Designer - layers panel

[Juc1]

hi all

Re my screenshots below - when I am organising layers I usually want to do #1 mouth (Layer) ie this works as intended - but often I end up with #2 book (Layer) - which looks and behaves different to #1 eg #2 has some kind of folder icon and its contents are pushed further in as shown by my green line.

So can anyone please tell me what is happening in #2 and what am I doing to cause this unwanted behaviour?  

 

 

 

[MEB]

Hi @Juc1,
Welcome top Affinity Forums
The layer thumbnail looks like a folder because it doesn't contain any objects - it only has two vector masks nested to it (layer masking) but not contained within.

What you wanted to do is to place the objects inside the layer. To do it, drag the object's layers over the  main layer's name/label in the Layers panel (not over its thumbnail). If you drag them over the layer's thumbnail you are nesting them to the layer and using them as masks (your second screenshot) thus the small crop icons you see over the two objects thumbnails nested to the layer (see layer masking in the Help for more info).

 

[Juc1]

51 minutes ago, MEB said:

What you wanted to do is to place the objects inside the layer. To do it, drag the object's layers over the  main layer's name/label in the Layers panel (not over its thumbnail). If you drag them over the layer's thumbnail you are nesting them to the layer and using them as masks...

 

@MEB ok problem solved, thank you 🙂