Merging multiple layers into one?

[Fede]

Hello guys,

 

I recently started using Affinity products and discovered my first problem.

How do I transfer multiple layers into one? The only option I can find is to group them.

[telemax]

Hi

 

[walt.farrell]

52 minutes ago, Fede said:

How do I transfer multiple layers into one? The only option I can find is to group them.

Welcome to the Serif Affinity forums.

Which Affinity application? What kind of layers?

[Pšenda]

"Merging multiple layers into one?"

In APhoto? Menu Layer, Merge (Selected, Visible, Down).

[Fede]

On 5/11/2020 at 7:44 PM, walt.farrell said:

Welcome to the Serif Affinity forums.

Which Affinity application? What kind of layers?

 

On 5/11/2020 at 11:18 PM, Pšenda said:

"Merging multiple layers into one?"

In APhoto? Menu Layer, Merge (Selected, Visible, Down).

Sorry, I actually forgot to mention the application. My question was about mergining layers in Affinity Designer

[walt.farrell]

21 minutes ago, Fede said:

Sorry, I actually forgot to mention the application. My question was about mergining layers in Affinity Designer

And, what kind of layers?

[Fede]

I am trying to merge these different types of layers into one. 
I have attached a screenshot of the layers.

 

[walt.farrell]

Thanks.

Is there some reason that Grouping them (as you have) is not sufficient?

In any case, for the vector layers (Rectangle, Curve) you could use Layer > Geometry > Add, I think. However, I do not think you can merge Pixel layers in Designer, nor merge a pixel layer with a vector layer in any of the Affinity applications.

[Fede]

No worries and thank you for the help.

The reason I want to merge them is because I want to fill/mask them with a picture which has a certain pattern. However this picture only seems to be able to be used with a normal rectangle and not with the group.

Maybe I am doing something wrong here but I am unable to achieve this for the group even though it worked with a normal rectangle.
 

[Fede]

Has anyone got a solution for this?

[telemax]

 

 

[CST]

Yep, it's "a rather confusing and frustrating aspect of working with Affinity Designer"... See https://logosbynick.com/merge-layers-affinity-designer/

Personally, I use the combination of Designer (Export SVG) + Inkscape (Path/Combine).

Before: Chiplayout, many thousands (!) of small elements.
After: Four layers, each with one path. Yay!

[loukash]

6 hours ago, CST said:

See https://logosbynick.com/merge-layers-affinity-designer/

And that guy Nick is wrong.
Of course you can merge layers:
Layer > Geometry > Merge Curves

It's not the same thing as boolean Add/Subtract/Intersect/Xor. (Don't ask me why it hasn't got its own button!)

What you cannot do here – logically! – is to keep the individual distinct object attributes intact if they don't match from the start. Merged curves will all share the same properties. That's inevitable.

But you can create a Compound object. All original individual attributes of each object within will be retained upon releasing the compound. Including live text. And you can add or remove objects to and from a compound on the fly per drag & drop via the Layers panel.

[R C-R]

5 hours ago, loukash said:

And that guy Nick is wrong.

There are several things wrong in that article, among other things down in the conclusions section where it is stated that if vectors are grouped together, they cannot be edited independent of each other.