Request: Auto Select All Child Layers

[HydroJLW]

Request: Auto select all child layers (from select menu or right click menu)

As far as I am aware, this isn't possible with a button. A click and drag is needed, which can sometimes be problematic.
The select menu has the option to select parent, but it would be very useful to be able to go there to select all child layers too.

Please correct me if I am wrong and there is indeed an option for this that I haven't seen.

Thank you.

[GenewalDesign]

Looking for a solution too.

[fde101]

The truly strange thing to me is that the options to select the top and bottom layers are disabled when no layers are selected.  I can't make any sense of that.

Also missing (in addition to select all descendants) are options to select first child, select last child, select all siblings.

Not sure how critical these commands would be, but if you are trying to round out the set...

[GarryP]

When you say “Auto select all child layers” and “select all child layers too”, once the functionality has been applied, do you want the parent layer to be selected along with the child layers, or just the child layers to be selected without the parent player also being selected?
Either way, can you explain why you want it one way and not the other?

Also, what if a child layer has its own child layers? Should children of children (etc.) be selected via this functionality, or not?
And should child layers that are themselves a parent layer be selected, or not?
Either way, can you explain why you want it one way and not the other?

Also, what about Adjustment layers and/or Live Filter layers; should they also be selected or not?
Either way, can you explain why you want it one way and not the other?

Have a look at my example screenshot.
If I select layer “Red”, and then use your suggested functionality, which layers should be selected?

Rather than just saying that you want this, it might help if you gave some examples of various scenarios in which this functionality would be useful.

[lepr]

On 3/11/2023 at 8:38 PM, HydroJLW said:

Request: Auto select all child layers (from select menu or right click menu)

As far as I am aware, this isn't possible with a button. A click and drag is needed, which can sometimes be problematic.
The select menu has the option to select parent, but it would be very useful to be able to go there to select all child layers too.

Yes, I've often had situations where a Select Siblings command (with keyboard shortcut) would be more convenient than marquee or click selecting all siblings of a currently selected object. (I gave up posting requests because there are already hundreds or thousands, but I hope yours is successful.)

[lepr]

2 hours ago, GarryP said:

When you say “Auto select all child layers” and “select all child layers too”, once the functionality has been applied, do you want the parent layer to be selected along with the child layers, or just the child layers to be selected without the parent player also being selected?
Either way, can you explain why you want it one way and not the other?

Also, what if a child layer has its own child layers? Should children of children (etc.) be selected via this functionality, or not?
And should child layers that are themselves a parent layer be selected, or not?
Either way, can you explain why you want it one way and not the other?

Also, what about Adjustment layers and/or Live Filter layers; should they also be selected or not?
Either way, can you explain why you want it one way and not the other?

Have a look at my example screenshot.
If I select layer “Red”, and then use your suggested functionality, which layers should be selected?

Rather than just saying that you want this, it might help if you gave some examples of various scenarios in which this functionality would be useful.

 

Seems like you are massively overcomplicating this. The request appears to be for a simple Select Siblings comand.

[GarryP]

I don’t see my questions as “massively overcomplicating” anything.

I’m simply trying to find out what they want the software to do.

If that means that the issue becomes more complicated than was first thought then that’s simply how it is - your "simple Select Siblings command" might not be the same as my "simple Select Siblings command" or other peoples' "simple Select Siblings command".

If the requester can’t precisely specify what they want then how can the developers know how to implement exactly what they want?

[HydroJLW]

3 hours ago, GarryP said:

When you say “Auto select all child layers” and “select all child layers too”, once the functionality has been applied, do you want the parent layer to be selected along with the child layers, or just the child layers to be selected without the parent player also being selected?
Either way, can you explain why you want it one way and not the other?

Also, what if a child layer has its own child layers? Should children of children (etc.) be selected via this functionality, or not?
And should child layers that are themselves a parent layer be selected, or not?
Either way, can you explain why you want it one way and not the other?

Also, what about Adjustment layers and/or Live Filter layers; should they also be selected or not?
Either way, can you explain why you want it one way and not the other?

Have a look at my example screenshot.
If I select layer “Red”, and then use your suggested functionality, which layers should be selected?

Rather than just saying that you want this, it might help if you gave some examples of various scenarios in which this functionality would be useful.

