How do I quickly select a layer when using a brush?

[prybar3]

HI

How do I quickly select a layer when using a brush?
In PS I like use ctrl + mouse click to switch layers when drawing

[Pšenda]

Click/select layer in Layers panel? 

[prybar3]

7 hours ago, Pšenda said:

Click/select layer in Layers panel? 

Thanks, but this is not convenient, especially when there are many layers.

Edited May 6, 2022 by prybar3

[walt.farrell]

Or you could press V to get the Move Tool, select the layer, and press V again to switch back to your brush.

I don't think there's a way to do it using just the brush and the canvas.

[thomaso]

V + Click.
Press V again to come back to the Brush Tool.

If "Autoscroll" is ticked in the Layers panel the selected layer will show up, too.

[prybar3]

1 hour ago, walt.farrell said:

Or you could press V to get the Move Tool, select the layer, and press V again to switch back to your brush.

I don't think there's a way to do it using just the brush and the canvas.

 

1 hour ago, thomaso said:

V + Click.
Press V again to come back to the Brush Tool.

If "Autoscroll" is ticked in the Layers panel the selected layer will show up, too.

 

 

Thanks guys, I know these operations, it's a pity that there is no operation like Ctrl+click.

[thomaso]

44 minutes ago, prybar3 said:

it's a pity that there is no operation like Ctrl+click.

That's true. There are various spots in the UI where the implementation of modifier keys may feel unfinished. One of the weirdest is the application preference for a scroll wheel: If set to scroll then I can press SHIFT to scroll horizontally and OPT-CMD to zoom – but if set to scroll then no modifier key works, they all are just inactive. As if the coder went for a coffee and forgot to finalize the code …

[Pšenda]

10 minutes ago, thomaso said:

but if set to scroll then no modifier key works, they all are just inactive.

Scroll with Ctrl make document scrolling (thus, in accordance with the choice in the preferences, the functions were switched).
So only scroll with Shift was just forgotten.

Edited May 6, 2022 by Pšenda

[thomaso]

3 hours ago, Pšenda said:

Scroll with Ctrl make document scrolling (thus, in accordance with the choice in the preferences, the functions were switched).
So only scroll with Shift was just forgotten.

Ah, so it is a mac-only issue. To me definitely none of the modifier keys toggle a zooming wheel temporarily to scrolling. Even more odd: Shift prevents the zooming either, so if Shift is pressed while using the wheel nothing happens.

[R C-R]

25 minutes ago, thomaso said:

To me definitely none of the modifier keys toggle a zooming wheel temporarily to scrolling. Even more odd: Shift prevents the zooming either, so if Shift is pressed while using the wheel nothing happens.

Same for me. To scroll I need to switch to the View (hand) Tool, which of course I can do temporarily by holding down the spacebar (unless I am in text edit mode).

Slightly annoying but not a big deal for me.

[thomaso]

28 minutes ago, R C-R said:

To scroll I need to switch to the View (hand) Tool, which of course I can do temporarily by holding down the spacebar (unless I am in text edit mode).

Oh, another variant. To me press-holding the spacebar doesn't influence the zoom wheel. Though it makes the hand cursor occur it zooms like without spacebar, no scrolling. – Any idea whether or which macOS preference could be involved here? I absolutely don't care which key I'd need to press to toggle from zooming to scrolling, so if spacebar would work here I would be fine.

[R C-R]

21 minutes ago, thomaso said:

To me press-holding the spacebar doesn't influence the zoom wheel. Though it makes the hand cursor occur it zooms like without spacebar, no scrolling.

Do you mean with the spacebar pressed you cannot scroll around in the workspace with the View (hand) tool or are you still trying to do that with the scroll wheel?

Can you post a screenshot of your Preferences > Tools window so we can see which options are enabled?

[thomaso]

31 minutes ago, R C-R said:

Do you mean with the spacebar pressed you cannot scroll around in the workspace with the View (hand) tool or are you still trying to do that with the scroll wheel?

No. I have set the wheel to zoom. Then pressing the spacebar shows the hand cursor but the wheel still zooms. With this preference setting there is no key which toggles from zooming to scrolling. With this hand cursor I can click + *move* the mouse for scrolling, this is identically to using the View/Hand Tool. – Whereas if the preference is set the other way, the wheel does scroll and additionally modifier keys work to scroll horizontally respectively to zoom.

[R C-R]

2 hours ago, thomaso said:

With this hand cursor I can click + *move* the mouse for scrolling,

Yes, it is the same for me, assuming you mean using the spacebar to temporarily switch to the View Tool. That is why I said 

Quote

To scroll I need to switch to the View (hand) Tool, which of course I can do temporarily by holding down the spacebar (unless I am in text edit mode).

Was this not clear to you?

[thomaso]

37 minutes ago, R C-R said:

Quote

To scroll I need to switch to the View (hand) Tool, which of course I can do temporarily by holding down the spacebar (unless I am in text edit mode).

Was this not clear to you?

