, and I don't want to jinx myself,

but so far so good.

I'm running W11, V22H2. i9 9900X 10/20 C/T's,

ASUS Rampage Extreme Motherboard, Nvidia RTX2080,

64Gb Vengeance DDR3 Ram, 5 X Samsung 970 EVO Plus SSD Drives.

 

I am running Firefox browser with normally 50 to 75 browser windows open.

I have the 2 apps Designer 2 and either Photo 2 or Publisher 2 Open as well

and working on them both and Acrobat DC running.

PC also runs my 50" Samsung NEO QN90A 4K TV & Soundbar Q900A 7.1.2

and I have a video running on my Second 24" 4k Display.

I also have Directory Opus v12 File Explorer open and running,

(btw, that app is absolutely mind blowing what it can do,

it could run my house as well ;), I feel guilty for not using all it's power )

and my documents are building towards 65 pages.

So all in all I am very happy so far and from what I heard we are still

looking forward to the Bug fixes, so that will help even more if that's right.

I'll just take it one day at a time and yes yr right I should back some of the

processes off, but old habits of comfortability die hard.

 

*( For those of you that are interested in and appreciate PC Hardware,

I've uploaded the new PC I just ordered for xmas, if not, just don't look at it,

It'll be my last, and Yes I know it's ridiculous, obscene, uncalled for and I am nuts

but it is fun... ;) )

OK, What I did notice is that Step 3 makes a difference, I can feel it when I turn it on and off,

thats the GPU Latency enhancement On/Off. Mine is Turned On.

Btw, I am still running the PC and Apps with [Hardware Acceleration turned Off]

it crashed once and when i rebooted and went into preferences, it was accidentally turned on,

hence the crash, hasn't happened since.

 

Anyway hopefully it might help you out, I spent a lot of time really cleaning up the drives

of data, i moved my work files on to the same drive as the app.

Un-Installed a heap of small useless windows apps, bloatware basically, Turned

a lot of apps Off, from automatically Starting up when the PC boots up,

Check Disked all the Drives, Reset the Apps a few times to be sure they were clean.

my PC is not overclocked either, it's just standard from the shop.

 

Ok guys Good Luck, all the best

and I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Safe and Happy New Year for 23

 

Cheers Kev Borg