Select All Object in ONE, SINGLE Layer, but ONLY that one SINGLE Layer?

[meridian360]

In Illustrator, you can Shift-Click on a Layer, which then Select all the Object[s] on that ONE layer.

Is there a way to do that with Affinity Designer v2?

Edited January 29, 2023 by meridian360
spelling

[walt.farrell]

In the Layers panel, disable Edit All Layers. Then if you click on the Layer, and do Ctrl+A (on Windows, probably Cmd+A on Mac) you should get just the objects in that Layer selected.

[meridian360]

Thanks, Walt. That's a step closer to what I want. That helps, a lot. 

But boy, such an obscure UI/UX option. [head/palm smack] And this functionality actually works just by clicking the parent layer now. Doing so, (with your highlighted button off) selected all in that layer. Groovy. 

 

Now, is there a way/option for ADv2 to show all the selected objects *individually* and not as a whole? Such that, if you're zoomed into one area, you might not know if you've actually selected things, because well, the select box is way outside the current view window. 

Cheers! 

[meridian360]

Ok, problem....

When I do the click on a layer, or even Select All with the Layer Selected and Edit All Layers turned off, the Color and Stroke Panels are not reflecting what is in the layer.

I have layers that have only one type of object, Ferry routes. I want to change the style of said route line to some other color and/or dash...

But if I select the layer, the Color and Stroke panels don't show the current specifications of the lines?!! They just show blank lines. If I select an individual object, the Color panel updates appropriately. 

So, even though I can now select all the objects in a layer, how can I get ADv2 to recognize that I've done so? Sigh... 

The whole point is speed and efficiency. If a user has to scroll through and select stuff from the layer panel all the time, that's a huge time sink. And make Affinity Designer useless (for me) as a professional replacement for the "Other A" guys.  Maybe there's legal reasons Serif can't do certain UI/UX things, but having a Color panel not update is frustrating. 

Cheers.

 

 

[walt.farrell]

42 minutes ago, meridian360 said:

But if I select the layer, the Color and Stroke panels don't show the current specifications of the lines?!! They just show blank lines. If I select an individual object, the Color panel updates appropriately. 

So, even though I can now select all the objects in a layer, how can I get ADv2 to recognize that I've done so? Sigh... 

I'm not sure I understand what you're experiencing.

However:

1. If you just select the Layer, as you described, you may see a selection box around its objects, but the objects are not selected. The Layer is selected. Therefore, the Color panel would be showing you the color of the Layer (as it is what's selected), not its objects.
2. If you select the objects, as I described, then you will see information in the Color panel that reflects the objects' colors. Of course, if they have different colors you'll only see one color. But if you change the color, they will all change.

[meridian360]

Hi Walt,

Yup, ok.. that's the difference in reality vs expectation.

What I *want* is to select all the Objects in the layer. I want to do that with one, quick UI operation (like the clicking on the layer would be). 

So if clicking on the Layer only selects the Layer and not the Objects, then that doesn't work (for me). 

 

Ex: I want to change all Highways from Red 4pt to Blue 3pt. 

I want to be able to click the Layer, which would select all the objects, then go to the Color panel and change it to Blue; then change the Stroke panel to 3pt. 

But right now, I have to go to that Layer, Expand it, Select the First object, Scroll to the bottom of the list (could be 10s of thousands of objects in a map), and Shift Click to select all the object in the layer....THEN now go to the Color panel and change it to Blue; then change the Stroke panel to 3pt.

See the difference? One-Click SelectAll vs. Click-Scroll-ShiftClick. One is instant, the other is very time consuming when done over and over all day. 

 

Thanks...

[lepr]

1 hour ago, meridian360 said:

But if I select the layer, the Color and Stroke panels don't show the current specifications of the lines?!! They just show blank lines.

If you apply fill colour, stroke colour and other stroke attributes to the Layer, these properties will be propagated to the members of the Layer, and the Layer will remember the properties.

Next time you select the Layer, the remembered properties will be displayed in the Colour and Stroke panels (although you may have changed the appearance of individual members in the meantime). You can apply a new appearance to the Layer and that will be remembered and propagated to the members, as before.