Yeah, I get what you are saying, but I don't see why these other options couldn't also be selection variables under a 'select child layers' heading.

I'm sure this would be useful in a range of scenarios, but I most recently noticed it when I was trying to select a fairly large number of grouped shapes to then use 'Transform Objects Separately' and change the size of all of them at the same time, and where 'Select Same' and 'Select Object' were not helpful.

Can the 'Select All' function be modified so that it only applies to one artboard, or even one parent layer? - Could also be useful in some situations.

[walt.farrell]

2 minutes ago, HydroJLW said:

Can the 'Select All' function be modified so that it only applies to one artboard, or even one parent layer? - Could also be useful in some situations.

Have you tried it with Edit All Layers turned off in the Layers panel?

[HydroJLW]

3 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

Have you tried it with Edit All Layers turned off in the Layers panel?

Hi Walt,

Yeah, I tried this, but it still wouldn't let me resize the shapes - it just selects the group and then wants to resize the group itself, rather than each individual shape within the group.

Cheers for the suggestion though.

[walt.farrell]

32 minutes ago, HydroJLW said:

Yeah, I tried this, but it still wouldn't let me resize the shapes - it just selects the group and then wants to resize the group itself, rather than each individual shape within the group.

Sorry, but I don't see how that's related to your question about restricting Select All to a specific Artboard or Layer, which is what I was responding to.

[HydroJLW]

9 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

Sorry, but I don't see how that's related to your question about restricting Select All to a specific Artboard or Layer, which is what I was responding to.

Sorry for any confusion, mixed signals there - I was asking that question with a view to potentially use 'Select All' to help solve my specific problem, for which it did not work.

In terms of what you suggested - it seems it can work for one artboard with any active parent layers (thank you for suggesting), but not further down into the specific grouped layers within the artboard, as far as I can see (which was what I was trying with regard to my last comment on the thread).

[walt.farrell]

10 minutes ago, HydroJLW said:

In terms of what you suggested - it seems it can work for one artboard with any active parent layers (thank you for suggesting), but not further down into the specific grouped layers within the artboard, as far as I can see (which was what I was trying with regard to my last comment on the thread).

It works for Artboards and Layers (with a capital L).

[fde101]

12 hours ago, GarryP said:

do you want the parent layer to be selected along with the child layers, or just the child layers to be selected without the parent player also being selected?

Just in case you haven't noticed yet, you can't have both a parent layer and its child layer selected in the Affinity products at the same time.  If you select a parent layer, all of its children are automatically deselected, and attempts to command+click or shift+click on the children are ignored.  I believe they may intend to imply by this that if the parent layer is selected the child layers are included implicitly; as a result, if the intent were to have the parent and all of its children selected, the existing "Select Parent" command would already be sufficient to accomplish the closest possible equivalent.

[lepr]

9 hours ago, GarryP said:

If the requester can’t precisely specify what they want then how can the developers know how to implement exactly what they want?

It could be precisely specified as "straightforward selecting of siblings without GarryP's massive overcomplications".

[prophet]

11 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

It works for Artboards and Layers (with a capital L).

If I'm understanding this correctly, turning off Edit All Layers allows me to select an object within a Group and then Select All to get all siblings within the Group. The Group does not need to be inside of a Layer or Artboard.

[lepr]

4 hours ago, prophet said:

If I'm understanding this correctly, turning off Edit All Layers allows me to select an object within a Group and then Select All to get all siblings within the Group. The Group does not need to be inside of a Layer or Artboard.

Yes, with Edit All Layers disabled, Select All is usefully restricted to the siblings when the direct parent is a Group.

However, with Edit All Layers disabled and the direct parent is an object that is not a Group, Layer or Artboard, the children of the nearest ancestor Layer or Artboard, defaulting to the document, will be selected. Note that Groups are ignored in that journey up the document hierarchy to the nearest ancestor.

[GarryP]

10 hours ago, fde101 said:

you can't have both a parent layer and its child layer selected in the Affinity products at the same time.

The OP said:

On 3/11/2023 at 8:38 PM, HydroJLW said:

The select menu has the option to select parent, but it would be very useful to be able to go there to select all child layers too.

Which was a bit vague, so the purpose of my question was to find out if they meant that they wanted to also have a “Select all child layers” menu item, along with the “Select Parent” menu item, or whether they wanted to be able to select the child layers with the parent layer.

