"Select All on Current Layer" added to Select menu

[Bit Disappointed]

1 minute ago, lepr said:

@Bitarts I'm guessing you want to select all of the objects that are inside a Group rather than select the Group itself.

If you have an object of a group selected, then cmd+A (Select All) will select it and all of its peers, and nothing else, if Edit All Layers is disabled.

Bulls eye.

AHA! Thanks - that is what I am looking for!

[Bit Disappointed]

5 hours ago, lepr said:

@Bitarts I'm guessing you want to select all of the objects that are inside a Group rather than select the Group itself.

If you have an object of a Group selected, then cmd+A (Select All) will select it and all of its peers, and nothing else, if Edit All Layers is disabled.

Edit All Layers is toggled with the little button in bottom left corner of Layers panel. It does not appear in any menu and cannot be assigned a keyboard shortcut, unfortunately.

I just tried it in this quick'n'dirty file where disabling edit all layers has no effect?

Select same fill.afdesign

This happens when I then select an object in a group and then command+a for select all:

[Hangman]

Hi @Bitarts,

That's because your rectangles are nested in another rectangle rather than grouped...

[Bit Disappointed]

1 minute ago, Hangman said:

Hi @Bitarts,

That's because your rectangles are nested in another rectangle rather than grouped...

Ah, of course. Thanks!

Well, it is such scenarios where I would like a select all on current level command that just does exactly that. 🙂

[Hangman]

23 minutes ago, Bitarts said:

Well, it is such scenarios where I would like a select all on current level command that just does exactly that. 🙂

You may want to consider working with Layers (Capital 'L') which is really what the Edit All Layers icon in the layers panel is designed for... Disabling Edit All Layers allows you to focus on individual layers within a Layer...

That means selecting an object in a Layer and using Cmd A will select all the objects only in that Layer and you can also use Select > Same Fill Colour and all the other variations from the Select > Select Same menu if for example you only want to select objects with the same fill colour, same stroke colour, same stroke weight, same blend mode, same opacity and so on within an individual Layer.

Have a play with the attached modified version of your file and make sure to disable Edit All Layers in the layers panel and then select an object within a Layer and experiment with the options mentioned above to see if it gives you what you want...

select same fill v2.afdesign

[Bit Disappointed]

Interesting advice, thank you for your time @Hangman

Probably not always possible due to my complex designs but I'll give it a go.

[lepr]

4 hours ago, Bitarts said:

I just tried it in this quick'n'dirty file where disabling edit all layers has no effect?

Select same fill.afdesign

This happens when I then select an object in a group and then command+a for select all:

There was a communication breakdown. My advice concerned objects inside a Group because you talked about objects inside a group. I didn't realise you were using the word group to refer to a clipping object rather than a Group.

Attached is your document with a very simple change - each of the two sets of windows is now a Group - and you can now use the functionality that I explained earlier.

grouped windows.afdesign

Edited October 14, 2023 by lepr
added edited document

[Hangman]

2 hours ago, Bitarts said:

Probably not always possible due to my complex designs but I'll give it a go.

I think it all depends on how you plan your design (however complex), I can't think of a situation where the use of Layers wouldn't work but equally happy to shown otherwise...

[lepr]

@Bitarts See the attachment I added to my comment before this one.

[Bit Disappointed]

Thanks for the workarounds and explanations, guys. I will be sticking with my feature request as I think it's a natural natural and common need, while it's somewhat mechanical for me to have to adjust to these tricks.

I don't build my rather complicated designs in a linear, predictable and logical hierarchical structure, but it all emerges along the way, and I build the structure as I go, tidying up with groups and hierarchies - and have many clipping objects.

I just need a small feature to accommodate people who work this way.

[lepr]

21 minutes ago, Bitarts said:

I just need a small feature to accommodate people who work this way.

In all seriousness, you could easily be waiting a decade or more for the small feature.

[Bit Disappointed]

25 minutes ago, lepr said:

In all seriousness, you could easily be waiting a decade or more for the small feature.

"Serif customer since 2007"

I'm a veteran of Serif's waiting room. 🙂