"Select same" selects locked and hidden objects

[tsbatth]

Hello,

I apologize if this has been posted before. I am trying to edit a graphic with many fine points and I want to make different variations of the same design in aggregate. However when I select same "fill stroke and color" it will select objects which are locked (so should not be selectable), as well as if they are hidden. I also tried putting the object I don't want it to select in a different layer (as well as locking and hiding it) and it still gets selected. I've posted a picture below to show you what I mean.

 

[Joachim_L]

7 minutes ago, tsbatth said:

I don't want it to select in a different layer (as well as locking and hiding it) and it still gets selected

Yes, it is pain in the lower back, that hiding and locking works so different with AD than other programmes. Unfortunately you cannot determine the scope or selection where the same should be selected. As often you can workaround: Set temporarily the opacity for elements who are not meant to be selected to a different opacity and then change back to the original opacity value.

[tsbatth]

Yeah or I just copied it into a new file and edited there . But thought it might be good to inform. Thanks for the tip!

[chessboard]

It would be very helpful if you could set whether locked or hidden layers should be ignored when using "Select same". As it is implemented at the moment, this function is almost useless if you have many objects of the same kind on different layers and want to select them only on one layer.

[Alfred]

11 minutes ago, chessboard said:

It would be very helpful if you could set whether locked or hidden layers should be ignored when using "Select same".

Most of us would probably be happy for locked and hidden layers to be completely ignored when using “Select same”. The user always has the choice of unlocking or unhiding them beforehand.

[chessboard]

@Alfred

Or this way around 😉

[StuartRc]

Funny I was thinking this yesterday!...

When toppling layers to create patterns you can be left with a substantial layer stack!.. un-used in the symbol

It would be useful to be able to select all 'invisible' \ hidden \ deselected layers and remove.. or all 'visible' Only because when cleaning up some stacked symbols I had to manually remove the unselected layers...I was looking for an option at the time.. but also decided I had just really been inefficient by not assigning a colour in the first place😀 

[carl123]

6 hours ago, StuartRc said:

It would be useful to be able to select all 'invisible' \ hidden \ deselected layers and remove.. or all 'visible'

In APhoto...

Select > Select all Layers will only select visible layers not invisible or locked layers

You can then copy and do File > New from Clipboard

 

In some documents you may need to add a temporary rectangle the full size of the canvas before doing the above to maintain the same canvas size in the new document

[chessboard]

@Carl

This completely destroys the order of the layers when copying and pasting them back into the original file. Moreover, the new document is cropped to the maximum size needed for the copied layers. This means that after pasting into the original file, the position will no longer match with the state before extracting them because the coordinates will not be the same anymore.

[StuartRc]

@carl123
Thanks for that. The problem is I am working something quite complex  (a generic seamless texture set for my concept brushes!). I used layer stacking in a symbol to create optional texture layers with an additional containment rectangles that can be transposed between symbols or adjusted using colour | layer options | transform etc...
layer groups can contain multiple stacking!

To get the pattern:
Duplicate the centre symbol and detach
Delete un-used layers (manually)..may need to get into habit of colour coding! and use layers > select same tag colour
Then copy to grid output and export
You can do colour but this slightly increases the file size!
test in Base brush set (using sub-brush erase options for added texture)

 

[GuyMiklos]

I'm working on a map which has a hundred or so icons and hundreds of instances of each. These are all nicely arranged in layers which I can hide or lock as needed.

BUT

when I want to select all symbols of a certain stroke weight or stroke colour my organised layers are ignored and all instances are selected even if they are on hidden or on locked layers. This is very counter intuitive and I can't find any efficient work flow other than one by one picking hundreds of objects hoping I didn't miss any.

It would make more sense, AND be more useful if locked and hidden layers could not be selected. After all, they are hidden or locked for the very purpose of not wanting to change them, yet the command to "select-same... " overrides that very intentional choice to lock and hide. I would like to know whether this was an oversight in the implementation or whether there is some useful reason for this behaviour. For me it is worse than useless, because I can often not see what "select same" has selected because most of the time, most of my very large map is off-screen.

[Old Bruce]

7 hours ago, GuyMiklos said:

I would like to know whether this was an oversight in the implementation or whether there is some useful reason for this behaviour. For me it is worse than useless, because I can often not see what "select same" has selected because most of the time, most of my very large map is off-screen.

I too am curious about this. I think about things like this and try to come up with a reason why there isn't any option available to choose from Select all, unlocked, visible, hidden, locked. Obviously coding a Select All is going to be far easier than giving choices. Also, with choices comes the question Where to place those choices? In the Menu as checked items or as a preference so as to keep the clutter down in the menu. We can only hope that this will be forthcoming.

[GuyMiklos]

Since my last comment i discovered one mitigating action, that does not solve the functionality I need, but at least prevents me inadvertantly selecting and editing hidden and locked objects that would be off-screen even if they were visible. The "Edit All Layers" icon at the bottom left of the Layers panel restricts editing.  When toggled "on" it allows selection absolutely everywhere regardless of intentional hiding and locking by the user, and when toggled "off", it is too extreme in the opposite way of limiting selection to the currently selected layer only. 

ALSO

it is VERY hard to see from the appearance of the "Edit All Layers" icon whether it is actually "on" or "off". I mean VERY hard, such that I have to click several times to compare the two icon shadings. I've tried different interface colouring options, and none alleviate this lack of distinction. So it is easy to have one's intentions thwarted with a selection that is too unrestricted or too constrained, and not notice this until multiple edits have been done, only to notice some time later, that in other layers or other areas of the design, many objects that I thought were safely hidden or locked have been moved, or edited, or worse - deleted.

This is incredibly frustrating, and wasteful of my time.   

Please could the developing team at least make a quick fix the to icon's two state display, while contemplating a longer term modification of selection functionalities.

[Old Bruce]

6 hours ago, GuyMiklos said:

it is VERY hard to see from the appearance of the "Edit All Layers" icon whether it is actually "on" or "off". I mean VERY hard,

That is not the only instance of the utterly horrid design paradigm which has been in vogue for far too long. We users cannot use the software* but boy oh boy does it ever look cool and uncluttered.

*not just software. Friend worked at an office with a radio and no new people could figure out how to turn it on or off, change the station or volume. "Looked real modern though".

[tarc]

+1

It would be very useful and logic if "select same" would ignore locked objects.