"layer comps" in Affinity Designer

[4personnen]

Hello!

I am almost 99.99% sure this doesn't exist but I could be wrong (and in that case feel free to move the topic and give me a good tsk tsk tsk)

There is a function in PS that I use ALL-THE-TIME and it's called "layer comps". It's the ability to export automatically a certain configuration of layers.

One of the best examples I could give is when you have a product with 50+ colour changes and you want a PNG (or Jpeg or whatever) in each of the colour. It would be way counter-intuitive to take the one colour, hide all the other colour layers, save and then repeat 49 by hand  What you do is record the hide/visible status of each layer (other parameters are available) and create a new "layer comp". When you're done, you run the "export layer comps to files" and you make yourself a cup of tea (with a hobnob, preferably).

Now maybe it's possible in Affinity Photo (I don't own it) and I am talking now about designer... What gives?

I think it would be a great idea as well for when you have a document which stays the same except for example a bit of text, or a bar-code or just a colour swatch. I never had to use it in Illustrator because I always found the layer handling in illustrator so sh*tt* that I always used alternative ways to do it anyway. (think the same design but where the text is translated in many languages for a packaging  and where you need a file per language for example)

Now with the fabulous "export persona" available, I think it would be a wonderful addition to the Affinity workflow, and I am sure I wouldn't be the only one to use it. I could be that you could export automatically groups for example (visible groups only) or at a layer level, I don't know if that makes any difference....

If there is a way to do it that didn't found, I'd be happy to hear it (It would be great for generating PDFs for example!)

Thanks y'all!

[Old Bruce]

You can do this in the Export Persona. 

 

[Move Along People]

-

[4personnen]

Thanks all. That's what I tried to figure out and I did find stuff there that I could help but I failed...

 

Let me explain.

Here is how my file is built

• 1 group at the bottom containing all the "fixed elements: the background
• 1 group on top containing 50 files with a different text on each. I want to create 50 files each displaying a different text, the background stays the same for the 50.
• 1 group on top of it, with text that doesn't change.

I tried to go to the export persona, go to the layer palette here, I've put everything in a group so the export is a unique file (instead of a bunch of "assets") and hid all the unwanted text but one. I do as per the screenshot,  (note, I don't want to create areas, I want the whole file) by pressing the icon at the bottom of the layers. One "slice (from item)" is created. When I go to hide the first layer and show the second one, and then try to create a new slice, no slice is created, it doesn't recognize that I have changed anything because the area is the same, the content is different (that's my explanation anyway).

Ideally, I understand that I would like 50 different "pages" (whole document), each showing a different text layer, but not the others...

As of now, I am exporting manually all 50 files in the export persona by showing/hiding my layers and ticking "don't export layers hidden by export persona" in the standard export menu (Shift+Ctrl+Alt+S)

I can't actually show you the original doc, as it's a client file but I can create one similar to show what I mean in detail.

I read the help files, but honestly, it's not very comprehensible for me. And I've been working with graphic design software for over 15 years, but this, doesn't speak my language 

 

[Old Bruce]

Don't hide the layers, show all the layers, they won't interfere with each other.

[4personnen]

7 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

Don't hide the layers, show all the layers, they won't interfere with each other.

Thanks ,

Well, how do I show only one line of text with all layers showing?
If I show all the layers, I have 50 lines of text on top of each others (it's not legible  )

If I only select the layers I need to: ("static" text, background, and the text layer needed) the resulting export will be of these 3 elements in 3 files (1 slice per item)

Unless I misunderstood something (which is very possible)

[4personnen]

Belated update:
This was be being stupid alongside the user manual being either incomplete and obscure (never a good combination.
I had achieved, with the help of this thread what I was aiming for (more or less)

Basically, my problem was with my static elements. I assumed (because I always used it that way) that the static element - since not moving - needed to be separated from the changing designs so in my file the layer stack had the static elements in the background while the changing designs where shown/hidden alternatively.

Now while doing some tests I figured out that I ought to be replicating all the static elements within groups (named after my text layer) and instead of showing/hiding layers, I needed to hide and show groups instead, thus leaving absolutely no additional layers that are always showing (if that make sense). So now my 50 layers are now 50 groups, all of them containing a copy of my static elements within them.

