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Merge Layers for Designer


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I can't find a simple way to merge layers in Designer.  This really needs to be a capability of all the Affinity products.  What I'm expecting to happen is to select multiple layers and then right click and merge them, but I can't and certainly not without multiple steps through various menus and then it ends up trimming off parts even if I manage to combine them.  I get this is a vector program, but I can do this with other programs and what should happen is that the combined outer shape should get new vector points to draw that shape, taking into account negative space.

The closest thing I can get to is combining all the selected layers into a group and then rasterizing the group.  That's not the same thing I'm asking for but at least close.  It's also multiple steps more than it needs to be.

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psiclone,

I think that's a good request. Maybe there's a way to do it now? If there is, I haven't seen it but there are always new things that sprout up and it could have been one of them. There are two ways to do this but they are workarounds and wouldn't be ideal in many situations. Just export your file as a PDF and then open up the PDF in Designer. You can also select all and then copy and paste onto a new layer. It gets the job done but not quite as smooth as a "merge layers" option would do. 

Hokusai

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What kind of layers are you trying to merge?

When dealing with vector shapes for example, each shape is its own layer, so trying to "merge" those layers means combining the shapes in some way - do you want to union them, intersect them...   there is not really a clear-cut definition of what "merging" those layers would actually mean.

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  • Staff

Hi psiclone,
Welcome to Affinity Forums :)
Without an example i'm not sure what you are going after. If you meant you want to create a compound path from several vector objects/paths go to menu Layer > Geometry > Merge Curves. You can also add new paths to an existing path while you draw them activating Add New Curve To Selected Curves Object in the context toolbar Mode section (Pen Tool) - the icon looks like two Intertwined rings. If you are referring to something else, attaching a sample file explaining what you are trying to do or pointing to a function/command on other software may help to understand what you are trying to achieve.

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1 hour ago, fde101 said:

What kind of layers are you trying to merge?

When dealing with vector shapes for example, each shape is its own layer, so trying to "merge" those layers means combining the shapes in some way - do you want to union them, intersect them...   there is not really a clear-cut definition of what "merging" those layers would actually mean.

I took "merging" to be like how they do it in Adobe's apps where you have the option to Merge Layers meaning to combine all of the elements that are found on those layers into one layer. It has nothing to do with boolean operations as it is done in Photoshop as well as Illustrator (and probably Indesign too). Vector shapes are not their own layer, they are objects that are placed on Layers, and if objects and elements (vector, raster, text, etc) that exist on the different Layers can all be merged (collected together as they are) and placed on one Layer. Merge Layers simply puts all of the things (objects and elements) that exist on your selected Layers onto one layer. It is handy. Sure you can do the same thing with cutting and pasting but if you have a lot of different Layers, it is time consuming. 

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23 minutes ago, Hokusai said:

Vector shapes are not their own layer, they are objects that are placed on Layers,

In the Affinity products they are separate layers, which complicates things from that perspective as depending on what the OP is really after it may be something that has no direct equivalent in the Affinity products or something which would need to be handled quite differently.

If this is in fact what the OP is after, what would probably be the closest possible equivalent in the Affinity products (something that also does not currently seem to exist) would be a "New Layer Containing Selected" command which works like the Group command, but embedding the selected layers inside a Layer layer (the naming of these could use a bit of work) rather than a Group layer.

Currently you can do the equivalent of that by using the Group command to group the objects and then choose Promote Group to Layer from the Layer menu to convert the Group layer to a Layer layer, so two commands instead of one...  Group has a keyboard shortcut (Command+G on the Mac), and you could assign one to Promote Group to Layer from within Preferences if that would help.

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Hello fde101,

This might not be what the original poster is requesting but to me, merging layers wouldn't be anything like grouping or embedding objects. If I merge layers, I would expect things to remain exactly as they are, the only thing that would change would be that all of the objects that were before on separate layers, are now all on the same layer. You're right, there is no such equivalent to be found (to my knowledge) in Affinity's products. I do think it would be a useful addition though. 

The way Designer allows you to have Objects that aren't on Layers makes things confusing. The confusion is created by not having a clear separation between them in the Layers Palette but (in my opinion) Layers and Objects are not the same thing. Layers are containers and they hold the Objects. Objects don't normally hold other Objects (in some cases they might but normally they don't). 

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1 hour ago, Hokusai said:

Layers and Objects are not the same thin

In the Affinity products, the "objects" of other applications are another type of layer.  You are getting confused because you are trying to keep them separate in your head based on your experience with other products, but the Affinity products are not the other products and do not behave the same way.

Consider also that in the Affinity products there is nothing stopping you from putting Layer layers inside of other Layer layers - or grouping Layer layers for that matter.

You can think of the entire document (top level) as a single layer if that actually helps - with any other Layer layers you create being children of that one.

The Layer layers in the Affinity products actually do work more like groups with the biggest difference being the way that selection (by clicking on things) is handled within the document.

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