Affinity Designer Customer Beta (1.7.0.14 - RC1)

[Ben]

15 hours ago, IsabelAracama said:

Ok, so this means is OFF by default, right? And if I need this option, I simply turn it ON. I think I like it better like it is now. Thanks for the reply!

Yes....

[Mark Oehlschlager]

When does 1.7.0.14 get pushed out to the Betas via "Check for Updates"?

[walt.farrell]

1 hour ago, Mark Oehlschlager said:

When does 1.7.0.14 get pushed out to the Betas via "Check for Updates"?

Only someone from Serif would know that one.

Why not simply install it from the link at the top of this thread?

[Patrick Connor]

As the lead developer is on holiday currently, this beta release is not proceeding quite as normal. It will be on autoupdate soon ( if it's not superseded sooner)

[Alfred]

43 minutes ago, Patrick Connor said:

As the lead developer is on holiday currently, this beta release is not proceeding quite as normal.

Did someone forget to tell the developers that all holidays must be cancelled or postponed?

[RNKLN]

9 hours ago, Alfred said:

Did someone forget to tell the developers that all holidays must be cancelled or postponed?

The lead developer was supposed to do that.

[Old Bruce]

6 hours ago, RNKLN said:

The lead developer was supposed to do that.

Don't worry he'll do it first thing when he returns.

[Nana]

20 hours ago, Patrick Connor said:

As the lead developer is on holiday currently, this beta release is not proceeding quite as normal. It will be on autoupdate soon ( if it's not superseded sooner)

Oh, Noooooo! How could Serif be so generous as to grant holidays to @MattP when Designer is not GM yet ?   Wake up MattP.  It's time to code and not to sleep.   We need Designer and Publisher GM so badly.  You can do it, MattP. 

[MattP]

Arrived back from holiday about 30 minutes ago...

[000]

Welcome back! Hope, you had a nice time off. 

[ChristiduToit]

Not a bug, but I would absolutely suggest including a 'Magic Wand' selection tool in Designer's pixel persona. 

It's probably the tool I miss most in Designer right now, and the 'selection brush tool' doesn't quite cut it (it's a bit unwieldy and inaccurate for selecting large areas of the same colour) - I find myself switching to Photo a lot purely to use the wand to create selections. The wand seems like such a standard tool to have in any image editing application so I almost find it odd that it isn't already in Designer.
 

[waveman777]

What should I do with this? I have AD (from App Store) purchased and installed.

 

[walt.farrell]

1 hour ago, waveman777 said:

What should I do with this? I have AD (from App Store) purchased and installed.

Did you perhaps try to download 1.7 directly from the Serif Affinity Store?

If so, you can't do that. You need to update via the Mac Store instead.

If you downloaded from Serif, uninstall that copy and delete the installation file. Then go to the Mac Store to find the update.

[Mark Oehlschlager]

@waveman777

I have the same question.

I have the latest version of Designer 1.7 downloaded from the Mac App Store, and when I launch the Customer Designer Beta app I get the same window you posted.

The Customer Designer Beta app is supposed to continue to run, tracking feature additions for a future 1.7.1 build, but this challenge window blocks the Beta app from running.

Perhaps we'll get some guidance from the Affinity staff.

[R C-R]

7 minutes ago, Mark Oehlschlager said:

The Customer Designer Beta app is supposed to continue to run, tracking feature additions for a future 1.7.1 build, but this challenge window blocks the Beta app from running.

It is doing what it is supposed to do. The reason is when the customer beta is launched, the first thing that happens is it checks for an installed retail version (because it is a customer beta). Next, it compares the installed retail version to the beta version. Then, only if the beta version is newer than the retail one will it finish launching & run.

That is because the betas are intended only for user testing & (hopefully) bug reporting, not for day-to-day production use.

So when a new 1.7.1 or later customer beta version is available, if it is downloaded & installed, it should run.

[waveman777]

14 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

Did you perhaps try to download 1.7 directly from the Serif Affinity Store?

If so, you can't do that. You need to update via the Mac Store instead.

If you downloaded from Serif, uninstall that copy and delete the installation file. Then go to the Mac Store to find the update.

As I said, version 1.7.0 installed from AppStore, I thought I made myself clear. Also,  there are no Beta versions on AppStore.

