[Affinity Designer Beta 1.7.0.3
Saija Grzegorek
Affinity Photo Beta 2.4 does not start, both from the exe file and msi installation, regardless if I run it as a user or admin. I am running Windows 11, which is up to date. Designer and Publisher start after running them 3 times after they have previously crashed during starting up attempts. I uninstalled the programs, removed the .affinity directory, as I've read somewhere on the forums, and restarted the computer. After that I again installed the Designer (from exe file), Publisher (from exe file) and Photo (from both exe file and msi - in this order). I think there is something wrong with the installer or program software code. Please check and inform me via e-mail when the problem is solved. This has been going on since the 2.3 Beta update.
Why did you install twice? And do you mean MSIX rather than MSI? Your only installer choices are .exe and .msix, and you should not have both installed (nor should you use a mix of .exe and .msix across the 3 applications).
This post was originally made in the V2 bugs section of the forum which is strictly for the release version of the apps. I have now moved it to the beta specific section of the forums, please ensure any future beta related bugs are posted here
@ Walt Farrel - I installed the programs twice, because Photo was not starting up and I read somewhere in the forums (which seemed to be working for a user), that all programs in the suit had to be uninstalled, and that the .affinity folder had to be removed as well, after which the computer should be restarted, before installing the programs are installed again. You are correct in that I should have used the msix, which I checked in explorer; it wasn't an msi file that I used for installation. But regardless of that, I always start with installing from the exe files and that should work, even beta versions, because in my opinion Serif issues Beta versions to see if functions work properly or should be changed. But for users to try beta versions, the program has to start in the first place. I see no other purpose to issue beta versions. So, installations from exe files or msix should at least allow the programs to start up, otherwise users are unable to check the programs' functionality. Also, if the regular versions contain bugs, I had hoped they were fixed in the beta versions. I did not install the programs from exe files and msix alongside each other. This is the last time I will use beta versions, because they gave me problems for months., assuming this is not going to help Serif in letting users try out beta versions. However if beta versions actually do at least start up, that could be a useful thing for Serif. And to answer your last question, I do not have anti-virus and anti-malware programs installed, except the default Defender which comes with Windows.
Looking at a previous post from yourself I can also see that you have modified the permissions for the 'WindowApps' folder yourself. These folders are for Sandboxed apps which is where the MSIX apps install to. Microsoft prevent access to this folder for security reasons and modifying this yourself will cause further problems, which it does look like you're now encountering. We would never recommend users to modify these permissions and are unable to support those who do.
Hello I am a huge fan of both affinity designer and photos, and own both of them! I just wanted to share some of the work that I have done using the new symbols tool in the Affinity Designer beta. When I got into sacred geometry mandala illustrations, I used smart layers inside photoshop. In the last month, I've recreated some of my past works and created new designs using the new betas.
I'd love to thank all their development teams for creating such incredible and intuitive vector applications. You allow me to effortlessly create designs in Designer and quickly export them to Photos to add nice image/gradient masks and effects before submitting the final render.
I'm still trying to ground myself in the fundamentals of 1.4.2, but the 1.5 symbol function looks incredible from the few examples of work I've seen. Have you had any or many nasty bugs, or the application hanging?
Nothing too bad. At one point I had a bug that was consistently happening whenever I would undo a certain function (can't remember exactly which), but they literally had a fresh beta out the very next day that cleared the issue for me.
Thx for the response. I suppose I will be dloading the 1.5 beta fairly soon. If you care to, could you give a quick run down of how you have used symbols? They seem to be a set of instances of various objects, with various attributes, such as size, distributed across the set.
I'm not sure what you mean by the last part. Symbols are basically a reusable asset that only keeps the inner-content. Meaning, everything you add inside the symbol object automatically gets added and edited to all the other instances of that symbol. But everything you do to the actual symbol is unique to that instance. Meaning that you can use symbols to create mirror-symmetry for creating perfectly symmetrical faces or objects.
I've been working w. symbols some the past few days, and am beginning to get a grasp on how they work, and what they can do. At the simplest level, a library of preformed shapes that can be easily replicated and updated. An improvement on the "paste style" command. But then, because geometric transforms also apply, both symmetric and semi-symmetric transforms are quick.
Once again, I want to thank the developers at serif for creating such a brilliant vector application! It's lightyears more intuitive than illustrator, and seemingly keeps improving (at a rather fast rate!). I would be nothing without the tools you've empowered me with :wub:
Thanks! I'm not sure I know what you mean by circular cloning though, is there an easy way to do that in Affinity Designer? I'm currently using the new-ish symbol tools. I first create a "slice" and then define the symbol, set the pivot point to the center of my document, and then duplicate/rotate the symbols. It allows me to live-edit the entire array of symbols at once, which is the best part IMO.
I had been previously using smart layers in photoshop to achieve this, but the lack of live-updates (and a vector canvas) make it a hassle. Not to mention my mandalas would usually be over a quarter gig, hogging a ton of memory. I've only had one mandala that surpassed 100mb in AD so far. No choking on large canvases either, even when live-editing a curve with 20+ duplications. The performance is the most critical thing for me, as I'm not a true "artist". I design based on my perception, so the ability to live previous the duplication array allows me to continuously make changes until I'm satisfied with the result.
I quit my job to pursue art full time this year. I've been uploading a new design every day to my instagram, if you like what I do please take the time to check it out! Not all my stuff is done in affinity, so I won't be updating this thread with every post.
There were new Windows beta versions of Photo and Designer released yesterday, but Mac has been quieter. The latest Windows versions are marked RC2 (Release Candidate 2) so we can guess that 1.10.5 is close to being released as a retail version, and presumably it would be released on Mac at the same time.
But it's all a guess unless/until someone from Serif can tell us something. There was a hint earlier that they're hoping for a fix from Apple for some problem that affects the Affinity applications, and perhaps they're still working with Apple on that. There are several issues on Monterrey, which may be related to this.
Thank you Walt for your quick reply. ? Too bad there is no active communication with Affinty. Have an Apple MacMini (M1) silicon with Monterrey and there are a few issues that have been addressed here on the forums. The problems were probably collected and forwarded to the Affinity programmers.
Many have pointed out that Apple is showing Affinity Publisher in it's ads for iPad Air 5. My guess is that this is where their attention is going at the moment. There is still one application in the lineup that hasn't been released even as a beta yet so it makes sense that this is their main focus.
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