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Posted

Hi,

I'm a brand new user. I'm confused by the following. When I create a number of separate objects, they all seem to group with each other. And, under "layers," the "ungroup all" is grayed out. So, how do I create objects and keep them as separate objects? I'm having to destroy some of my work and start over here. No disaster, but painful.

 

Thanks.

 

Posted

I think I've answered my own question, though I'm open to any further suggestions. After I draw my last stroke, I press the escape key. Then, I select the selection tool. Then, if I still need to draw, I select the pen tool again and continue drawing for the next object.

 

Thanks.

  • Staff
Posted

Hello pb4072,

Welcome to Affinity Forums.

When you draw several objects on a new document, they will be put on a new layer. You can think of it (layer) as a sheet of transparent paper.

You are simply putting your objects over there. Their purpose is to help you organize your work.

Suppose you are drawing a snowman. You can put its head on a layer, the body on another, and the arms in a third one.

You can then show/hide those layers as needed while you work, to help focusing on specific parts.

 

The objects they contain aren't grouped because you can select/edit/move them individually. Try it. Change to the Move Tool, click on one of the objects on the canvas and move it. You can do it. If it were grouped with other objects as soon as you clicked on one all the others would get selected too.

 

To actually group two or more objects you have to select them and go to Layer -> Group. Now when you select one of them on the canvas, all the others will get selected too.

 

What may be confusing you is, clicking on a layer containing several objects on the layers panel: in this case although all the objects are still separated, since you selected the layer (i.e that sheet of transparent paper), all the objects inside it get selected too. If you want to select them individually on that layer on the layers panel, you have to click on the small arrow on the layer to "expand" it. This will show all the objects that layer contain. Then click on one of them from the list. You have now selected just one of the objects on that layer.

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