Affinity Designer 2 is a Windows App. How do I make it my SVG and PSD editor in Cartoon Animator 5? Thanks.
I've also put this in the Feedback Tracker, so if anyone else has this problem, please vote it up. Allow Windows Apps to be selected as external graphics editors - Feedback Tracker (reallusion.com)

This issue occurs because of the way Windows Store Apps are installed on your computer. It has nothing to do with Cartoon Animator 5.

However, there are workarounds, so please take a look at the thread below which details how to get Affinity products to launch from CTA5.

https://forum.reallusion.com/527315/Ver-20-Affinity-Apps-no-longer-work-on-Windows

                                                                

Peter
Forum Administrator

www.reallusion.com

Cheers Peter. I would have thought it was in Reallusions interest to be able to work with this, but "hey ho!"

Don't blame RL, blame Microsoft and their Windows Store, which makes applications inaccessible in a normal way, as Peter explained. Welcome to the "managed" PC!

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animagic, I never said I blamed  Reallusion.

If there was an easy solution we would, but sadly there isn't apart from the workarounds posted in the other thread. The only real hope is that Microsoft comes to its senses and allows Microsoft Store apps to be installed  in the "normal" way where you have user access to the program files.


                                                                

Peter
Forum Administrator

www.reallusion.com

Cheers Peter. Hopefully Serif will sort it at their end.

Cheers Peter. Hopefully Serif will sort it at their end.

I have a smiley face now. I have found another workaround. The designer.exe file does exist for users in the WindowsApp folder, but for most users this folder is not accessible. So, here is the eventual workaround I used in Win 11.
1) Open Windows Explorer and navigate to Local Disk (C) -> Program Files.
2) At the top of the window, click on "View -> Show -> Hidden Items. You will now be able to see the WindowsApps folder, but not access it to view.
3) On the bottom of your Windows desktop, go to "Search" and type in "Windows Powershell", then open the windows powershell app.
4) From the command prompt, type: takeown /f ";C:\Program Files\WindowsApps" /r
5) Hit Enter. This command will set the ownership of the WindowsApps folder to yourself. It will take a few minutes to run, and you'll be able to see when it has finished.
6) Exit out of everything, and restart Windows.
7) Upon reboot, you can navigate into the WindowsApps folder and find the path to Designer.exe
8) You can now exit Windows Explorer and from within Cartoon Animator 5, navigate to where Designer.exe is. The path is quite unusual, and for me, was: C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\SerifEuropeLtd.AffinityDesigner2_2.0.0.1640_x64__3cqzy0nppv2rt\App\Designer.exe
9) Open Windows Explorer and navigate to Local Disk (C) -> Program Files.
10) At the top of the window, click on "View -> Show -> Hidden Items. Hidden Items should now be unticked and WindowApps hidden again.

Anyway, good luck, and I hope this works for you. No batch files or exes need creating. This has worked for me, and if there are any Windows Gurus who see any problem with this fix, please respond to this post. Also, whilst it seems quite long, I've tried to make the instructions as easy to follow as possible. As a final note, DO NOT make any changes in the WindowsApps folder itself unless you know what you are doing, Also, apologies it this fix is the same as previous ones.

Now, if someone could remind me of the setting I need so that Designer sends the image back to Cartoon Animator, I would be most grateful.

Edit: Think I have found that one. In Affinity Designer, Edit -> Preferences -> General -> Enable Save over imported PSD files

Just in case you don't have PowerShell on your system: How to Install or Update PowerShell on Windows 11 (makeuseof.com)