Is there a way to Count Layers?

[Ldina]

Is there a way to count the number of layers in a complex document? I'm mainly curious about Designer, which may have hundreds or thousands of layers in a complex document, but I'm also curious if this can be done in Publisher and Photo as well. If so, how? 

Thanks.

[GarryP]

If you use menu “Select → Select All”, while using the Move Tool, you will get a count on the Context Toolbar (and in the Status Bar) of the number of ‘root-level’ layers in the document but that count doesn’t include all of the sub-layers etc.

I realise that this doesn’t answer your question but it might be useful to other people who read this.

As to your actual question, I don’t know if there’s a way to do it and I’ve not seen one.

Can you explain why it would be useful to be able to do so?

See here from 2018: https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/73229-object-count-affinity-designer/

[Ldina]

Thanks, @GarryP. I didn't even notice that in the Context Toolbar. Helpful for certain use cases, but you're right...it is limited to top level layers.

15 minutes ago, GarryP said:

Can you explain why it would be useful to be able to do so?

Probably not! 🥴 I am just finishing an involved illustration that's taken me 3 or 4 days and I wanted to know how mainly layers I created in the entire document. So, mainly just curiosity. I'm not sure if there are any workflows where this might be important.

[carl123]

44 minutes ago, Ldina said:

Is there a way to count the number of layers in a complex document? I

Export to SVG file
Open SVG File
Select > Select All

Should get most of them but without seeing the document it's hard to see how you have organised/created it

 

[GarryP]

One early thought I had would be to export to SVG and then count the elements but that probably wouldn’t be accurate, especially if some layers were rasterised upon export.

I also wondered if the Shape Builder Tool or the Area Tool might help but I couldn’t find anything in there.

And then there’s the question of which layers do you count? Would a (Capital-L) Layer be counted, or a Group for instance?

I can certainly see why someone would be curious as to how many layers there are after working for so long.

(If someone was getting ‘paid by the layer’ then it would probably be very useful.)

One thing you can try looking at is to:

• Use the States Panel;
• Create a Query which selects all non-Locked layers and then use that query to select those layers and check the Context Toolbar as mentioned above for the number of layers.
• Create another Query which selects all Locked layers and then add the value from that to the number of non-locked layers.

[MikeTO]

1 hour ago, GarryP said:

If you use menu “Select → Select All”, while using the Move Tool, you will get a count on the Context Toolbar (and in the Status Bar) of the number of ‘root-level’ layers in the document but that count doesn’t include all of the sub-layers etc.

And to include the sub-layers in the count you can:

1. Choose Select All
2. Choose Layer > Ungroup All
3. If you have Layers (not layers) in the document, select the first layer in the Layers panel and Shift + click the last layer.
4. Now the context toolbar and status bar will report the total number of objects and Layers. It won't count the Groups you ungrouped.
5. Then choose Undo a few times to get back to where you were.

[Ldina]

Thanks All. I'll play around with these suggestions when I get a chance.

Unfortunately, I have a plumbing disaster that has risen above "layer count" on my priority list!! 😳

[Ldina]

None of those worked for me...perhaps I didn't do them right. I'm using Designer v2.6, and everything was done in the vector persona. I didn't really need to know and it wasn't worth all that much effort to figure out, so I'll probably let it go. It would be interesting to know though. I hadn't thought about a Query, which was worth a try, but it didn't work for me. Whatever I do, it seems only to count high level groups or layers. Probably user error on my part. 

FWIW, I did NOT use an Art Board, I have a lot of Groups, and Groups within Groups, probably a few thousand layers total (small "l"), no Layers (capital "L"). 

Thanks....I appreciate the suggestions. You can all let this go, unless of course, an unsolved problem drives you nuts!! Haha. 🤪 😵‍💫