»Raster select all« Selects the Parent Pixel Layer Instead of Its Contents

[Mr. Doodlezz]

Hey all,

Is this behaviour intentional and if so, why is there no difference between the content types?

Scenario:

I'm working on a design I started in Designer with multiple artboards. I decided to add some pizzazz with a raster brushes on a designated pixel layer – either in Designer's Pixel Persona or via File → Edit in Photo (either works, behaviour is the same). I add a pixel layer and draw something. I realise that I have made a mistake and want to clear the layer and start again. I usually do this with a short succession of shortcuts: ⌘+A (in the History palette this is called »Raster select all«) to marquee the whole (visible) canvas and backspace or delete/⌦.

Expected Result:

The (visible) content of the pixel layer is removed.

Issue:

In my case, for some reason, the shortcut ignores the fact that I am currently working on a pixel layer, and instead of creating a marquee selection of its contents and deleting it, it selects the parent pixel layer itself and deletes it.

Now this might not be a big deal if it's a single layer, and you might argue »Why don't I just delete the layer and create a new pixel layer (⌘+⇧+N)?«
And I'd say »Sure, that might work for single, regular layers.«

The real problem is that this also works (or rather doesn't work) for linked pixel layers. If a single linked layer is deleted, it's not so easy to fix afterwards and involves copying, pasting, positioning if you've placed them in several different groups, shapes and so on – a bit of a PIA.

I also considered »Invert Pixel Selection« (Select → Invert Pixel Selection or ⌘+⇧+I) as a different approach, as this works with photo documents. But to no avail.

But I've noticed that this behaviour works for new documents, so I'm not sure why it doesn't work for my existing document.

Any help with this? Am I doing something wrong? Is the document somehow corrupt?

I’ve attached my document, feel free to try the scenario, try to select the whole pixel layer content and delete it with the designated shortcuts while maintaining the linked layer/s itself.

Cheers
Dennis

Raster_select_all_bug.afdesign

[walt.farrell]

I think this may be another bug in working with pixel layers, and selecting, when you have multiple Artboards in the document.

I think we've seen several bugs with that combination. 

Can you recreate if you start with only a single Artboard? Or with a canvas?

[Mr. Doodlezz]

14 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

I think this may be another bug in working with pixel layers, and selecting, when you have multiple Artboards in the document.

I think we've seen several bugs with that combination. 

Can you recreate if you start with only a single Artboard? Or with a canvas?

Hey Walt,

yeah, I've tried a few different setups, but not all of them – it's a bit time-consuming since there are many factors that could lead to the issue.

[Mr. Doodlezz]

I've just tried something that leads me to believe that the Artboards are causing the strange behaviour.

[Circulus]

I tried your workflow here and to me it works as intended on windows.
Opened your example file>added a pixellayer on top of all current layers and painted on it>ctrl+a>makes selection>delete>deletes only the brushstrokes.

Make sure to select the pixellayer first in the layerspanel before painting.
Otherwise you may be painting on another selected layer in the current stack that could be converted to a pixellayer.
Or the pixellayer is added inside one of the artboards.

Edited May 11, 2023 by Return

[Lee D]

@Mr. DoodlezzIt's working for me as well. If you can do a screen recording showing your exact workflow to confirm I can then do some more testing.