[AD] Shape Builder Tool

[Koutchinski]

Hey guys,

 

There is actually only one thing missing for me in AD. But thats a big one, especially as it speed up my process immensly since it was introduced in AI. I'm talking about the notorious Shape builder tool. Of course you could make something else, that increases the speed of boolean operations. :-) (idk, shortcuts maybe?)

 

 

Thank you in advance,

Felix

[MEB]

Hi Felix,

Welcome to Affinity Forums :)

Thanks for your feedback. You're not the first user requesting this. Currently we are focused in completing the roadmap defined earlier but then, we will surely look to improve all the rest.

[ender1122333]

Just want to bump this and say that adding a shape builder tool equivalent to Designer would mean complete independence from Adobe for me, which I desperately desire. Its literally the one reason I still use Illustrator. At this point, the lack of such makes my workflow unbearably slow in Designer.

 

Thanks for making an awesome product and working to make it better!

Andrew

[Amorph]

I have to bomb this as well, since a shape builder tool would be very much be appreciated. :)

[Wiredframe]

A shape builder tool would be very helpful, didn't know how much I needed it before I switched to AD. ^^

[anonymized2]

How come  this isnt yet on the roadmap. It greatly improves your workflow. Top 3 most usefull tools in Illustrator.

[MEB]

Hi Orphydian,

Welcome to Affinity Forums :)

The roadmap only lists features that will be implemented in 1.x versions.

We are trying to cover the basics first and there's still work to do with geometric operations before moving to more advanced tools.

[anonymized2]

Yes but I see the Blend Tool instead. How come it was prioritized  before the Shape builder ?

[Alfred]

The Shape Builder Tool is merely a convenient alternative to using a sequence of the standard Boolean operations. I don't know of a way to do any but the simplest of blend operations manually.

[mateuspollonio]

is this feature released? this is the tool i most use on illustrator, now i'm trying to use affinity because now i can buy the software, but i didn't find this tool yet

[Mr_IzeQ]

hello, is there an ETA on when you gonna implement this feature?

[Raymondo]

Just mentioned this again about a shape builder tool in another post but the team say they are concentrating on getting the basic tools in place first but what I don't think they are taking fully on board is the fact that for many professional designers, THIS IS A BASIC TOOL!! and is very important in artwork creativity and speeding up your workflow. I just wish someone in the R&D team would recognize this.

[Alfred]

I don't see the point in having a Shape Builder Tool before the Geometry commands upon which it would be based (Add, Subtract and Intersect) are working reliably in all scenarios.

[Jilly]

I don't see the point in having a Shape Builder Tool before the Geometry commands upon which it would be based (Add, Subtract and Intersect) are working reliably in all scenarios.

 

Agreed. As much as you might consider Shape Builder a basic tool, there’s something even more basic than it: the boolean operations that power it. Without getting those right first, working on a Shape Builder tool would be a waste of time and resources.

[cekuhnen]

Hey guys,

 

There is actually only one thing missing for me in AD. But thats a big one, especially as it speed up my process immensly since it was introduced in AI. I'm talking about the notorious Shape builder tool. Of course you could make something else, that increases the speed of boolean operations. :-) (idk, shortcuts maybe?)

 

 

Thank you in advance,

Felix

 

Affinity Designer offers live booleans that just do that on the fly and you can do the same also with cropping and clipping.

Drag n drop in the layers do that very well.

[Heres Johnny]

I actually miss the Shape Builder tool as well. It saves a ton of time when I want to merge some parts of intersecting objects and discard others. As shown in the attached image - it's easy to select the parts I want to merge with one stroke (as shown by the red line) while the bottom part of the circle is seperated.

 

 

[Alfred]

I actually miss the Shape Builder tool as well. It saves a ton of time when I want to merge some parts of intersecting objects and discard others. As shown in the attached image - it's easy to select the parts I want to merge with one stroke (as shown by the red line) while the bottom part of the circle is seperated.

 

Is using the Shape Builder Tool really so much quicker and easier than selecting all the shapes, clicking on the 'Divide' icon on the Geometry toolbar, Shift-clicking the bottom part of the circle to deselect it and then going back to the Geometry toolbar and clicking 'Add'?

[MikeW]

Is using the Shape Builder Tool really so much quicker and easier than selecting all the shapes, clicking on the 'Divide' icon on the Geometry toolbar, Shift-clicking the bottom part of the circle to deselect it and then going back to the Geometry toolbar and clicking 'Add'?

 

Yes. At least if one is building more than the single example above.

[velarde]

Many +1 on The Shape Builder tool. 

 

This is the only tool missing now for me to comfortably switch from Illustrator to Affinity Designer.

