How to select an item within multiple nested groups in a loaded PDF.

[muganga]

I frequently need to lo load quite complex PDFs, containing multiple nested groups, and edit them in Photo. These are BIG PDFs with thousands, maybe tens of thousands of items, but the problem is not to do with size, I can replicate on small PDFs. None of the items is labelled and they are generated automatically so different parts of an image that are all visually adjacent may be in very different groups within the PDF.

I can do almost anything I need, but the process is extremely tedious because of a selection problem I can't seem to get round.

If I select an item in the loaded PDF, most times it takes me to a Level 1 Group in the Layers Panel, but not the item. If I then open the group in the Layers Panel, select a random item in the group and then try again, it will take me to a Level 2 group in the Panel. Repeating this process multiple times I eventually get to the item I am trying to select. Clearly Affinity knows where the item is, because it always takes me to the right next level group in the Layers Panel, but it doesn't open the group and it doesn't go any further until I open the group manually choose a random item within the group and then click again on the image. 

So my experience is that to get to an item in say a Level 4 group takes a minimum of 16 clicks, normally more like 20-25. Now I'm sure I'm missing something, but I can't find anything that addresses this issue anywhere. Find in Layers Panel <Ctrl K> is no different.

Solutions, good ideas would be much appreciated. I had about 20 items to select and adjust this morning. It should have taken me much less than a minute, not the 15 minutes it actually took me.

Platform is Windows 10. I have also tried in Designer - it is no different. 

I have used Affinity since it first came out, so I am not a novice, but this one has me beat.

Martin

[GarryP]

You can use Ctrl+Alt+Left-Click (on Windows, maybe Cmd+Alt+Left-Click on macOS) to ‘cycle’ through the layers which are under the mouse pointer, but I don’t know if that will work in a PDF.

Can you try it and see if that works/helps?

[Pšenda]

1 hour ago, muganga said:

Clearly Affinity knows where the item is, because it always takes me to the right next level group in the Layers Panel, but it doesn't open the group

Maybe Auto-scroll in Preferences/UI?

[R C-R]

8 hours ago, GarryP said:

You can use Ctrl+Alt+Left-Click (on Windows, maybe Cmd+Alt+Left-Click on macOS)...

For those using a Mac, in this CMD-Opt-click to select.afdesign example, does CMD-OPTION clicking on either of the indicated deeply nested layers select it? For me it does without having to cycle through any other parent group layers.

[Old Bruce]

1 hour ago, R C-R said:

For those using a Mac, in this CMD-Opt-click to select.afdesign example, does CMD-OPTION clicking on either of the indicated deeply nested layers select it? For me it does without having to cycle through any other parent group layers.

For me a simple Command + Click opens up the groups and selects the item I clicked on. No Option + needed. This is on OS 11.7

[R C-R]

4 hours ago, Old Bruce said:

For me a simple Command + Click opens up the groups and selects the item I clicked on. No Option + needed. This is on OS 11.7

It does for me as well. But just CMD-Click does not show the bounding box until I release the CMD key, whereas CMD-Option-click shows it immediately.

I don't know if this is how it should work or what.