The same is true for Group objects.

[meridian360]

1 hour ago, ,,, said:

propagated to the members, as before

Now that I can handle, even if it's counter intuitive to 20+ years of Freehand and AI UI/UX experience. It still needs to show that what objects that "Layer Selection" is being applied to before you change the attributes, but it's something. 

It's still not perfect, but at least it's a one-click solution to applying attributes to all the objects in a layer.

Thanks. 

[meridian360]

Ok, just found a scenario that the "Select a Layer" to get the Objects on the Layer does not work.

What about when you want to make a compound object out of all those objects on the layer? Selecting the Layer from the above conversation works for color (etc) attributes but not boolean operations. 

I still had to select all the objects by scrolling and shift-clicking in the Layer Panel to be able to do a Boolean operation (Add). 

Any ideas? 

[lepr]

4 hours ago, meridian360 said:

Ok, just found a scenario that the "Select a Layer" to get the Objects on the Layer does not work.

Selecting a Layer never directly selects the member objects. It is sufficient for changing the fill and stroke of members of the Layer because the app has been coded to propagate such changes to the members of the Layer.

4 hours ago, meridian360 said:

What about when you want to make a compound object out of all those objects on the layer? Selecting the Layer from the above conversation works for color (etc) attributes but not boolean operations. 

I still had to select all the objects by scrolling and shift-clicking in the Layer Panel to be able to do a Boolean operation (Add). 

Any ideas? 

In the first reply of the thread, Walt told you how to quickly select all members of a Layer: 

with Edit All Layers disabled, select a Layer (or a member of the Layer) then press cmd+A (ctrl+A on Windows)

 

Edit: anto has posted good videos now

[meridian360]

12 hours ago, ,,, said:

Selecting a Layer never directly selects the member objects. It is sufficient for changing the fill and stroke of members of the Layer because the app has been coded to propagate such changes to the members of the Layer.

I know that now. That why I said I found a scenario where that "Select a Layer" UI/UX technique fails. Just clicking on the Layer doesn't allow for things like Boolean operations, because it's not selection the objects, it's selecting the layers, but at the same time propagating the styles to its offspring objects. This is something Adobe came up with years and years ago and there's reasons why it doesn't always work in real world applications. 

The Cmd+A does work for non-style operations, but *still* does not show which *individual* object are selected. That's my point. If you're zoomed in, you will not know if you what and/or if you have the correct objects selected. 

The Cmd+A does allow for the Boolean operation to work. But my

Glory be! It does show the outlines. It sit corrected!! Ok, onward! Thanks for the bonk on the head to get me in the right direction! 

Last point, and I think this is a bug. Selecting the Same. I tried that with Same Stroke weight > Equal. -- But even with the target layer the only one selected and Edit all Layers turned OFF, ADv2 still selected objects in a Hidden and Locked layer! Any ideas on that? This is all part of my sorting data from a GIS output into "final" layers to make a map. Different classes of stuff is exported and the GIS doesn't always export everything into tidy layers. We have to do that manually. Thus, selecting "by stroke weight or color" and then dumping it into our own layers. 

Thanks for all the hand holding! 

[lepr]

1 hour ago, meridian360 said:

Last point, and I think this is a bug. Selecting the Same. I tried that with Same Stroke weight > Equal. -- But even with the target layer the only one selected and Edit all Layers turned OFF, ADv2 still selected objects in a Hidden and Locked layer! Any ideas on that?

Good point, although it's likely to be something that hasn't been implemented yet, rather than a bug. Exactly the same problematic lack of control over the candidates for 'select same' has been pointed out by other users. Hopefully, there will be improvement sooner rather than later.

[meridian360]

Agreed. Let's hope v2 continues to improve. I notice that even snapping isn't the same instant satisfaction that v1 had (?). Which is one the things AD does *so* much better than--ahem--that other app. And it's just odd that you can still manipulate and/or interact with things in locked layers. Hopefully, just bugs and not UX decisions by Serif. 

I know they can't 1:1 copy the subscription beast. I just want to AD to be faster from a workflow standpoint, so I can use it for more projects. There's still too many hoops to jump through. It's getting there, though. 

Cheers.