 

11 hours ago, R C-R said:

It is doing what it is supposed to do. The reason is when the customer beta is launched, the first thing that happens is it checks for an installed retail version (because it is a customer beta). Next, it compares the installed retail version to the beta version. Then, only if the beta version is newer than the retail one will it finish launching & run.

That is because the betas are intended only for user testing & (hopefully) bug reporting, not for day-to-day production use.

So when a new 1.7.1 or later customer beta version is available, if it is downloaded & installed, it should run.

It is not. In this case the Beta version is 1.7.0.14, and the one from AppStore is 1.7.0, therefore the Beta is newer so what you're saying seems incorrect. 

Also, I don't understand the message displayed: "To participate in the beta you need to install Affinity Designer Beta from the Mac App Store" - how am I suppose to install Beta from AppStore if it's a Beta!??

[Alfred]

3 minutes ago, waveman777 said:

the Beta version is 1.7.0.14, and the one from AppStore is 1.7.0, therefore the Beta is newer

Not so! The number you’ve quoted for the beta version includes the build number, which is 14. App Store version 1.7.0 is the same build.

[waveman777]

25 minutes ago, Alfred said:

Not so! The number you’ve quoted for the beta version includes the build number, which is 14. App Store version 1.7.0 is the same build.

Thanks for the explanation, it make sense if it's the same build,  but then the message from the Beta "To participate in the beta you need to install Affinity Designer Beta from the Mac App Store"  is totally misleading and I don't understand it at all. 

[Alfred]

5 minutes ago, waveman777 said:

Thanks for the explanation, it make sense if it's the same build,  but then the message from the Beta "To participate in the beta you need to install Affinity Designer Beta from the Mac App Store"  is totally misleading and I don't understand it at all. 

What do you regard as misleading? Now that version 1.7.0 has been released to retail, there is no current beta.

11 hours ago, R C-R said:

It is doing what it is supposed to do. The reason is when the customer beta is launched, the first thing that happens is it checks for an installed retail version (because it is a customer beta). Next, it compares the installed retail version to the beta version. Then, only if the beta version is newer than the retail one will it finish launching & run.

That is because the betas are intended only for user testing & (hopefully) bug reporting, not for day-to-day production use.

So when a new 1.7.1 or later customer beta version is available, if it is downloaded & installed, it should run.

 

[R C-R]

3 hours ago, waveman777 said:

Also, I don't understand the message displayed: "To participate in the beta you need to install Affinity Designer Beta from the Mac App Store" - how am I suppose to install Beta from AppStore if it's a Beta!??

Yeah, that message is just plain wrong -- it should just say that you need to install Affinity Designer from the Mac App Store, not Affinity Designer Beta, which of course is not available from anywhere besides directly from Serif.

3 hours ago, Alfred said:

Not so! The number you’ve quoted for the beta version includes the build number, which is 14. App Store version 1.7.0 is the same build.

Neither is it so that they are the same build. The file sizes & Mac application package contents differ significantly, & according to their info.plist files the last beta build number is 18E226, while the 1.7 MAS build number is 18F132.

But that isn't why the beta won't run. It is because the beta is older than the retail update.

EDIT: It occurs to me that assuming the beta compares its build number to that of the MAS retail app to tell if it is older, it might be possible to trick it into running by editing the beta's info.plist file to change the build number to a later one than 18F132, say 18F200 or whatever. I am not brave enough to try that because it is an unsupported hack that might cause major issues with the retail version, so please understand that I am not recommending that anyone try it!

But that said, if there are enough custom brushes, assets, etc. created in the beta that were not exported from it before the retail update was installed that you are willing to try something this dangerous to recover them, this might be a way to run the beta so that can be done.

[Paul Chiswick]

When will you submit the Beta to the MAC store? I purchased both AP and AP through the store and would like to continue testing the betas . . .

[Patrick Connor]

18 minutes ago, Paul Chiswick said:

and would like to continue testing the betas

the MAS release build (1.7.0.15) supercedes the beta and so we do not want you using build 14 when build 15 is the same or better. As soon as there is a 1.7.1.x beta you can participate again as that codebase will have moved on from 1.7.0. I hope this makes sense

[Paul Chiswick]

Yes, it does. I look forward to participating again. Thank you!