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Designer: How to close objects FAST using the PENCIL tool


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Hey peeps,

 

First Try to use Affinity Designer fully professional. I am into Illustrator for ages now and I need to create an vector character. Its sketched out in Photoshop (will maybe we replaced with Photo) and normally i make it in adobe illustrator. I use the pen tool most of the time.

 

In adobe illustrator you can make an circle for example and it will close automatically. If the shape isnt working for me i can use the pencil again and follow my first line. It will notice that i want to edit / redo my first line and whola, i can do it with a couple of movements. This is really working for me when i make my vector drawings but it isnt working atm for me in Designer.

 

I am on the internet for a hour now if i missed an option somewhere, an checkbox, something tiny or simple but i cant find. If i need to close an shape by pressing an different tool, close it and go back to my pencil.. it would be time consuming and annoying.

 

Any suggestions? I need to finish this artwork tomorrow and if i cant find it in a hour i need to drop back to illustrator, which was not my plan! :D

 

Cheers,

Roy

 

EDIT, I made an mistake by telling you all that i use the pentool. I use the pencil tool. sorry.

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  • Staff

Hi Roy,

 

Welcome to the forums!

 

The button in my attached screenshot will automatically close your curves when you press it :)

 

C

post-12469-0-11210000-1497970252_thumb.png

Please tag me using @ in your reply so I can be sure to respond ASAP.

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Thank you Callum, where getting somewhere haha. I know in front, that the first days working in Affinity Designer will be a lot of trail and error, some tears and %@$%..

 

Okey, here is the thing. I made a mistake with naming. I am using the pencil tool, not the pentool. I am sorry for the confusing misunderstanding.

 

Issue here for me:

 

I am drawing on top of an sketch i did before. Lets say i am creating an funny duck (i am doing that right now). I use the pencil to make a shape, i need to leave my pencil tool, go to the pentool and from there i need to click on the close icon. I need to go back to the pencil tool and make a new shape. If this would be my only work around i must stop my Annify project all-ready because that would be a hell of a job.

 

I would like to draw, draw on top of a line to correct him and close an shape by just ending at the point where i started. Just how it works in Illustrator right now with the pencil tools. It speeds up the process so so much. Very powerfull. I am sure (i hope) there is a way to do this in Affinity too, maybe slightly different. I am open for that. As long as it is a smooth workflow.

 

Any thoughts?

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Hi Roy,

 

When your using the pencil tool if you want to close a curve you can switch to the Node tool and click the button shown in my original screenshot :)

 

C

Please tag me using @ in your reply so I can be sure to respond ASAP.

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Okey Callum.. so basically, i need to exit my tool everytime i need to close an object. Men.. thats.... disappointing. I have to experiment more but at this moment, i am am back in Adobe Illustrator to finish this. I really have to think this over. Thanks for your time Callum

 

Technically, its not exiting the pencil tool, its just holding down a modifier key so the pencil tool can change its nodes position. It goes back to pencil as soon as the modifier stops. That way, the last drawn node can be positioned on the 1st, and it will snap the line shut in less than a second. Also works w. the pen tool. Smoothing is another issue, but the 1.6 beta with the pencil stabilizer makes smooth curves much easier.

iMac 27" Retina, c. 2015: OS X 10.11.5: 3.3 GHz I c-5: 32 Gb,  AMD Radeon R9 M290 2048 Mb

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Technically, its not exiting the pencil tool, its just holding down a modifier key so the pencil tool can change its nodes position. It goes back to pencil as soon as the modifier stops. That way, the last drawn node can be positioned on the 1st, and it will snap the line shut in less than a second. Also works w. the pen tool. Smoothing is another issue, but the 1.6 beta with the pencil stabilizer makes smooth curves much easier.

 

Thanks Gdenby, that sounds that it tackles half of my workflow issue. Lets hope the pencil tool wil become a bit more powerfull. Does it help if i point it out that i miss this in Designer or is this all-ready on the list?

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Thanks Gdenby, that sounds that it tackles half of my workflow issue. Lets hope the pencil tool wil become a bit more powerfull. Does it help if i point it out that i miss this in Designer or is this all-ready on the list?

