Old BUG, but very annoying: Symbol is changing size for no reason

[danasb352]

So, I have a symbol that moves  and changes angles. Scaling is NOT involved. However, no matter what, on some frames the symbol just resizes to a smaller different size. Any attempts to fix it by changing the scaling back to 100% fail.

Here is the video with explanation.

(I am on Mac OS Sierra, latest Animate release - 18.0.115)

[Colin Holgate]

I think you have reached a limit of computer accuracy. Try a test where you set the rotation to 43.2. It looks like it worked, but deselect and select again and the rotation is 43.1381. If you set the rotation to 43 degrees, the fixing the scale to 100% will work.

So, I think it's a limitation you'll need to live with, or adjust your rotation to values that make the scale become perfect.

[danasb352]

I did experiment with the angle a bit, and I probably can blame it, except that the problem was gone ONLY by using increments of 0.5 degree - none of the others worked. So it's hard to believe computer accuracy can't deal with anything less than half a degree. Actually the angle also acts the same as scaling - not possible to set it manually to any normal degree - if I set 43.2, I get 43.1386 instead, if I set it to 43.4, it stays put, but the scaling is still wrong. No other software acts like this, except Animate, and it was like this ever since the age of Flash, it's just that now I work with more subtle animation, and these problems really get in the way...

[Colin Holgate · Accepted solution]

You could make sure there is a feature request in to fix this:

Feature Request/Bug Report Form

Things are worse than you think though. Try making something that is rotated to a convenient amount, and is at 100%, and the numbers stay that way. Also make its X be on an exact pixel. Now change the width to an exact integer, you'll see that the X value changes, putting the object perhaps 5 hundredths of a pixel out of place. That may not be as bad as being 1/5th of one percent out, but it's probably a related issue.

I did check Illustrator, and they seem to be able to do 43.2 degrees.

[danasb352]

Yep, bug report submitted. It also happens a lot with tweened symbols - they sometimes just shift for no reason by a pixel or two, when reaching a keyframe, and even though it seems little, but it's like a drop of tar in a barrel of honey, as we say... I believe it's all related to symbol behavior and problematic measures...