In other words, the “too” at the end of the sentence could be interpreted in different ways.

[GarryP]

10 hours ago, ,,, said:

It could be precisely specified as "straightforward selecting of siblings without GarryP's massive overcomplications".

I still haven’t seen a description of what “straightforward” is in this context.

I’ve seen people saying that I’m overcomplicating things, or possibly being awkward, but I’ve not seen a “straightforward” description of what is required as related to my questions.

If you cannot answer my questions then you might want to leave it to the OP to answer them, rather than just complaining that I'm trying to find out what someone else's requirements are for the possible benefit of all users.

[lepr]

8 hours ago, GarryP said:

I still haven’t seen a description of what “straightforward” is in this context.

I’ve seen people saying that I’m overcomplicating things, or possibly being awkward, but I’ve not seen a “straightforward” description of what is required as related to my questions.

If you cannot answer my questions then you might want to leave it to the OP to answer them, rather than just complaining that I'm trying to find out what someone else's requirements are for the possible benefit of all users.

Clearly, it's too complicated for me to explain in a straightforward way.

An explanation of a straightforward Select Siblings is now irrelevant for this thread. The OP has made it clear that they want a Select Children command - see following discussion.

Edited March 16, 2023 by ,,,

[HydroJLW]

7 hours ago, GarryP said:

The OP said:

Which was a bit vague, so the purpose of my question was to find out if they meant that they wanted to also have a “Select all child layers” menu item, along with the “Select Parent” menu item, or whether they wanted to be able to select the child layers with the parent layer.

In other words, the “too” at the end of the sentence could be interpreted in different ways.

The 'too' was meant as 'as well as'...i.e. as well as having the existing option to 'select parent', it would also be useful to have a 'select all child layers' option too.

The select menu has the option to select parent, but it would be very useful to be able to go there to select all child layers  t̶o̶o̶ as well.

As mentioned in a previous post, if this were implemented, I don't see why there couldn't be selection variables under a 'select child layers' heading. Then you could have a number of options to suit your needs.

I understand what you are getting at, but essentially I am requesting a function that doesn't appear to exist currently, so any addition here would be a plus and a welcome starting point. Like many new features, things can be added or changed over time as peoples' needs become more apparent with use...and it is unlikely that the addition of any new feature like this would be in it's best/final form from the outset.

[lepr]

59 minutes ago, HydroJLW said:

The 'too' was meant as 'as well as'...i.e. as well as having the existing option to 'select parent', it would also be useful to have a 'select all child layers' option too.

Trying to get this absolutely clear, which would you like (at least to start with):

Select Children - for each object that is currently selected, deselect it and select its children instead

or

Select Siblings - for each object that is currently selected, select it and its siblings

or

something else?

[HydroJLW]

51 minutes ago, ,,, said:

Trying to get this absolutely clear, is this what you would like (at least to start with) Select Children to do: for each object that is currently selected, deselect it and select its children instead.

I would like it to be able to select all of the child layers within a group, so that they all become individually selected and so that I can edit them all simultaneously.

So, using the attached image as an example: I would like to be able to click on the 'dots' group in the layer panel and then have a menu option to select all child layers within that group so that they all become highlighted/active and are then editable together.
Currently I am having to either click-drag to select them, or select the first child layer of a group and ctrl+shift clicking them all manually, which works, but can become problematic in some situations, particularly with large numbers of objects/shapes in a group. Having a menu option to use as well would make it a lot less fiddly.



It would also be great to have an option for groups that have multiple sub-groups. To be able to actively select a number or all of the child layers within these groups and make them simultaneously editable would be a lot less fiddly in certain situations.
For example, you could select 7 out of 12 layer groups in the layer panel, then go to a menu option that lets you select all of the individual child layers simultaneously from these selected groups.

Hope that all makes sense!

[prophet]

42 minutes ago, HydroJLW said:

I would like to be able to click on the 'dots' group in the layer panel and then have a menu option to select all child layers within that group so that they all become highlighted/active and are then editable together.

Currently doable with the disable Edit All Layers and then Select All suggestion made above,

But I can see how a quicker option could be useful. I'm in favor of it.

43 minutes ago, HydroJLW said:

select all of the individual child layers simultaneously from these selected groups

Selecting individual object from inside different "containers" seems to be more complicated.