1.7.0.8 incorrect values for artboard X and Y position

[hperticarati]

I have a file imported from Affinity 1.6. When selecting an artboard, instead of displaying its correct location on the infinite canvas, which would be X:5459 px and Y: 3632 px, it displays X:0px and Y:0px.

[Ben]

The ruler now shows the origin relative to the current Artboard or Page.

[hperticarati]

5 hours ago, Ben said:

The ruler now shows the origin relative to the current Artboard or Page.

I'm referring to the actual artboard position (see attached images)

The rectangle has an X value of 7667 px. It is aligned with the artboard below, which should display the same value. However, the artboard coordinates being displayed are X:0 and Y:0

 

[fde101]

Hmm...  if the artboard is "current" then it makes sense that it would be located at (0, 0) relative to itself, but that is not particularly helpful to the user.

[Ben]

I'll take a look.......

[hperticarati]

2 hours ago, fde101 said:

Hmm...  if the artboard is "current" then it makes sense that it would be located at (0, 0) relative to itself, but that is not particularly helpful to the user.

 

Exactly!

And there is more to it, @Ben

1) Let's say, artboard A is X:10 and Y:10, and artboard B is X:0 and Y:0.

2) When I select artboard A, and then artboard B, the properties panel will first display X:0 Y:0, and then X:-10 Y:-10

 

I assume that the final "bounding box" of the artboards selected is taking into consideration the initial X and Y values relative to the artboard.

[MickRose]

The release version (1.6) behaves differently to the beta. The x and y values displayed when an artboard is selected use an absolute value. This seems more sensible.

[Ben]

No - it's because one artboard will be deemed the active one, so the complete selection box is presented in coordinates relative to that. It will depend on the selection order.

 

This all needs a little more thought....

[fde101]

You could consider placing a toggle in the transform panel to switch between coordinates relative to the page and coordinates relative to the current artboard.

[Ben]

The thing is - the position of an artboard doesn't really mean anything, because the space outside of an artboard doesn't have a logical centre.  Their relative position might be something, but what is the position of an artboard relative to the unbounded space outside of it??

 

 

[hperticarati]

I'm not sure about the position not meaning anything. I work with app design and I use to have many artboards in a single file. I use a lot the artboard position to arrange my artboards, separate them, and prepare them to export. If you try to export a 100x100px artboard that is placed on position 10,5px on the global canvas, Affinity designer will export this artboard adding an extra and transparent pixel, so the artboard will be 100x101px. and with some terrible antialiasing. So I also use the artboard position to fix this issue. Also, I use the position to calculate how much I should move other artboards to place them correctly on the file.

So in my opinion, having a global absolute value to place the artboards is extremely useful, for many reasons.

[lepr]

.

[lepr]

.

[Ben]

16 hours ago, hperticarati said:

I'm not sure about the position not meaning anything. I work with app design and I use to have many artboards in a single file. I use a lot the artboard position to arrange my artboards, separate them, and prepare them to export. If you try to export a 100x100px artboard that is placed on position 10,5px on the global canvas, Affinity designer will export this artboard adding an extra and transparent pixel, so the artboard will be 100x101px. and with some terrible antialiasing. So I also use the artboard position to fix this issue. Also, I use the position to calculate how much I should move other artboards to place them correctly on the file.

So in my opinion, having a global absolute value to place the artboards is extremely useful, for many reasons.

This is a separate issue we still need to address.

[hperticarati]

14 hours ago, Ben said:

This is a separate issue we still need to address.

I know I mentioned different issues that stray from this topic, but anyway, having a position for each artboard in an infinite canvas (as we had in 1.6) would at least make it possible to manually working around each issue during my workflow, right?

[jblakeharris]

On 4/3/2019 at 11:28 AM, hperticarati said:

I'm not sure about the position not meaning anything. I work with app design and I use to have many artboards in a single file. I use a lot the artboard position to arrange my artboards, separate them, and prepare them to export. If you try to export a 100x100px artboard that is placed on position 10,5px on the global canvas, Affinity designer will export this artboard adding an extra and transparent pixel, so the artboard will be 100x101px. and with some terrible antialiasing. So I also use the artboard position to fix this issue. Also, I use the position to calculate how much I should move other artboards to place them correctly on the file.

So in my opinion, having a global absolute value to place the artboards is extremely useful, for many reasons.

Ditto. Almost all of my files have many artboards and I've spent a great deal of time aligning them to the nearest pixel to avoid the exports being sized incorrectly. This doesn't solve the incorrectly-sized export issue and makes it nearly impossible to prevent it from happening.

