Expand and move selection

[mikoledeon]

Hi there,

I quite new to Affinity. I try to select a circle within a picture by using the selection ellipse tool. However I'm never really able get the perfect starting position for my ellipse. What I'm missing is, that I can move my selection while expanding/collapsing the radius. I know this was possible in photoshop and at least the iPad version of Affinity lets me expand/collapse the selection size and move the selection back and forth. Is this somehow possible in the desktop version?

 

Cheers

Michael

[DavidMac]

As far as I can tell the selection ellipse tool will let you shape and move ....... but not at the same time. As far as I have ever been able to ascertain you have to shape first, then move by bringing the cursor inside the selection. Another limitation of this tool is that, as far as I can tell, there is no way to draw an elliptical selection outwards from its centre.

Possible work around for starting point certain situations. If you are using the tool to try and draw a perfect selection over an existing elliptical object then drag out two guidelines first. One just touching the top of the ellipse and one just touching the left edge. Now draw your selection down from their intersection.  It's a bit convoluted but often much simpler than fiddling and re-shaping. Obviously it only works if the ellipse's axes are vertical and horizontal.

[Alfred]

The easiest way to create an adjustable ellipse is not to use the Selection Ellipse Tool! Draw an ellipse with the Ellipse Tool (optionally holding down the Cmd key on a Mac or the Ctrl key on Windows to draw it from its centre) and then use the ‘Selection’ button on the Context toolbar once you’ve adjusted the ellipse to your requirements.

[fde101]

2 hours ago, Alfred said:

then use the ‘Selection’ button on the Context toolbar

I'm not seeing that on the context toolbar, but there is a corresponding command in the Select menu: Selection From Layer.

[Alfred]

36 minutes ago, fde101 said:

I'm not seeing that on the context toolbar, but there is a corresponding command in the Select menu: Selection From Layer.

My bad: I wondered if I might have been thinking of Designer, not Photo, but I can’t find the option in either of the beta versions on Windows. In both apps you can Ctrl-click (Cmd-click on a Mac) on the thumbnail.

In APh there’s a helpful additional option, ‘Selection From Layer and Delete’. Don’t ask me why ‘From’ has an initial capital but ‘and’ doesn’t! 

[fde101]

2 minutes ago, Alfred said:

Don’t ask me why ‘From’ has an initial capital but ‘and’ doesn’t!

Why not?  

[mikoledeon]

14 hours ago, Alfred said:

The easiest way to create an adjustable ellipse is not to use the Selection Ellipse Tool! Draw an ellipse with the Ellipse Tool (optionally holding down the Cmd key on a Mac or the Ctrl key on Windows to draw it from its centre) and then use the ‘Selection’ button on the Context toolbar once you’ve adjusted the ellipse to your requirements.

Ok using the Ellipse Drawing Tool worked better for me, since you can easily move an resize afterwards

Thanks

[DavidMac]

Thanks Alfred. That's neat and simple and solves all our problems.

AP has got better and better, especially in it's latest incarnation. More time seems to being spent on making what's there work better rather than adding more and more 'features'. It's getting quicker and more instinctive to use ............

............. but I still feel 'The bumper book of AP Workarounds" might be a best seller. 

[Pariah73]

Just an additional note on an issue i ran into today on a design. I needed an elliptical selection so i used the ellipse tool with a white fill black stroke. In order to get the full selection of the entire area of the circle, there has to be a fill on the ellipse in order to use Control +clicking on the thumbnail to get the selection. If your ellipse only has a stroke on it, Control clicking the thumbnail will result in a selection of only the area covered by the stroke.

[DavidMac]

Yes. Good point. Thank you for pointing that out. The problem is that the fill covers what you are selecting which is a bit counter productive.

Seems to work best thus:

1)  Draw ellipse with neither fill nor stroke. This is easiest and most precise in terms of visibility for drawing.

2)  Fill (whatever colour is currently selected will do)

3) Cmd click thumbnail.

It's all getting very 'workaroundish' again ..........  

[fde101]

A "Selection From Layer and Delete" button might be a good addition to the range of things we can add to the main toolbar in Photo (With or without a capital F).

[Alfred]

2 hours ago, DavidMac said:

The problem is that the fill covers what you are selecting which is a bit counter productive.

As an easy workaround, reduce the opacity of the fill.

[Alfred]

7 minutes ago, fde101 said:

Photo (With or without a capital F)

Foto or foto?? 

[fde101]

 

14 minutes ago, fde101 said:

Selection From Layer and Delete

 

16 hours ago, Alfred said:

Don’t ask me why ‘From’ has an initial capital but ‘and’ doesn’t!

 

[DavidMac]

21 hours ago, Alfred said:

My bad: I wondered if I might have been thinking of Designer, not Photo, but I can’t find the option in either of the beta versions on Windows. In both apps you can Ctrl-click (Cmd-click on a Mac) on the thumbnail.

In APh there’s a helpful additional option, ‘Selection From Layer and Delete’. Don’t ask me why ‘From’ has an initial capital but ‘and’ doesn’t! 

Actually Alfred not really your bad. You were almost there!

Here is what looks to be the best method:

Draw an ellipse (or other) shape with the Shape Tool.

Click Convert to Curves on context toolbar top right.

Select Pen Tool.

Click Selection in context toolbar top left.

The curve will be converted to a selection.

This method has a couple of advantages over Cmd clicking the thumbnail. Cmd clicking a thumbnail doesn't work at all on a wireframe shape with no fill or stroke and selects both inside and outside if only a stroke is present. Neither is desirable.

This method always creates a single selection to the outermost bound of the shape regardless of presence or no presence of stroke, regardless of thickness of stroke if present, regardless of filled or unfilled. So it works in all cases. For best precision and visibility you can draw a wireframe shape with no fill or stroke and a selection will still be created.

Lastly this method automatically deletes the now unneeded shape leaving just the selection.

I would love to claim credit for this method but it is in fact the official AP method outlined in the help files. Contents > Selections > Creating Pixel Selections > From Shapes

BTW the new Selection from Layer and Delete doesn't do the above. It behaves exactly the same as Cmd clicking the thumbnail.