Isolate/ unisolate toggle

[Intuos5]

There currently is a hide others function, which works well to isolate a group of objects. However, in a large document with a complex layer structure, I am unable to easily 'undo' this view state. Basically I want to be able to isolate objects, then make modifications and have it do one of two things:

1. With a new selection, activating the hotkey should isolate the newly selected objects
2. With no selection, it should show all objects prior to starting the isolation — effectively undoing the hiding operation(s)

You can use the alt+click on thumbnails for isolation, but I want to map this as a keyboard shortcut to reduce mouse travel.

[_Th]

This is really, really needed.

The current option (Layer > Hide Others) can be undone, but it's not helpful as you're typically trying to do some work on a layer without the distraction of other layers. So once you've made changes to the isolated layer, undo to see the other layers again is not an option. Instead...

Please make the Layer > Hide Others toggle, as is the case for for View > Show Pixel Selection. Much. More. Useful.

Also, having the keystroke combo of Option-click on Mac or ALT-click on Windows on the layer to toggle Hide Others, would also be so very appreciated.

It's clear with all the changes/additions happening in v2.1 Serif/Affinity is listening. (And thanks for that!) Hopefully this could make it into 2.1 as well. Little by little, getting closer to being able to ditch the Software Rental company.

[carl123]

Doesn't Layer > Show Others do what you want?

[_Th]

1 hour ago, carl123 said:

Doesn't Layer > Show Others do what you want?

Well, it kind of would. Except...

1.  Embarrassingly, I didn't know it was there. Thanks for pointing out the silly oversight.
2. On Windows, in 2.0.4 and 2.1, both Show Others and Show All don't work* for me. The layer visibility icon changes back to visible when either Show Others or Show All is selected. However, the content of those layers doesn't become visible again. Unless I'm missing something (else) obvious, that looks broken. Have not researched here at all, yet.
3. Even if Show Others and/or Show All were working correctly, I think a single shortcut to toggle Hide Others/Show Others would be more helpful. In Photoshop, this could always be done by ALT-clicking (Option-click on Mac, I think) on the layer you want to isolate. Repeating that simply shows the other layers again. In my looooooong history of creating and editing in Photoshop, that's been an key part of an efficient workflow. That said, I think having the Show All available as a menu item and therefore a keyboard shortcut is very helpful.

* Will reproduce and post as a bug.

[carl123]

Sometimes Layer > Show Others does not work for me also

But that is a refresh/redraw issue for me, zooming in/out cures it

If that's the same for you, you might want to mention it in your bug report

[_Th]

Weirdly, I just checked again in 2.1 and it was working fine. Same test file open, literally no changes at all other than switching to Firefox and back. Switched back to 2.1 and then ... same issue as before. You're right, zooming in/out does 'fix', so I'll mention that. Thanks again.

[Intuos5]

5 hours ago, carl123 said:

Doesn't Layer > Show Others do what you want?

No, this should be a toggle. If anything is selected, the command isolates the selection (this can go multiple isolate actions deep). Deselect and toggle to show all (this is a single step to show others for all isolation levels).

The advantage? It consumes only one hotkey and the command should work irrespective of any show/ hide operations, that way you have full control over object visibility.

[_Th]

Just found this out. Sorry for being late to the party, but...

If you ALT click (Windows) on a layer's icon, you isolate that layer, or go into isolation mode. ALT click again and the previous layer visibility is restored. Assuming the Mac equivalent is there too. No redraw issues, either.

This works in 2+—could be it's been there all along. Note that ALT clicking on the layer name does not work—maybe that's doing something else that I'm as yet unaware of?

credit:

 

[Bartosz Borecki]

On 3/2/2023 at 7:50 PM, Red Sands said:

Suggestions for improvement (true isolated mode)
If Serif improves isolated mode in a future version of Affinity, it would also be preferable if:

• Isolated mode appears in right-click menu on layer e.g. so customers don't have to read manuals to find the functionality
• Isolated mode is truly isolated and one remains in isolated mode even if one does not click directly on isolated objects, so that one can add more objects etc. and work properly with the isolated content 
• The user interface clearly communicates how to exit isolated mode

I completely agree with that. And one other thing to add to this new functionality would be:

• ALT click on a hidden layer to isolate it should temporarily show it till exiting isolation mode

Now, there is no point of isolating hidden layer - you can do that, but you get an empty canvas obviously. When there are other hidden layers and you want to see exactly their content, you have to manually enable all of them, then isolate each one to see the difference, and hide them again. Instead, new functionality of ALT click to isolate hidden layer would be much more useful.