Snapping on/off keyboard toggle

[ronnyb]

Hey guys, it would be a REALLY great productivity enhancer to have a keyboard equivalent to toggle snapping on and off... something like pressing S while using ANY tool. Thanks for considering this suggestion. Cheers!

[MEB]

Hi ronnyb,

You can already press and hold ⌥ (option/alt) to disable temporarily the snapping with any tool. For a "permanent" change there's the toggle in the Persona toolbar.

[ronnyb]

Thanks for the temporary disable shortcut, Miguel, I did not know that one! I do know about the toggle on the toolbar, I just want a keyboard shortcut One of my hands is always on the keyboard, usually near the Command, Option, Control and Shift keys :) Hmm, how about a double tap on the option key as the "permanent" toggle shortcut?

[Ben]

Alt is used as a temporary override for any snapping.  It applies for tools that do other sorts of snapping, such as snapping to key values when moving a Shape parameter, or the midpoint between two points when editing a gradient.

 

We have kept this as a global convention.  I also wouldn't use double tapping a modifier key for anything.  It could easily become frustrating.

[Gear maker]

Hi ronnyb,

You can already press and hold ⌥ (option/alt) to disable temporarily the snapping with any tool. For a "permanent" change there's the toggle in the Persona toolbar.

The option modifier is really handy but I have found that care is necessary I sometimes find duplicate layers when I have had my left hand be a little too fast on the key.

[ronnyb]

Ben, you are aware Apple uses modifier-tapping to enable special features, such as triple tapping on the FN key to enable Dictation? Perhaps it's a triple tap, not a double tap to avoid simple mistakes...

 

 

Alt is used as a temporary override for any snapping.  It applies for tools that do other sorts of snapping, such as snapping to key values when moving a Shape parameter, or the midpoint between two points when editing a gradient.

 

We have kept this as a global convention.  I also wouldn't use double tapping a modifier key for anything.  It could easily become frustrating.

[MEB]

The option modifier is really handy but I have found that care is necessary I sometimes find duplicate layers when I have had my left hand be a little too fast on the key.

 

Hi Gear maker,

You can also use ⌘ (cmd) + drag to duplicate an object.

[Gear maker]

The option modifier is really handy but I have found that care is necessary I sometimes find duplicate layers when I have had my left hand be a little too fast on the key.

I finally figured out why I get a lot of duplicates when I am only trying to disable temporarily the snapping.  I figured if you press the option before clicking then you get a duplicate, but if you press the option after clicking then it would disable temporarily the snapping.  But that's not it.  To disable temporarily the snapping you have to press the option key after dragging has begun.  There has to be some movement of the object before the option can be pressed!  An aha moment.

[Ben]

I finally figured out why I get a lot of duplicates when I am only trying to disable temporarily the snapping.  I figured if you press the option before clicking then you get a duplicate, but if you press the option after clicking then it would disable temporarily the snapping.  But that's not it.  To disable temporarily the snapping you have to press the option key after dragging has begun.  There has to be some movement of the object before the option can be pressed!  An aha moment.

 

I'll be honest - this frustrates me.  We've been dragged into allowing Alt for duplication even though it goes against our conventions.

 

We also allow Cmd to duplicate on drag, since it doesn't conflict with our other key choices.  This was our original choice for duplicate, but a number of people insisted that we must use Alt.  As you say, this conflicts with our use of Alt to cancel snapping.  Ironically, while starting to drag with Alt, it will also be cancelling snapping at the same time as making a duplicate.

 

Unfortunately, if you release Alt, you still have a duplicate.  We had a discussion here where we decided that if you duplicate using Cmd, then we could allow you to release Cmd to un-duplicate while still dragging your object.

 

I know which method I would prefer, given that we have carefully selected our modifier keys, but we are at the mercy of perceived immoveable conventions.

 

As I have explained on numerous other threads, there is also a very good reason why we don't use Cmd to cancel snapping.

[Gear maker]

Ben, I totally agree that the Option is the correct key for canceling snapping.  And I sure do agree that the Option drag to duplicate causes a lot of accidental duplicates.  And they always take at least two cmd+Z presses to fix.  Even after my Aha moment I am still having to fix duplicates.

 

There are so many ways to duplicate already that work with single or multiple shapes that I don't see the need for the Option drag.  Cmd+J, cmd+C/cmd+V, cmd+drag, Edit menu choices, right click Duplicate, etc.

 

Personally for multiple shapes I prefer the cmd+C/cmd+V as it puts the shapes in an unbroken sequence.  Which is usually what I want.

 

I vote for not duplicating using an Option drag.

[MEB]

It's completely impossible to please everyone when it comes to shortcuts. People come from different backgrounds and apps and it's simply impossible to account for all those contexts in a single universal solution. Personally i think the best way to solve this is to keep Affinity's default choices as those take in consideration the features and tools specific to Affinity and build a robust customisable shortcut system to address user's specific needs.

[ronnyb]

I totally agree with Miguel on this; the best apps are those which are the most flexible and adaptable to its users specific needs, learned muscle memory and conceptual models... Affinity has a great foundation of tools and once users are able to customize it via keyboard shortcuts, it's going to take our productivity to a whole new level... I hope the system is able to identify deep into a tool's sub-modes, i.e., Path>Line, or Path>Polygon, etc...

[shushustorm]

Could you please include an option in the snapping settings to disable displaying the snapping candidates?

When pressing alt, they shouldn't be shown because they can't be used at that point anyway.

Besides, it would be a great shortcut for taking a look at the image without snapping candidate highlighting.

 

Also, sometimes mouseover for adding to snapping candidates doesn't seem to work when objects are on layers. Then, I have to actually double click to select an item to add it to the snapping candidates. Am I doing something wrong or is this behaviour to be expected?

 

Best wishes,

Shu

[A_B_C]

Could you please include an option in the snapping settings to disable displaying the snapping candidates?

 

Hmm. Such an option is already there …  :)

[shushustorm]

@A_B_C

Well, quite! I know about that option, but I'd like it to temporarily disable when disabling snapping using the alt key. (Because when snapping isn't enabled, why should the snapping candidates still be shown? :D)

[A_B_C]

I see …  :)