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Accurate object selection


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So I noticed an issue on the iPad Pro (latest model) when you try to select an object on the canvas. When I try to select an object with either my finger or Apple Pencil it will select a total different object that is no where near where I touched. It makes fine tuning difficult and zooming in doesn’t really help. 

Anyone else notice this issue and have you found a solution for it?

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • Staff

Hi CygnusAlmaki,

Welcome to the Affinity Forums! Sorry for the delay in responding!

We have seen similar issues to this before but they be very document specific. Would it be possible for you to attach the document and a screenshot of the objects you're trying to selection please?

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I also have this problem. It occurs frequently. I use a 12.9" iPad Pro 2018 exclusively. Mostly for writing about origami and doing origami diagrams.

The enclosed very simple documents reproduce the problem.

The sample drawing Blintz copy is a simplified version of a working document where it occurred. It is the beginning of a crease pattern. There is 1 square with no fill, and a few lines some of which are rotated.

Using either finger or Apple Pen, click around the blue and green lines.

Some lines will be selected just nicely, other times just plain wrong. Two examples:

  • if I click just above (a cm or two) the square, above the coloured lines, on the background with not lines, it will select a line.
  • If I click the vertical, green line near its top, instead the blue line next to it is selected.

I have no trouble reproducing it, see deno1.afdesign. This second document was made in a couple of minutes.

  • Click the green line near the top. The green pine is selected.
  • Click the green line near the middle. The purple line is selected.
  • Click the green line  ear the bottom. The red line is selected.

To reproduce, I draw a line. Then I duplicate the line and move and/or rotate it. Rotation either by the handle, by the Transform Rotate  or by moving the end points individually using the pointer or the point editing tool. 

I have not tried to isolate if either of these rotate methods is the culprit, or if it is simply the position of the end result. I clearly suspect the Transform Rotate as it seems to occur when I make crease patterns and diagrams where I need a precise rotation like 45, 22.5, or 11.25 degrees. Another indicator is that if I export to svg for web and import again, the selections work splendid; and this export/import among other effects clears the rotation information.

I hope you will see it, too, and can make a fix very soon. It drives me crazy as the work flow and accuracy are severely disrupted. Otherwise I love Designer.

Best regards,

        Hans,

 

 

Blintz Copy.afdesign

demo1.afdesign

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It’s happening here too. Pencil accuracy is way off when using the node tool specifically. I have the original iPad Pro 11.9 inch. I need to point about 20 pixels below a node to select it. Zooming in helps a little. If a line is selected, the node tool with the pencil is more accurate. Drives me nuts.

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It’s happening here too. Pencil accuracy is way off when using the node tool specifically. I have the original iPad Pro 11.9 inch. I need to point about 20 pixels below a node to select it. Zooming in helps a little. If a line is selected, the node tool with the pencil is more accurate. Drives me nuts.

 

Here’s a file for you to check out so you can see if you’re having the same experience.

can.afdesign

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20 hours ago, Dybkjær said:

I also have this problem. It occurs frequently. I use a 12.9" iPad Pro 2018 exclusively. Mostly for writing about origami and doing origami diagrams.

The enclosed very simple documents reproduce the problem.

The sample drawing Blintz copy is a simplified version of a working document where it occurred. It is the beginning of a crease pattern. There is 1 square with no fill, and a few lines some of which are rotated.

Using either finger or Apple Pen, click around the blue and green lines.

Some lines will be selected just nicely, other times just plain wrong. Two examples:

  • if I click just above (a cm or two) the square, above the coloured lines, on the background with not lines, it will select a line.
  • If I click the vertical, green line near its top, instead the blue line next to it is selected.

I have no trouble reproducing it, see deno1.afdesign. This second document was made in a couple of minutes.

  • Click the green line near the top. The green pine is selected.
  • Click the green line near the middle. The purple line is selected.
  • Click the green line  ear the bottom. The red line is selected.

To reproduce, I draw a line. Then I duplicate the line and move and/or rotate it. Rotation either by the handle, by the Transform Rotate  or by moving the end points individually using the pointer or the point editing tool. 

I have not tried to isolate if either of these rotate methods is the culprit, or if it is simply the position of the end result. I clearly suspect the Transform Rotate as it seems to occur when I make crease patterns and diagrams where I need a precise rotation like 45, 22.5, or 11.25 degrees. Another indicator is that if I export to svg for web and import again, the selections work splendid; and this export/import among other effects clears the rotation information.

I hope you will see it, too, and can make a fix very soon. It drives me crazy as the work flow and accuracy are severely disrupted. Otherwise I love Designer.

Best regards,

        Hans,

 

 

Blintz Copy.afdesign

demo1.afdesign

I’m getting the same behavior in your sample as you are. Selecting objects is very hit and miss. In my uploaded project you can try to select a number of brushstrokes near the top of the can. Good luck!

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11 hours ago, Ben Frank Art said:

Anybody figured a workaround to this problem yet? It can be really frustrating.

I have mostly seen it when I draw diagrams with lines I rotate. Usually I can draw quite a lot before it happens, by not rotating too frequently.

In that case I have succeeded with export to PDF and then import that again into AD. This resets all the angle information (which in fact is an action I would like to be able to do to any object, but that's another story), and the selection is accurate again. It also loses some other information such as groupings. Maybe there is an export option in AD to avoid that?

Clearly this is a desperate, disruptive workaround, not a longterm solution. And I have no guarantee that other, in my case unused, features will not be destroyed doing this.

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  • 2 months later...

Hi Sean,

I have a new observation that might help resolving this irksome problem..

With reference to the demo1,afdesign enclosed in my previous post of July 22:

Some of the transformed line segments lose their boundary in one direction. Click on the problem object, note the orientation of the blue bounding box with the resize handles. In one direction the object is deselected if you click outside the box, in the other direction it is selected, however far away you click: if you are inside the "lane" of the bounding box in that direction, it will be selected if you click (unless another problem object lane also overlaps the click point, in which case that may or may not have higher priority).

A guess is that it is related to the "reset bounding box" which still misses a permanent reset (see link to discussion below).

So a workaround is this: Select the line segment. Copy. Pen tool. Select blue end of line. Make a node or two outside the line. Close the curve by clicking the red end. Draw a solid box covering the closed curve. Select the solid box and the closed curve. Intersect. Node tool. Delete the nodes outside the original line. Paste style.

Now the line satisfies two great properties: a) selection works as expected (the error has gone)., b) The bounding box is permanently regular (at least until I start rotating it again). 

The (b) is a byproduct of the above procedure, but cf.  the discussion linked below, something some users (and including me) really wish for, as the non-regular bounding box is confusing and cumbersome. Even if there are solid technical reasons and use cases where the rotated bounding box is what you want (and I don't doubt that), as a user I have not noticed them yet.

But that is a digression. The main point here is that getting rid of the non-regular bounding box solved the problem. It may be because there is an error in the non-regular bounding boxes, or because the procedure incidentally resets some other wrong property, or something else; I hope you can resolve that. As a software developer myself, I really click with Bens so right comment at the end of the other discussion: users have little chance to guess what is the cause of errors and what is trivial ot not (indeed that is often the case even if the user is a developer of the product...)  

Best regards

      Hans

 

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A much simpler workaround: Group the offending object. 

Grouping makes a regular box, and these have no problems. 

Grouping the object with itself works, too. Still makes a permanent, regular box. Even if it is a bit large as it has to bound the irregular, rotated original bounding box.

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