Drawing by appending to the selected layer fails on empty layers · GraphiteEditor/Graphite#2584

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Good First Issue

Description

You can use the Pen, Spline, or Freehand tool to draw while holding Shift to append to an existing selected layer of vector content. But if you create a brand new layer and draw on it with Shift held, this is the result:

Whereas this is the normal result of drawing (where a new layer appears):

So we need to detect if no existing vector data is there, and if so, add the Path and Stroke nodes instead of the Flatten Vector Elements node.

It also needs to work on "empty" layers that do contain modifier nodes, like this:

Currently, append-drawing results in this:

But the desired output in this case should be:

Contributor guide

Tech stack: rust
Domain: desktop
Issue type: bug
Difficulty: 3
Estimated time: 1-3 hours
Activity status: fresh
Clarity: mostly clear
Prerequisites: Basic understanding of Graphite's node systemFamiliarity with vector layer operations
Newbie friendliness: 45
Research direction: The fix requires modifying the code that handles Shift+click drawing to append vector elements to the selected layer. The key logic is in the pen/spline/freehand tool implementation. When appending, the code currently always adds a Flatten Vector Elements node, but it should first check if the layer already contains vector path data. If not, it should add a Path node and a Stroke node instead. Also consider layers that have modifier nodes but no actual vector paths. Look at related files in the tools module and the layer creation logic.