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Show HN: Graphite, a Blender-inspired 2D procedural design Rust app

(graphite.rs)
783 points Keavon | 5 comments | 15 Oct 24 22:32 UTC | HN request time: 0.821s | source

For the past three years I've been building what I hope will be the next Blender, tackling the lack of any good 2D design or image editing tools outside the Adobe monopoly. This was our first year participating in Google Summer of Code and this Q3 update includes the big payoff from that, covering the most progress we've made so far as a project. If you're a Rust dev, consider getting involved as we apply for the next GSoC in the new year— you could be our intern next summer :)

Q3 progress report: https://graphite.rs/blog/graphite-progress-report-q3-2024/

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deskr ◴[16 Oct 24 13:24 UTC] No.41858793[source]▶
Some suggestions: I was doing something and then suddently I got a red error message, "The document cannot be rendered in it current state", instructing me to click the Node Graph button.

1. I couldn't find that button. Perhaps show a picture of it or just embed it in the error message.

2. Make the error text selectable.

3. Let me report the bug straight from the app?

replies(3): >>41859440 #>>41860570 #>>41865418 #
1. noisy_boy ◴[16 Oct 24 14:29 UTC] No.41859440[source]▶
I got the same error when I was doing the tutorial (which went quite well) and was doing the steps for circular repeat of the sun rays. Pressing Ctrl-Z undid practically all the work instead of just the last wrong change (not sure what caused it).
replies(2): >>41861912 #>>41865301 #
2. Keavon ◴[16 Oct 24 18:06 UTC] No.41861912[source]▶
Ah yes, good find: the stroke node can only apply to vector data, but when you use the Circular Repeat node, it now produces group data (as it should have always done). The fix is to put the Stroke node first to avoid the type error. I'll see what I can do to update the tutorial with that info, and to try to make the Stroke node more robust so it could apply to all group elements.

I'm surprised that Ctrl+Z undid more than one step, I've never seen that before. If you get the chance to reproduce that and write up the steps, please file an issue since we'd like to take a look into that.

replies(1): >>41867837 #
3. Keavon ◴[17 Oct 24 00:37 UTC] No.41865301[source]▶
Update: the issue with following what was shown in the tutorial is now fixed. Now the Fill and Stroke nodes apply to the vector contents of group data, which was the problem. (We made Circular Repeat produce a group of vector shapes to properly preserve styling information like gradients, which was why it broke.)
4. noisy_boy ◴[17 Oct 24 09:24 UTC] No.41867837[source]▶
I can try to reproduce but don't want to go through all the steps every time in case things go wrong again. Is there a savepoint/export/import kind of feature?

I think a tutorial regarding basics such as how to find shortcuts, do's/dont's for new beginners might help.

replies(1): >>41873223 #
5. Keavon ◴[17 Oct 24 20:04 UTC] No.41873223{3}[source]▶
You can save the document and reopen it later just like in any other program. You might not be able to reproduce the graph validity error anymore because we fixed the specific bug you encountered. The input hints bar at the bottom shows what buttons you can press in any context, but that's a good idea to mention it in upcoming tutorials because I've noticed that users tend to ignore it. Hover tooltips and the app menu also both display shortcuts, which are worth pointing out in future tutorials as well. Thanks for that suggestion.