The appearance of locked layers can still be edited and locked layers also accept new objects

[Intuos5]

Locked layers can still be manipulated in terms of fill and stroke colour and other stroke properties. I would expect everything to be locked when locking a layer, so I won't accidentally make changes to the object/ layer, which is the whole reason locking layers exists.

Steps to reproduce

1. Create a bunch of objects

2. Group them (and promote the group to layers)

3. Lock both the layer and the object

4. Change the fill colour

5. Notice how appearance changes are permitted

   

E: You can also continue drawing/ adding objects to locked layers. So there's no real way to actually make sure a layer remains unchanged.

 

[Ron P.]

It has been this way since I can recall. According to Serif, the Layer Lock (padlock) only locks the layer from moving or resizing, not from any other changes. It's by design.

[Old Bruce]

I really wish there was some way of locking a layer so I couldn't change anything about it. 

[Intuos5]

It's freaking me out that you can add objects to locked layers. How am I supposed to make sure things don't accidentally end up in the wrong layer? Especially when you need to occasionally make small edits to curves on locked layers, that just makes it so that you can easily end up putting work in the wrong layer...

[debraspicher]

1 hour ago, Intuos5 said:

It's freaking me out that you can add objects to locked layers. How am I supposed to make sure things don't accidentally end up in the wrong layer? Especially when you need to occasionally make small edits to curves on locked layers, that just makes it so that you can easily end up putting work in the wrong layer...

Oh that does drive me mad. This also happens with hidden layers. Especially when you're brushing, it can end up overriding what's on your Pixel Layer, you'd never know you drew over something important... making file revisions a necessity. Though I do this in practice, still... what if I happen to forget 🤡☠️

[ashf]

It has been like that since the beginning.
I would like to have the real locking feature.

But this is by design and not a bug according to Serif.
 

[Intuos5]

If the design only accounts for locking objects in space, what's the benefit? I might as well select all objects on a layer and lock them. Then what's the actual benefit of locking layers this way? It only leads to confusion as all other software actually lock layers from editing. There's no way to prevent any changes from happening.

[affinian]

On the functional (requirements) side this would be "easy" to improve.

Rename the current locking mechanism to "Soft Lock" and add a second "Hard Lock" which makes the layer (all its contents and relevant meta data) "view only".
 

[Guest]

This 'by design feature' has driven me mad from the very start. I would LOVE to know what the use-case is for this, and why this design is preferable to the standard lock behaviour the majority of users know from pretty much any other application. There are a number of questionable design decisions such as this, and the refusal to adopt an eye icon for layer visibility (even though that icon is used is used for 'symmetry' on the iPad?!) that have plagued the Affinity apps from the start.

Much of this feels like a chronic case of 'not invented here' (ie: rolling their own text engine rather than adopting the widely used Harfbuzz text shaping engine), combined with 'meaningless differentiation' (layers, artboards, colour management, etc.) from Serif management.

I'm all for going against conventions, but please, pick your battles.

[debraspicher]

57 minutes ago, Bryan Rieger said:

This 'by design feature' has driven me mad from the very start. I would LOVE to know what the use-case is for this, and why this design is preferable to the standard lock behaviour the majority of users know from pretty much any other application. There are a number of questionable design decisions such as this, and the refusal to adopt an eye icon for layer visibility (even though that icon is used is used for 'symmetry' on the iPad?!) that have plagued the Affinity apps from the start. Much of this feels like a chronic case of 'not invented here' combined with 'meaningless differentiation' within Serif management.

My concern is if they ever add an actual lock feature, what that icon is going to be... double locked maybe? 😂

Edit: BTW, the dots for visibility makes more sense with the busy-ness of the new Layer's panel, so they might've thought "oh this is one area we could simplify... because it's a dot who wouldn't want to click it and find out what it does"

[Ron P.]

On 11/25/2022 at 9:08 AM, debraspicher said:

My concern is if they ever add an actual lock feature, what that icon is going to be... double locked maybe?

Maybe a Combination Dial Lock, like a safe has?

[walt.farrell]

1 hour ago, Ron P. said:

Maybe a Combination Dial Lock, like a safe has?

I am tempted to suggest that they could implement actual combinations for these locks, so you could share your file with a coworker and make sure they couldn't change some portions of it.

But I won't.

[Intuos5]

Oh yes, a 4 number combination that differs per layer, so you won't accidentally unlock it, right? Like a real safe, not some silly padlock. 🤣