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1.7.0 Designer Pen Tool Unusable for Drawing


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The update and changes to how the pen tool works have rendered it almost completely unusable for me. The way I work is to draw out a shape quickly with the pen tool, as seen in the bird I have attached, and then I use the pen tool on the node to quickly round the shape out. Now, in order to accomplish a task I could do easily with a single brush, I have to click on each and every node I want to use the pen tool on to reshape and the process takes twice as long at minimum. I know there are cool new ways to hold down the mouse button to pre-draw curves but I don't think like that. I can't pre-plan in my head what I need every single curve to look like before I draw it. I really, really need the ability to shape curves on the fly using the pen tool. It is quite literally a situation where I will not be able to do my work because of this change.

I hope this is one of those situations where I just didn't click on the right button before drawing or something, but I have been through all the guides and tutorials on 1.7 and see no way to use the pen tool the old way.

pen_tool_issues.png

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I'm not sure what are you talking about, man. Everything is exactly the same as it was. If you want to alter the curve while pen tool is active in the process of making a shape, hold Alt and then manipulate curve. If your shape is closed, then use a node tool, and then manipulate nodes the way you want your curves to be. This part is 100% the same as in Illustrator.

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I apologize if I was not clear. In 1.6 If I drew the shape I posted above there was no need to switch to the node tool to adjust the curve; all I had to do was click on the point with the pen tool and drag, and then my shape would be curved. It was a simple, quick, and direct method that didn't require switching tools. Now I have to switch to the node tool click on the point I want to adjust, then switch back to the pen tool before I can curve through that point. It takes about 3x as long as it did before and requires a lot more effort to acomplish the same task.

Edited by squirrelfire
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  • "The user interface is supposed to work for me - I am not supposed to work for the user interface."
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I have a feeling it is a bug - that the 'Add new curve to selected curves object' is always active, no matter what. @MEB ? :)

Or is it indeed new behavior? I no longer have 1.6.

meb.png.53d2e2ff051a20ba4864b8aaf4ee216f.png

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  • Computer-, operating system- and software agnostic; I am a result oriented professional. Look for a fanboy somewhere else.
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@Jowday Sorry, I am unfamiliar with Gravit so I can't compare; but I think you might be right that the "Add new curves to existing curves" is always on when using the pen tool.Thanks, I wasn't sure what was causing the behavior. One interesting thing is that after some more experimentation I found if I close off a shape the start/end point can still be manipulated with the pen tool just in 1.6 - it is only the points in between that have the issue.

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Hi squirrelfire,

If you hold down the control key while the pen tool is active, the pen tool will work as the node tool. When you release the control key, the pen tool reverts back to being the pen tool.

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Hey BobDaubs,

Thanks for the reply, and that is a bit faster of a workaround than what i was using, but it still requires twice the clicks that it did in 1.6 and the "ctrl-click then click-and-drag" it gets awful fiddly, and using that method I can't adjust curves on the fly as I'm drawing.

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What about  selecting Pen mode and using the rubber band option.
159473339_ScreenShot2019-06-08at07_07_20.png.a2ad4839a55f250168b95f738de49f3c.png

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If the "Move Tool" is selected, then double click on a curve automatically switches to "Node Tool". So, there is absolutelly no need of the "Node Tool".

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36 minutes ago, squirrelfire said:

Peter Petrenko, I don't think that is really relevant to my complaint. My issue is specifically with a change in functionality of the pen tool.

Yes, I know. But it is nice to mention. Maybe it could be usefull to somebody else. :)

All the latest releases of Designer, Photo and Publisher (retail and beta) on MacOS and Windows.
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18 hours ago, Jowday said:

I have a feeling it is a bug - that the 'Add new curve to selected curves object' is always active, no matter what. @MEB ? :)

Seems to be the case, at least since Beta .293 (Windows).

Best regards!

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18 hours ago, Jowday said:

'Add new curve to selected curves object' is always active, no matter what.

4 minutes ago, Mithferion said:

Seems to be the case, at least since eta .293 (Windows).

This is not the case for me (Win7).

@Jowday What OS are you using?

606434604_AffinityAddtoCurves.gif.3e2b7bdc31175fce7d71651487c00d97.gif

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12 minutes ago, Aammppaa said:

This is not the case for me (Win7).

The moment you draw and define the Mode, it's possible to use the handles from the Pen tool.

The thing that is not possible is doing so with a Node that you defined earlier, as a Sharp Node.

Best regards!

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1 hour ago, Aammppaa said:

This is not the case for me (Win7).

@Jowday What OS are you using?

 

@Aammppaa Windows 10 Professional - but the code involved shouldn't be affected by the Windows version.

Booting up older forgotten laptop with 1.6.x installed. It should provide me with evidence.

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Actually investigating the problem and comparing v1.6 to 1.7 is the proper approach! :49_triumph:

Confirmed - it is a regression. Hopefully not changed and intended behavior. In version 1.6.5.123 the pen tool works exactly as described by @squirrelfire

1.6.5: Create a closed shape with the pen tool. When you hover the nodes a minus symbol is displayed next to the pen tool. If you click and drag the node with the left button you can round and shape the tool.

