Export or copy section with layer structure?

[Claudia_Germany]

I had already created this topic here a few months ago:

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/112705-keep-layer-structure-when-copying-to-new-file/&tab=comments#comment-610032

Now I want to start a new attempt. I'm still looking for a way to create smaller sections from a very complex graphic that retains the layer structure. In short: I need the possibility to export or copy/paste an artboard or a slice as a full new Affinity Designer file, with the layer structure preserved. I've had this possibility since FreeHand and Illustrator, unfortunately Affinity does not offer such a feature.

Greetings, Claudia

[walt.farrell]

36 minutes ago, Claudia_D said:

In short: I need the possibility to export or copy/paste an artboard or a slice as a full new Affinity Designer file, with the layer structure preserved.

1. Select the Artboard in the Layers panel.
2. Copy (Ctrl+C or Cmd+C, depending on OS. Or Edit > Copy.).
3. File > New from Clipboard.

[dominik]

39 minutes ago, Claudia_D said:

I need the possibility to export or copy/paste an artboard or a slice as a full new Affinity Designer file, with the layer structure preserved.

Hello @Claudia_D,

perhaps it would have been better to continue in your first posting and bringing it to attention instead of starting a new thread. But that's a minor thing.

I am not quite sure what does not work for you. I have a document with multiple artboards. Once I highlight/select one artboard in the layers panel and copy it, I can create a new document via 'File > New From Clipboard' and it turns into a new file with just that artboard in it. Including its layers in their order.

Did you try this procedure?

Cheers,
d.

PS: well, Walt beat me by the minute 🙂

[Claudia_Germany]

Hello Walt, hello dominik,

Thank you very much. This works, but the elements I don't want to copy, i.e. everything outside the artboard, are still in the file. I can see this when I resize the artboard in the new file. That means it's just a different view of the cutout, but it's not really cropped.

[dominik]

29 minutes ago, Claudia_D said:

This works, but the elements I don't want to copy, i.e. everything outside the artboard, are still in the file.

I understand that your artboard is different from mine. Mine has objects only within the artboard.

What you describe as 'outside the artboard' is this partially in or on the artboard? Are they in the layers panel within the hirarchy of this particular artboard?

My guess is that objects/layers that are part of an artboard (even when partially reaching outside of it) are not cropped or left out from copy the artboard.

I still don't quite understand what you are doing. Can you perhaps post a screenshot of your design, the selected artboard and the layers panel?

Thanks.
d.

[Claudia_Germany]

Ok, I try

 

I have large files, these are city maps. Often you have to create a section from them. This cutout will be modified and completed on its own afterwards, so I need all contained layers. But the original map is still needed in the original. 

I need the ability to cut out smaller areas from a large file and edit them as a new Affinitiy Designer file.

On the screenshot: the new map should be a round section. In this cutout, further information is then entered or lines are added that should not be included in the original map. 

[dominik]

9 minutes ago, Claudia_D said:

Ok, I try

 

I have large files, these are city maps. Often you have to create a section from them. This cutout will be modified and completed on its own afterwards, so I need all contained layers. But the original map is still needed in the original. 

I need the ability to cut out smaller areas from a large file and edit them as a new Affinitiy Designer file.

On the screenshot: the new map should be a round section. In this cutout, further information is then entered or lines are added that should not be included in the original map. 

Thanks for the screnshots. Now I have an idea of what you want to accomplish. I'll have to think about it. I come back to you.

Cheers,
d.

[Claudia_Germany]

Thank you!

 

It's real quite simple: When using copy/paste with a lasso, the layer structure should be 100% preserved, that's all I need 🙂

But unfortunately this does not work.

[walt.farrell]

5 minutes ago, Claudia_D said:

It's real quite simple: When using copy/paste with a lasso, the layer structure should be 100% preserved, that's all I need 🙂

But unfortunately this does not work.

That was what you described in your earlier topic, but is not how you described what you want when you started this topic.

For this one, you said you wanted to copy Artboards. You can do that, as we've said, by selecting them in the Layers panel.

[prophet]

I assume just clipping the entire it within a circle is not an adequate solution? You'd like to remove the many elements that are not needed within the clipped section?

[Claudia_Germany]

@walt.farrell It is irrelevant whether with or without Artboard. The result must be a small section that retains exactly the layer structures of the original file. If I do it like you described, all external elements are preserved and I have very large files that I don't need.

@prophet this is right.

[prophet]

So, a possible solution that use often when needing multiple objects from multiple layers…

- duplicate the entire graphic (all layers and objects)
- select the objects you want to keep (by whatever means you like: lasso, click the objects, layer select, etc.)
- then, with shift held down, draw a selection area around ALL OBJECTS
- this will essentially "invert" the selection and select everything except what you selected previously.
- delete

You should be left with only the objects you want.

[walt.farrell]

22 minutes ago, Claudia_D said:

 It is irrelevant whether with or without Artboard. 

Sorry, but it is most definitely relevant, because the method of satisfying your request is vastly different when you tell us what you actually want.

