Layers in Affinity Designer

[MKM Pottery Tools]

I am transitioning from Adobe Illustrator and am having a difficult time with the layers.  For instance, when I am one layer creating an object (a circle, for instance), that object automatically moves to the Art Board layer.  Also, since every single thing on a layer has its own sublayer, it is almost impossible to manage the layers easily - you have to sort through hundreds, sometimes, of sublayers to get to the main layer, etc.  I am struggling here to do something that is very simple and easy in AI.  There must be something that I am missing.  I have looked at all the basic tutorials, but they don't address these kinds of issues.  Many thanks for any help.  -=Rick

[MEB]

Hi Rick,

This is by design. If you draw something over an artboard, that object will be moved to the respective artboard layer. In Illustrator these (layers and artboards) are separate entities and are managed independently from each other, however in Affinity both share the same hierarchy. The sublayers you are referring to are objects (not layers). You can identify them by their label between parenthesis after the layers name - curve (for paths), rectangle, star etc (for shapes), text (for art & frame text objects) and so - on in the Layers panel.

 

Layers as "containers" for other objects are identified as (Layer). Click the third icon counting from the right on the bottom of the Layers panel to create them. When you place other objects inside them (dragging them over the layer in the Layers panel or creating them inside an existing layer) you can expand/collapse them in the Layers panel clicking on the arrow inside a circle on the left of the layer's thumbnail.

 

It may seem confusing for someone coming from Illustrator because they are implemented in a different way in Affinity apps, but they make sense in Affinity's workflow.

[retrograde]

Hi Rick, this confused my too at first but I found as long as you have a layer selected in the layers panel, whatever you create should be added inside that layer, much the same as illustrator. In illustrator if you turn down your layer's little triangle to expose the content of the layer, everything is shown on it's own sub layer. So it is very similar to Affinity in that way.

 

My advice to everyone having a similar issue and it's what I try to remember to do, is to organize from the start your layer structure and make sure to select the appropriate layer in the panel before creating your elements. Otherwise you will end up with more top layers than you might want. ;-)