[Patrick Connor]

32 minutes ago, jblakeharris said:

Almost all of my files have many artboards and I've spent a great deal of time aligning them to the nearest pixel to avoid the exports being sized incorrectly. This doesn't solve the incorrectly-sized export issue and makes it nearly impossible to prevent it from happening.

about which Ben (the developer responsible for this code) has said 

On 4/4/2019 at 10:09 AM, Ben said:

This is a separate issue we still need to address.

so yes, it is acknowleged and therefore being considered. Artboard creation is now pixel aligned, but there are ways to stop this being true, that need addressing or at least flagging up.

[Mark Oehlschlager]

@Patrick Connor @Ben

Not sure I understand what problem exists here. As Ben wrote:

On 4/3/2019 at 6:02 AM, Ben said:

the position of an artboard doesn't really mean anything

If one is laying out a grid of artboards, what's wrong with using the align and distribute commands to align the artboards relative to one another, and be satisfied that the rulers will show a 0,0 origin in the upper left corner of the active artboard?

[hperticarati]

2 hours ago, Mark Oehlschlager said:

@Patrick Connor @Ben

Not sure I understand what problem exists here. As Ben wrote:

If one is laying out a grid of artboards, what's wrong with using the align and distribute commands to align the artboards relative to one another, and be satisfied that the rulers will show a 0,0 origin in the upper left corner of the active artboard?

I think that probably all main issues with this were mentioned in the previous comments  

Usually, the align and distribute tools are used 100% of the time to perform these tasks. However, they are not enough and are not fail-proof, because sometimes you need to know one artboard position to place the other one. Also, it does not guarantee that the first selected artboard is placed precisely over an "entire pixel".

And well, we are not asking anything absurd. This is simply how all other graphic design software work, so if the new feature doesn't introduce any significant benefits with it and causes trouble, I think it should be reconsidered.

Anyway, the argument of having the 0,0 coordinates on the ruler does not make much sense:

- if I select the artboard, the coordinates on the ruler should provide relevant information about where the artboard is. If the values displayed are 0,0, it's irrelevant because the reference is the artboard itself.

- Now, if you select an object INSIDE the artboard, then its position should be relative to the artboard, and the rulers should display the 0,0 coordinates based on the artboard origin.

- Anyway, since the current implementation has different behaviors for objects and artboards in the canvas, it seems a not well-thought feature. 

[jblakeharris]

22 hours ago, Patrick Connor said:

about which Ben (the developer responsible for this code) has said 

so yes, it is acknowleged and therefore being considered. Artboard creation is now pixel aligned, but there are ways to stop this being true, that need addressing or at least flagging up.

Per the attached, this file is no longer usable as Designer is currently working. The ability to pixel align an art board is gone, and any attempt to align the slice to the art board doesn't work either - the slice jumps around or number entered in the panel change after '0' is entered. I'd be happy to forward the file if it of any use to the developer. 

[Old Bruce]

1 hour ago, jblakeharris said:

Per the attached, this file is no longer usable as Designer is currently working. The ability to pixel align an art board is gone, and any attempt to align the slice to the art board doesn't work either - the slice jumps around or number entered in the panel change after '0' is entered. I'd be happy to forward the file if it of any use to the developer. 

Go to the Designer Persona and use the Artboard tool to select each of the art boards. Use the transform panel and "increase" the X and Y co-ordinates using the arrow keys. The co-ordinates will remain 0,0 but then you can work with the correct size slices in the export persona. Oh, make sure you have snapping on too.

 

[walt.farrell]

1 hour ago, jblakeharris said:

Per the attached, this file is no longer usable as Designer is currently working. The ability to pixel align an art board is gone

If you have enabled Snapping to the Pixel Grid, and disabled Move by whole pixels, then you should be able to use the move tool to move any artboard and it will end up pixel-aligned as required.

However, I agree that either the Artboard locations should be shown in global pixel coordinates, or Serif should fix the issue with exporting items that are not aligned to the pixel grid so that the export works properly as long as the items have integer pixel dimensions.

[rubs]

It was always easy to inadvertedly misalign artboards and get blurred results on export. This is now easier than ever. Please go back to what it was before.

[rubs]

The fact that the measuring guides for artboards never worked as for others objects (Ctrl key does nothing) makes it even worse.

[hperticarati]

Yes!!! It's finally working again! Thanks to the developers <3

It's on beta 1.7.0.11, go try it out!