Search (Filter, Sort, Section, Tidy, & Rename) layers in Layers Panel.

[mpstaton]

Hi Affinity Team and Fans, 

All Affinity products need a fast way to Search within the layers panel, and then jump to the search result in the main focus area. This, at the minimum.

But if you're going to take it on, you should broaden the scope and introduce Filter, Sort, Move To, Section, Tidy, & Rename features.  

As more and more people get good at using Affinity, their documents will become more "complex."  I, for one, would easily switch FROM Affinity to another product just for the appropriate tools to maintain complex files. 

 

This request has been out for a while, please see:

.  

[GarryP]

If the thing you want has already been requested then there’s no need to add a new thread asking for the same thing.

All you need to do is to ‘add your voice’ to the existing thread.

(‘Archived’ requests for previous versions of the software are not ‘lost’ when they are archived, they remain active and are reviewed by the staff as and when necessary.)

[mpstaton]

2 minutes ago, GarryP said:

If the thing you want has already been requested then there’s no need to add a new thread asking for the same thing.

All you need to do is to ‘add your voice’ to the existing thread.

If you read that thread from the Version 1 Suite, then you will see that the staff member at Affinity asked us to repost in Version 2.  Also, my request is a little broader.  

I believe Affinity needs to dedicate a few dev cycles to a "complexity management" set of small features, which includes Search, Filter, Jump-To, Move-To, Section, Tidy, & Rename.  

Even if Affinity's strong POV is to keep files small, there's not a one step motion to select a bunch of old layer objects and then create a few file from them that is tidy.  

[GarryP]

The only post I can see in that thread from a staff member is by Gabe, near the top, and they don’t mention adding a new thread.

The post above your last post in that thread mentions adding a new thread but that wasn’t by a staff member.

You can distinguish staff members from non-staff members, on desktop browsers, as staff members have a little ‘Staff’ tag under their avatar.

It is often useful if similar requests go in the same thread so that related requests, and any differences between them, can be discussed together.

[mpstaton]

9 minutes ago, GarryP said:

It is often useful if similar requests go in the same thread so that related requests, and any differences between them, can be discussed together.

Well, I feel emotionally neglected if I am spending energy contributing to a thread that is officially in the "Archived" part of the forum.  

If I want to be vocal, I prefer to be vocal in the one that doesn't appear archived.  

 

Michael

[GarryP]

It’s no big deal for me as I don’t have to read, collate, and understand all the different requests, about slightly similar things, from multiple people, in multiple threads.

I was just trying to save you a bit of time – no need to create a new thread, and no need to link to an existing thread.

It's entirely up to you.

[pigeon]

I think this thread is needed. It's about a basic functionality that can have a big impact on the workflow for many users. It shouldn't be buried in the V1 archives. I have been wanting to be able to quickly find my named layers since I started using photo & designer.

[tudor]

I often work with Designer files containing 100-200 artboards. The app really needs some basic artboard management functions, like search and batch rename.

[CreativeNode]

This thread, meaning  this specific thread and not just the topic alone, is exactly what I came searching for. This result is not only high in Google results, the date is more recent -- both enticing factors in my search. Count me among those for whom this thread was definitely needed. 

 

I would love to see all the suggestions mentioned in the OP's post. I'll take a work-around, until then, if there is any. I need a sort function for the 52 layers I have highlighted right now, in fact. I can only imagine working with hundreds or thousands of layers. This would be a great addition. 

[ASUNDER]

The layers panel definitely needs a search feature.  It would populate the list of the results layers and keep it that way until the search filter is deleted.

We could even have multiple layers tabs.  One that always remains, the 'All' tab.  Then the filtered layer tabs to the right of it.  There could be a hide button on the tab headers.  We could one-click to show/hide our custom groups of objects.  We could also create our own custom tabs.

There could be a 'system tabs' feature.  That auto places objects into tabs based on what they are.  Groups, colours, object type etc.  These would copy over these things into the new tabs instead of move them.  This would change the layers organization from length to depth.  Giving us another dimension of organizational tools.

