Layers in Affinity Designer

[MKM Pottery Tools]

I am struggling with Affinity designer layers.  I come from the world of Adobe Designer, with objects on specific layers and carefully separated.  But I am completely baffled by layers in AD!  When I select a layer and then add an object, that object is immediately shifted to the Artboard layer.  When I drag it up to Layer 1 (or Layer 2), where it was supposed to be, then a second Layer 1 or 2 is created.  In each layer are hundreds of objects, which means it is quite difficult to move from one layer to another, or even find another layer, because you have to scroll up or down so far.  there doesn't seem to be a command that forces all sublayer objects to not be viewed - in other words, to simplify the Layer panel display so that it is somewhat manageable.  Things were easy and very manageable in AI, even though I might have many tens of layers.  Now, I can even get a single object to be created on layer 2 - it just automatically plops itself on the art board layer - even if that layer is locked.

 

I have read all the available information on layers, but they don't address any of these problems.  Yes, I can create, delete, or move a layer up or down.  Yes, I can give it a name and a color.  But no, they won't lock, they won't allow me to create an object on that layer (always automatically creating the object on the art board layer), and the sheer overwhelming numbers of sublayers (one for every object), makes doing anything with layers heinously difficult and time consuming.

 

What am I missing?  HELP.  I am trying to shift to AD, but Adobe Illustrator is looking so sweet and easy now.

 

All the best,

 

Rick