 

Much faster, intuitive and efficient than using the boolean tools we currently have. In seconds you can build very complex shapes by just dragging the cursor.

 

I can understand if they are saving it for Version 2 of the software. I think it's time to be realistic and talk about this...  :)

But it would be good to know if they are planning on implementing it.

 

Like I commented in another thread I'm ok to pay for version 2.. There's a limit to free updates you can for a version 1 software. 

 

P.D. Is the current v1 road map page current? 

[Hokusai]

Just mentioned this again about a shape builder tool in another post but the team say they are concentrating on getting the basic tools in place first but what I don't think they are taking fully on board is the fact that for many professional designers, THIS IS A BASIC TOOL!! and is very important in artwork creativity and speeding up your workflow. I just wish someone in the R&D team would recognize this.

Shape Builder was first added to Illustrator in CS 5 or version 15 which was released in 2010. If Shape Builder is such a BASIC TOOL then why did it take Adobe 14 versions or 23 years to add it to Illustrator? I can understand and appreciate that it speeds up workflows but to claim that it is a basic tool is a bit of an exaggeration. I agree with Alfred on this, it might be nice but it is something that can wait as the Boolean operations pretty much do the same thing. 

 

Hokusai

[Bri-Toon]

I'm surprised to see so many people like that tool. I honestly never found any need to use it. The boolean operations work fine for me.

 

I do admit that Johnny's example is a good point. I never experienced such a complicated example, but I guess there are such cases if so many people want the tool. Well a reason I don't want it is because too many tools if more and more are added will clutter the workspace. I keep all of my tools on a single column, and I like how Designer is staying simple in terms of the interface. Something that could be implemented instead is to have another select mode of the Move Tool. With the mouse button pressed, any objects in the cursor's path will be selected. Then from there on, you could just use the booleans.

[MikeW]

Shape Builder was first added to Illustrator in CS 5 or version 15 which was released in 2010. If Shape Builder is such a BASIC TOOL then why did it take Adobe 14 versions or 23 years to add it to Illustrator? I can understand and appreciate that it speeds up workflows but to claim that it is a basic tool is a bit of an exaggeration. I agree with Alfred on this, it might be nice but it is something that can wait as the Boolean operations pretty much do the same thing.

 

Hokusai

Because Adobe has a history of not extending their software. Hence a bazillion plug-ins that do extend it.

 

However, in the past few iterations Adobe has somewhat picked up the pace.

[Heres Johnny]

Is using the Shape Builder Tool really so much quicker and easier than selecting all the shapes, clicking on the 'Divide' icon on the Geometry toolbar, Shift-clicking the bottom part of the circle to deselect it and then going back to the Geometry toolbar and clicking 'Add'?

 

For me it is. Can't speak for anyone else, but I've been using it for years and I love it. I build lots of shapes for UI and in the long run I can get more work done in less amount of time with this tool. It's mostly just one click and drag, as oppossed to clicking Divide, deselecting, clicking Add, etc. Yes, in theory it's not much of a time saver. But in my workflow it certainly is.

[Alfred]

For me it is. Can't speak for anyone else, but I've been using it for years and I love it. I build lots of shapes for UI and in the long run I can get more work done in less amount of time with this tool. It's mostly just one click and drag, as oppossed to clicking Divide, deselecting, clicking Add, etc. Yes, in theory it's not much of a time saver. But in my workflow it certainly is.

 

Thanks. I can see where you're coming from, and for the sake of those who miss it I hope the feature gets added eventually, but at least there are alternative ways of achieving the same end result. I think the developers are likely to give priority to things like a Blend Tool, which does something that generally cannot be achieved manually.

[velarde]

I'm surprised to see so many people like that tool. I honestly never found any need to use it. The boolean operations work fine for me.

 

Hi, I didn't use it at first until I discovered it a couple of years back. ( was a FreeHand user, but that's another story.. ja) 

 

But once you use it and appreciate the simplicity of manipulating complex shape operations, you won't go back..  :)

 

If you do simple operations of punching a hole (subtract)  in an object or adding two shapes ( add) the basic tools are fine. But when you want complex definition of shapes for icons ( for web pages and app design) believe, me this tool is invaluable and saves a LOT of time and planning ahead to create the results with the simple (but efficient) tool set we have.

 

Again, I can understand if they save it for version 2 of the software. but just knowing that it gets added to the list will make some people very happy. I know everybody has their priorities but I think I suggested a year back maybe there could be a poll somewhere that people could click and see where they stand on new features.

 

Maybe I'm speaking heresy here but the BIG1.6 anouncement: The light UI Mode for me is meh... Couldn't care less if the tools are dark or light, I'll use them anyway. But to each his own.