 

[dominik]

12 hours ago, Claudia_D said:

It's real quite simple: When using copy/paste with a lasso, the layer structure should be 100% preserved, that's all I need

I'm still a little confused. In your first posting on this page you want to copy an artboard. Now, here you refer to a lasso, but AD does not have a Lasso Tool in it's Vector Persona. This is what puzzles me.

I think I do understand that you want to display a small section of your map in a circle on an artboard in a seperate document. And add some annotations to it. Is this correct?

I would do this with a different approach:

1. Create a new document and add some artboards (as many you need).
2. Place the file with the map. Placing a file retains its layer structure and if you use multiple copies of the placed file it does not increase the file size of the containing document.
3. Finally mask the placed file e.g. with a circle (and add annotations).
4. Copy the placed and masked file and paste it onto a different artboard.

This method allows you to double click on the placed file and edit it in a new tab. Changes made will be part of all representations of the placed file.

This completely leaves out the need to deal with layer order or navigating a multi layer document and gives you very detailed control of what you want to show.

Cheers,
d.

PS: on a side note I spotted a typo in your first screenshot. The second layer from the top is labeled 'Matin-Gropius-Bau'. This most likely should be spelled 'Martin-Gropius-Bau' (note the 'r')  🙂

[Claudia_Germany]

@dominik Thank you, also a good idea, which I can certainly use for other projects.

In any case I need - no matter how, whether as artboard, which can be exported or as slice or copy/paste of a selection ("lasso") - the transfer of the layer structure. By the way, in Illustrator this is "Remember layers when pasting" (see screenshot).

 

 

P.S.: Thanks, the r is only missing in the layer palette

[Claudia_Germany]

16 hours ago, prophet said:

So, a possible solution that use often when needing multiple objects from multiple layers…

- duplicate the entire graphic (all layers and objects)
- select the objects you want to keep (by whatever means you like: lasso, click the objects, layer select, etc.)
- then, with shift held down, draw a selection area around ALL OBJECTS
- this will essentially "invert" the selection and select everything except what you selected previously.
- delete

You should be left with only the objects you want.

Thank you, this is a very interesting approach and it works.

The only problem is the selection. When I move around an area in the middle of a complex map with the selection tool, elements are moved. If I do this with "alt" + "control", elements that are not completely bypassed are deleted in the next step.

[Claudia_Germany]

18 hours ago, prophet said:

So, a possible solution that use often when needing multiple objects from multiple layers…

- duplicate the entire graphic (all layers and objects)
- select the objects you want to keep (by whatever means you like: lasso, click the objects, layer select, etc.)
- then, with shift held down, draw a selection area around ALL OBJECTS
- this will essentially "invert" the selection and select everything except what you selected previously.
- delete

You should be left with only the objects you want.

@prophet  I experimented with your solution a little bit more and I can say that it works for me.

Maybe in the future there will be easier ways to get layer structures in new, cut out documents, or to cut whole areas outside, but at least I have a workaround now.

Thanks a lot!

Greetings, Claudia

[dominik]

5 hours ago, Claudia_D said:

@dominik Thank you, also a good idea, which I can certainly use for other projects.

I‘m glad this was of some use for you and also that you have found something that works for you.

Cheers,

d.

[prophet]

Happy to help.

[Lorox]

I'm not exactly sure whether the proposed solutions (or rather workarounds) are what we really need here for a proper ergonomic workflow. As Claudia illustrated with her screenshot of Illustrator's Layers Palette what we actually need is an option in Publisher/Designer that when pasting an object it should remember the layer (or the layer's name) it's been on when copied. So if a layer of that same name is present in the document the object copied will "land" on this very layer – and if such an (equally named) layer is NOT yet present in the destination document it will be created on pasting.

This has been a feature in Illustrator and InDesign for years now and – in my opinion – it is such a simple and perfectly reasonable concept that I'm really surprised about the guesswork obviously needed here about what was meant.

I only just happenend to look this topic up because I found myself in such this (simple) situation today:

I had a Publisher document which sort of behaved strangely ("fresh" Art Text not showing up on the page initially but only after Cut (or Copy) and Paste – so far an unresolved issue) and saving under a new name didn't do the trick.

So I just selected all the layers in my Layers Studio and copied them to a fresh, empty document. No problem with Art Text there anymore but all my copied objects lost their layers (or information which layers they had been on) and were just objects stacked upon each other (albeit in the correct order) without any structuring layers (e.g. "Type", "Logos", "Images", "Background" etc.) being present in the new document so I was forced to create those layers anew and then drop my copied objects in "their" corresponding layers again.

Honestly, it cannot really be so difficult to put into the apps' code that copied objects remember "their" layers when pasted (and – if needed – just create them on pasting), can it?

I'm not quite sure anymore, however, if Illustrator/InDesign actually kept correct track of the ORDER of layers in their respective levels when copying/pasting. Ideally the order would be preserved as well, but, if not, it's certainly quicker to do to sort these out (if you had not too many of them in a proper logical order in the first place...) than to create them all from scratch again.