 

During the time I've been on the forum, about six months, I don't think it has come up. But I don't read the feature requests request that often. Feel free to make a post there, tho' I will mention that there are other much more desired features that already are on the developers' to do lest.

 

And yes, it does seem like something like a double click to close a line would be very handy. 

iMac 27" Retina, c. 2015: OS X 10.11.5: 3.3 GHz I c-5: 32 Gb,  AMD Radeon R9 M290 2048 Mb

iPad 12.9" Retina, iOS 10, 512 Gb, Apple pencil

Huion WH1409 tablet

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Okey, i have tried this workflow and this is what is what happens for me when i do character vector work:

 

Affinity Designer:

- I draw my desired line with the pencil tool.

- The tool doesn't know that i want to do a correction.If i draw on top of the line it creates a new vector. I need to delete the whole line and do it again also when its just a small part that needs an fix.

- Press N to switch to pentool so node icons appear on top

- press close icon and the object is now closed.

- press N to switch to pencil tool

- create new line.

 

Adobe Illustrator:

- I draw my desired line with the pencil tool

- draw directly on top of the line to correct it. It will re-shape my previous action. Most of the time its just a minor fix.

- simply hit the line somewhere, it will close.

 

U see how powerful the pencil tool is in Illustrator vs the long and not niceworkflow in Designer.

 

I will post this in the request part.

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It is not as fluid or elegant as the Illustrator pencil tool, but for minor corrections in Affinity Designer you don't need to delete the whole line -- as previously mentioned, just hold down the modifier key to temporarily switch to the Node tool, which allows you to select, move, delete, change control handles, etc. on one or more nodes.

 

You can also take advantage of the keyboard toggle feature to quickly switch between the Pencil & Node tools (if you have not set either tool to share a keyboard shortcut with another tool). So for example, choose the Node tool & then the Pencil tool. Tapping the A key (assuming the default) will toggle between the Pencil & Node tools.

 

You can also set custom keyboard shortcuts for two Node tool Actions (Join & Break) but unfortunately not for Close curve. I would love to see that added as a custom keyboard shortcut option & even more to see the Context toolbar switch to the Node tool context when the modifier key is held down when using the Pen or Pencil tools.

 

But of course everybody has there own list of wished for features, & there are only so many they can implement in any time period, so a lot of them probably will not be implemented any time soon, if ever.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
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No RCR, that is indeed not an elegant workflow. Switching back to little icons i need to press, using shortcuts .. what ever to edit nodes who are placed by Designer on locations i maybe even not like. It doest matter. I need speed. The character i created yesterday (moved back to Illustrator) took me a hour. If i do this in Affinity at this moment, i would be a pain in the ass job and pressing couple of hundred times on extra buttons.

 

i know its not perfect.. but if they not change this..  I am thinking of asking my money back. 40 euros is stil 40 euros if i am not going to use the software. At this moment, its not able to replace Illustrator. That was my plan. *sniff (sad face)

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  • 2 weeks later...

I agree the pencil tool needs more refinement for free hand drawing and more smoothing and editing would be great, since I too use this for freehand sketching of patterns.

 

Hi, Lisa,

 

I haven't used Illustrator in years, but there certainly wasn't any smoothing or refinement tool when I was working w. it. Those are really pretty new, and the smoothing tool "pencil" works nicely from what I've seen from online videos. 

 

However, I think AD does have more than 80% of the same capabilities. Inserted is a screen grab of a couple quick closed flowing shapes made in AD 1.6 beta. These were done using a mouse, not my tablet, which is far easier to use. The new stabilizer mode creates very smooth curves, w. a minimum number of nodes, like the Illustrator pencil after 2016. It does require touching the command key to drop the last node onto the 1st node to close the shape. I didn't need to do any reshaping, but a tap on the "a" key invokes the same capabilities as the reshape tool. AD is working well for me, despite my ever worsening arthritis. 

 

post-34886-0-34415300-1499279150_thumb.jpg

 

I'm waiting for the day when it will just pick up my eye movements in response to my sub-vocalized "draw this."

iMac 27" Retina, c. 2015: OS X 10.11.5: 3.3 GHz I c-5: 32 Gb,  AMD Radeon R9 M290 2048 Mb

iPad 12.9" Retina, iOS 10, 512 Gb, Apple pencil

Huion WH1409 tablet

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