Allow toggling of colour tagged layer(s) visibility by shortcut key

[GarryP]

This is a ‘sister’ request of these (and probably others):
https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/37625-toggle-layer-visibility/
https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/19818-keyboard-shortcut-preference-to-toggle-layer-visibility/
...but with a slightly different theme.

When I am attempting to trace a photo – usually badly – I often find myself having to toggle the visibility of the reference layer (the image) to check my work before continuing. However, this currently means that, on non-trivial drawings, I have to scroll the Layers Panel to find the reference layer – usually at either the top or bottom of the stack – then toggle it via the checkbox a few times, then scroll back to where I was working to continue. This extra scrolling can break the workflow and I often end up having to go back and do the same thing again just so I remember what I was doing.

Also, when tracing, I often have many groups of layers which sometimes get in the way of the part of the image I am currently tracing.
I think it might be nice if there was a way to toggle – via a shortcut key – the visibility of multiple layers that are tagged with a certain colour so I can set-up some kind of ‘visibility toggle groups’ to make tracing easier.

For instance, at a very basic level, I could set a certain colour in the Preferences to be my ‘visibility toggle colour’ and set a keyboard shortcut to facilitate this. Then I can set my reference layer (or whatever other layers I want) to have the selected colour tag. Then, when I am tracing, I can use the keyboard shortcut to quickly toggle the visibility of that layer (or those layers) on and off without having to scroll the Layers Panel.

If extended from this basic scenario, this could also be used by people who want to have different layers visible at different times in the same document. For instance, you could have a multi-lingual document where all of the red layers were the English text and all of the yellow layers were the Spanish text and the user could easily switch between the two.

That’s maybe a step towards the far future but I definitely think a way for the user to say “When I press this button these layers should have their visibility toggled” would be a good and useful addition to the software.

[Alfred]

29 minutes ago, GarryP said:

When I am attempting to trace a photo – usually badly – I often find myself having to toggle the visibility of the reference layer (the image) to check my work before continuing.

Try reducing the opacity of the reference layer and adding any new layers/objects underneath. This doesn’t eliminate the scrolling problem, of course, but I find it a useful way of working.

[GarryP]

Thanks.
I’ve tried a few different ways but nothing works quite as well as I imagine being able to quickly flick the reference layer on/off would do.
Luckily I don’t have to do this very often, which is probably why my results are not great.
I think I saw a related request somewhere where they asked for something like a ‘reference layer swipe-over’ – a bit like how non-live Filters in Photo have their preview, or like how Designer has the Split View mode – which might be a better alternative to my suggestion. A bit like my crudely-constructed attached image but where the Outline View showed everything but the reference image instead of outlines, if you get what I mean.
Just some quick way to get the reference layer on/off would be nice.

 

Edited July 7, 2021 by GarryP
Added better image.

[walt.farrell]

5 hours ago, GarryP said:

Also, when tracing, I often have many groups of layers which sometimes get in the way of the part of the image I am currently tracing.
I think it might be nice if there was a way to toggle – via a shortcut key – the visibility of multiple layers that are tagged with a certain colour so I can set-up some kind of ‘visibility toggle groups’ to make tracing easier.

Right-click on one of the layers in the Layers panel, scroll to the bottom of the context menu and choose Select Same Tag Color. Then click the visibility box on the layer, and they will all hide or show.