Unclear: What part of your mouse do you use and with what action? (wheel: turn/rotate  |  wheel-click + move entire mouse)
If you have set the mouse wheel to zoom and press the spacebar: Can you then use the wheel to scroll, or do you need to click-hold the wheel + move the mouse instead?

If I have set the mouse wheel to zoom then also the View Tool (hand) does zoom (not scroll) when I turn the wheel, and I need to click-hold the wheel + move the entire mouse for scrolling.

That also means, to me the View Tool is actually obsolete because: If set in prefs to zoom, I can click-hold the wheel + move the mouse with any tool for scrolling. And if set to scroll, the View Tool is no benefit, either, because turning the wheel does scroll with any tool (without the need to click-hold the wheel).

[R C-R]

10 minutes ago, thomaso said:

Unclear: What part of your mouse do you use and with what action?

To scroll, I click & drag with the View Tool selected, either temporarily in combination with the spacebar or by selecting that tool from the tools panel.

To zoom I use the scroll wheel. The mouse wheel is set to zoom.

There is no 'wheel-click" involved in any of it. I use a Kensington "Expert Mouse" trackball. It has a scroll ring that is the equivalent of a scroll wheel, but there is no button action for it -- it just rotates around the trackball.

[R C-R]

42 minutes ago, thomaso said:

That also means, to me the View Tool is actually obsolete because: If set in prefs to zoom, I can click-hold the wheel + move the mouse with any tool for scrolling. And if set to scroll, the View Tool is no benefit, either, because turning the wheel does scroll with any tool (without the need to click-hold the wheel).

When you say "click-hold the wheel" do you mean your mouse has a button built into the wheel or something else? If it has a button, what is it set to do? If you just mean a regular (left?) mouse click, what does holding the wheel have to do with anything?

Also, even if your mouse wheel has a tilt function built into it, it does offer the simultaneous 2 dimensional scrolling that the View Tool does -- if you do not get what I mean, switch to it, left-click & drag the mouse around in the workspace.

Please don't assume everyone is using the same type of pointing device & the same button settings for whatever that device offers.

[thomaso]

My interest here is the use of the wheel only, not a dragging movement of the mouse. The latter is in fact always possible via the wheel-button function (Logitech MX vertical mouse), as I understand it is a/the middle mouse button. If pressed then dragging/moving the mouse enables panning in x/y direction, entirely regardless of the currently selected tool or object and without a change of the cursor icon. (So the wheel-button works like left mouse + spacebar but without showing the hand cursor. And pressing the wheel-button + spacebar works like wheel-button only but with hand cursor.)

5 hours ago, R C-R said:

To scroll, I click & drag with the View Tool selected, either temporarily in combination with the spacebar or by selecting that tool from the tools panel.

To zoom I use the scroll wheel. The mouse wheel is set to zoom.

Okay, this seems clear now. So we both can not use the wheel to scroll  if  the Affinity preference for the wheel is set to zoom.

Whereas it is possible (at least works for me) with the wheel preference set to scroll to additionally use modifier keys to make the wheel temporarily zoom.

Fazit: While one Affinity preference setting enables for the wheel scrolling AND zooming, the other option excludes zooming but allows scrolling only. Accordingly modifier keys affect the wheel only if its Affinity preference is set to scroll. If set to zoom they have no function for the wheel.

[R C-R]

11 hours ago, thomaso said:

(So the wheel-button works like left mouse + spacebar but without showing the hand cursor. 

Are you saying that if you press the wheel button you can then use the wheel alone to scroll around in the workspace, or that you still have to drag the mouse to do that? If the former, how do you get 2 way scrolling like with a spacebar + left-click & drag?

Also, does your Logitech MX mouse software give you choices for what the wheel-button does, & if so what is it set to do?

[thomaso]

1 hour ago, R C-R said:

or that you still have to drag the mouse to do that? If the former, how do you get 2 way scrolling like with a spacebar + left-click & drag?

Sorry, I missed the Affinity Tool conditions: the wheel-button works in every tool like left mouse + spacebar does in View Tool. (Both require for panning the mouse to be dragged / moved)

Yes, the mouse software offers for the wheel-button a choice between several functions. I left it at its default, called "middle" mouse button.

[R C-R]

11 minutes ago, thomaso said:

Sorry, I missed the Affinity Tool conditions: the wheel-button works in every tool like left mouse + spacebar does in View Tool.

For me, the only place left-mouse + spacebar does not temporarily switch to the View Tool is (like I said several posts back) if I am in text edit mode, so of course holding down the spacebar adds a spaces to the text. 

15 minutes ago, thomaso said:

(Both require for panning the mouse to be dragged / moved)

So in other words, it is just an ordinary click & drag, the same as when the View Tool is selected from the Tools panel, right?

18 minutes ago, thomaso said:

Yes, the mouse software offers for the wheel-button a choice between several functions. I left it at its default, called "middle" mouse button.

Interesting. This suggests that Affinity has a built-in (hidden?) feature to use a middle mouse button if one is available as equivalent to left button + spacebar. That seems unlikely but what do I know? If it works for you it must be there somehow.