[Pšenda]

On 8/7/2024 at 5:57 AM, ASUNDER said:

We could one-click to show/hide our custom groups of objects.  We could also create our own custom tabs.

Have you tried the States panel?
https://affinity.help/designer2/English.lproj/pages/ObjectControl/layerStates.html

[ASUNDER]

1 hour ago, Pšenda said:

Have you tried the States panel?

Yes that looks really good.  A captured state especially for jumping between hiding groups of things.
Thank you for the heads up.

[CreativeNode]

2 hours ago, Pšenda said:

Have you tried the States panel?
https://affinity.help/designer2/English.lproj/pages/ObjectControl/layerStates.html

Thanks. It would be great to have more like this in AP. I neglected to see OP mentioned AD specifically. My replies have been specific to AP. Does V2 of AP offer more of this "state" type functionality? As an aside, I'll be testing out V2 trial soon, but I can't change my flow in the middle of a project, so it may be a moment before I get to it.

[Pšenda]

3 hours ago, CreativeNode said:

Does V2 of AP offer more of this "state" type functionality?

Yes - https://affinity.help/photo2/English.lproj/pages/Panels/statesPanel.html

[JariH]

I was quite surprised today when I tried to search for a lost layer by its name - No search function at all 😁

Please, Affinity. Pretty basic stuff here.

[ASUNDER]

On 9/6/2024 at 2:03 PM, JariH said:

I was quite surprised today when I tried to search for a lost layer by its name - No search function at all 😁

Please, Affinity. Pretty basic stuff here.

I wonder how the layers are stored in memory.  Maybe they are separate files with human readable names.
I'm thinking there could be a quick way of using another search program to find layers or other objects that are lost, and then drag and drop a found item  back into the project or something, as a workaround.

I'm currently investigating various file management search programs and might end up with something that would also help us with layers too; don't know yet.

[walt.farrell]

5 hours ago, ASUNDER said:

Maybe they are separate files with human readable names.

They are not.

[ASUNDER]

On 9/13/2024 at 4:53 AM, walt.farrell said:

They are not.

Ok, well a search function for Affinity products would be ideal.
One of its tabs could be for the current program (Designer, or Photo, or Publisher).  Another tab could search the assets/projects within all three programs.
Another tab could be a file explorer, to drag and drop into the program without having to leave it.  Decent.  🙂

[Pšenda]

On 9/13/2024 at 7:24 AM, ASUNDER said:

to find layers or other objects that are lost

It is possible to create a new dummy layer, which you name the same as the layer you are looking for, right-click on it, and Select Same Name.

[ASUNDER]

That's actually brilliant.  Thanks for the idea.

But since this company is in Great Britain, and they have a totally not dystopian two tier police system; I am not permitted to defend myself, and therefore I'm unable to interact with the above account, lest James Bond comes to get me over a hurty tweet.

...

The problem is with Find As You Type, and not knowing the exact wording of what you're looking for.
The Queries feature does have search syntax where we could manually add helpers that return results based on wildcards.
But since it's not 1995, and I'm not putting a quarter into a phone booth to call someone, I would also prefer a search box to handle search algorithms for us.
Let the computer do the work.

[Pšenda]

On 9/15/2024 at 12:09 PM, ASUNDER said:

The problem is with Find As You Type, and not knowing the exact wording of what you're looking for.

Of course, this is only a workaround until standard search is available.

This could be helped by adding the existing Select Same Name function, which is often unusable due to its "exact" nature (how many users name layers exactly the same?), a Select Partially Name function that would be able to search for layers with a similar name, which is much more suitable for many situations (for example, naming layers using the LayerName_001/002/xxx suffix/index).

[AdrianG]

I can strongly support the request to get some management functionality for layers.

I love the find and replace dialog in Publisher for all the text. If this could be used to be applied to layer names, this would help a lot.

Filtering layers by name patterns like Excel does for columns, would be terrific but I guess slightly more complicated.