Any tips for getting a Layer Insertion preference to remain consistent?

[Otto Manuel]

Hi,

 I admit, I had not paid much attention to layer insertion and just lived with moving layers up and down in the stack after I drew a curve.

 I finally started trying to select an insertion before hand but I can not seem to get a consistent result.

 I feel like I must be doing something wrong, but now that I have finally decided to try to take care while inserting layers it has become annoying to not be able to do so effectively.

 How do you use the insertion preferences without having them reset or create insertions in unexpected locations?

 Thank you!

 

Designer 1.9.2 Win 7 x64

[Old Bruce]

Just now, Otto Manuel said:

 I finally started trying to select an insertion before hand but I can not seem to get a consistent result.

 

Check and see what sort of settings you have in the Assistant, go to View > Assistant Manager (this is in Designer) Also check to see if you have hit any of these buttons on the toolbar....

from left to right they are "behind', 'in front' and 'as a child'

[Otto Manuel]

Thank you.

 

I can't see what I would change in the Assistant Manager that would change anything. What are you suggesting?

I use the toolbar buttons, and or the Menu > Layer > Insertion selections to attempt to reset my choice but the choice does not seem to persist for very long.

 

One thing I have just realized is that I tend to use the "Select" tool as a default when I finish drawing a curve and want to deactivate the Pen tool, and that makes me inadvertently change my layer selection even though that is not my intention. If I avoid the Select tool and use something like the Hand tool to prevent the inadvertent drawing of additional curve content then I seem to stay on the layer I thought I was on.

 

Never the less, I have the urge to figure out if can lock the insert preference so it does not continually change status.

 

[Otto Manuel]

Are there any further tips?

I am wondering if I should expect the insertion choice I make to persist or if it is meant to switch back to "Default".

Is there a way to set the "Default" to another default?

[Otto Manuel]

Hi,

 I made a few experiments based upon a brand new project that I purposefully used to study the action of layer insertion choices while using the Pen and Pencil tools.

 What I experienced seemed to highlight a mess of unanticipated behaviors.

 I thought about making a video demonstration that there are issues for the developers or help support to address, but began to suspect it would be an exercise in frustration as the issues seem so pervasive and obvious that any progress will probably require an all in commitment, on the part of Affinity, to create the functionality that I, probably naively, thought I could expect.

 For example; When I choose the option to insert a layer above the selected layer, I anticipate that the new layer will be located just above the currently selected layer. It does not seem to work that way. What more can be said?

 I enjoy drawing in Designer too much to dwell on this issue and will just consider the inability to predict where my layer will be inserted as a sort or quirky mystery.

 Thank you.