1.7.0: Create a closed shape with the pen tool. When you hover the node that closed the shape a minus symbol is displayed next to the pen tool. If you click and drag the node with the left button you can round and shape the tool. Hovering ANY other node displays an... anchor symbol... and clicking and dragging add new curve to the selected curves object. The "Add new curves to existing curves" is always on when using the pen tool no matter if the toolbar button is selected or not.

.... but if you click on one of the cursed nodes with the node tool - just once - you can again manipulate it with the pen tool.

If this is intended behavior then... O.o

I reported the issue in the report bug thread:

 

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  • Computer-, operating system- and software agnostic; I am a result oriented professional. Look for a fanboy somewhere else.
  • “When a wise man points at the moon the imbecile examines the finger.” ― Confucius
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There are several issues mentioned in this thread. the one to which I refer is that the Pen tool always added curves to the existing curve, regardless of whether the 'Add new curve to selected curves object' button was toggles or not.

This is not the case as I demonstrated in my GIF.

I asked about the OS since there are plenty of bugs that show up on Windows but not Mac, or vice versa. Since this is posted in the Mac or Windows forum I was trying to eliminate OS as a factor.

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3 hours ago, Aammppaa said:

I asked about the OS since there are plenty of bugs that show up on Windows but not Mac, or vice versa. Since this is posted in the Mac or Windows forum I was trying to eliminate OS as a factor.

Oh sorry. I thought the thread was Windows only. Its both. :)

You are right and the bug is not trivial. It is rather confusing. The changes made to the pen tool in 1.7 are not yet waterproof.

I was commenting on the others. :) I assumed @squirrelfireknew what he was doing. He did.

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  • Computer-, operating system- and software agnostic; I am a result oriented professional. Look for a fanboy somewhere else.
  • “When a wise man points at the moon the imbecile examines the finger.” ― Confucius
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21 hours ago, squirrelfire said:

@Jowday Sorry, I am unfamiliar with Gravit so I can't compare.

It is worth checking out if you love a great pen tool @squirrelfire. Gravit Designer was free but now has both a free version and a paid version. Corel now owns Gravit. Clever move. The pen tool is awesome and there is also a knife tool. I prefer brainstorming and constructing shapes in Designer and Gravit. Illustrators pen tool is not as good IMO. The cool this is that Gravit Designer runs in a browser and that you can save your work to their cloud storage (paid version). You can work from somebody elses computer, a library computer etc. Sometimes when I am travelling to the opposite side of the planet, as light as possible, it is incredible to have it handy on whatever computer you can borrow.

But as I said - the pen tool rocks. 

  • "The user interface is supposed to work for me - I am not supposed to work for the user interface."
  • Computer-, operating system- and software agnostic; I am a result oriented professional. Look for a fanboy somewhere else.
  • “When a wise man points at the moon the imbecile examines the finger.” ― Confucius
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On 6/7/2019 at 9:37 AM, squirrelfire said:

I apologize if I was not clear. In 1.6 If I drew the shape I posted above there was no need to switch to the node tool to adjust the curve; all I had to do was click on the point with the pen tool and drag, and then my shape would be curved. It was a simple, quick, and direct method that didn't require switching tools.

I am not sure what it was like in the old 1.6 Windows version but in the old 1.6 Mac version it was always necessary to switch to the Node tool to reshape a curve, & there has been no change in that respect in the Mac 1.7 update.

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2 hours ago, R C-R said:

I am not sure what it was like in the old 1.6 Windows version but in the old 1.6 Mac version it was always necessary to switch to the Node tool to reshape a curve, & there has been no change in that respect in the Mac 1.7 update.

In the 1.6 version on Windows, it was also necessary to switch to the node tool to reshape a curve. 

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11 hours ago, BobsDaubs said:

In the 1.6 version on Windows, it was also necessary to switch to the node tool to reshape a curve. 

I think you're possibly misunderstanding the OP.  I'm on Windows and I noticed the same change as the OP.  Perhaps you're thinking about the handle nodes rather than the main node?

In 1.6, if you go back into a shape you created with the pen tool, with the pen tool still active if you click and drag a node it will re-draw the curve.

In 1.7, if you go back into a shape you created with the pen tool, with the pen tool still active if you click and drag a node it creates a new curve, rather than modifying the current one.

So now in 1.7, you have to select the node first, then click and drag to redraw the curve.  For one node that may be fine, but if you're doing lots, the old way was quicker.  I've seen a few people use the OP's technique; instead of clicking and dragging as they go, they plot the main points with sharp nodes to get the rough shape, then go back and click and drag to refine the nodes afterwards.  So now, instead of just clicking and dragging the nodes, they have to CTRL + click each node first to select the node, before they can click and drag.

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4 minutes ago, - S - said:

In 1.6, if you go back into a shape you created with the pen tool, with the pen tool still active if you click and drag a node it will re-draw the curve.

While my memory is increasingly less reliable than it once was, I am still fairly sure that in the 1.6 Mac versions it did not work like that, instead working just like it does now in the 1.7 versions, so maybe this is a change only for the Windows apps?

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