My main error was to assume that if it was meant to work, it should work with all either the needed elements to be visible (static background + 1 static text layer + 1 changing layer) or selected. The first case (visible) didn't create a different slice for each different set of layers shown (same name each time, that of the whole document), and the latter exported the 3 elements as 3 separate slices.

So the final working workflow work as intended. All the elements within a group and for each group shown, I create a slice (which is luckily named automatically after that group) thus creating 50 different slices. Thanks to the thread above, I was also able to create 2 file types (in my case PDF and EPS), each going into a different folder at the export stage. Result 100 files, neatly named and saved into their respective folder.

Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to answer me. And happy new year to you all!

[Shotster]

I have an artboard with just two child layers, but one of those child layers contains many children itself (because it serves as the clipping bounds. I need to export several images of the artboard which differ only in that a different "sublayer" is enabled for each output image.

It can be thought of as a single icon with different "badges" that can appear over it; but I need to export the icon with badge for each image (not one icon image and separate slices for each badge).

I can't figure out how to do that with the export persona. Is it possible?

[dominik]

21 minutes ago, Shotster said:

I have an artboard with just two child layers, but one of those child layers contains many children itself (because it serves as the clipping bounds. I need to export several images of the artboard which differ only in that a different "sublayer" is enabled for each output image.

It can be thought of as a single icon with different "badges" that can appear over it; but I need to export the icon with badge for each image (not one icon image and separate slices for each badge).

I can't figure out how to do that with the export persona. Is it possible?

Hello @Shotster,

you might want to look into snapshots ('View > Studio > Snapshots'). You can save different combinations of layers, name them and recall them.

Once set up this way you recall each combination of layers, switch to the export persona and export with different names accordingly.

What is not possible is to configure export persona in a way to export multiple layer compositions in one go. At least not if all designs are located on top of each other.

d.

[Shotster]

54 minutes ago, dominik said:

you might want to look into snapshots ('View > Studio > Snapshots')

Cool, thanks @dominik! That seems a lot like layer comps in Adobe PS. If one could create slices from snapshots, it seems this could be automated. Oh well, maybe in a future release.

[dominik]

5 minutes ago, Shotster said:

If one could create slices from snapshots, it seems this could be automated.

Yes, slices from snapshots is a missing link    But I am afraid this needs a lot of thinking to make it work properly.

d.

[ndm_fh]

Hello @4personnen and @dominik,

thats the only thread i have found for my problem.
I am not new to Affinity tools, but i cant get any iead how to handle my problem.

The starting point:
I need to create many variable pictures of an article.
I've got a PSD file with a lot of groups and layers.

Like this:
Group 1 - Option 1 of the article [got 5 layers in it]
Group 2 - Option 2 of the article [got 5 layers in it]
Group 3 - Option 3 of the article [got 25 layers in it]
Group 4 - Option 4 of the article [got 25 layers in it]
Group 5 - Option 5 of the article [got 5 layers in it]

My goal: I need to export one picture for every combination automatically. Like your problem @4personnen, but a bit more complex.

Is it possible to to this with Affinity Photo/Designer at all?
 

Cheers
Frank

Edited February 3, 2021 by ndm_fh

[dominik]

45 minutes ago, ndm_fh said:

The starting point:
I need to create many variable pictures of an article.
I've got a PSD file with a lot of groups and layers.

Like this:
Group 1 - Option 1 of the article [got 5 layers in it]
Group 2 - Option 2 of the article [got 5 layers in it]
Group 3 - Option 3 of the article [got 25 layers in it]
Group 4 - Option 4 of the article [got 25 layers in it]
Group 5 - Option 5 of the article [got 5 layers in it]

My goal: I need to export one picture for every combination automatically.

Hello @ndm_fh and welcome to the forum.

Can you elaborate a little more on how you keep these five different 'options' in your AD document? Are they on five different artboards or are they all on top of each other with different layers turned on and off?
I assume it's the latter but I just want to make sure.

d.

[ndm_fh]

24 minutes ago, dominik said:

Hello @ndm_fh and welcome to the forum.

Can you elaborate a little more on how you keep these five different 'options' in your AD document? Are they on five different artboards or are they all on top of each other with different layers turned on and off?
I assume it's the latter but I just want to make sure.

d.

Thanks for the quick response @dominik,

the different groups are stacked on each other and would be turned on and off. Cant figure it out in my head with artboards. (I'm using artboards for some other stuff) 
Maybe i am not deep enough in the matter. I was trying to understand the results of @4personnen.
I want to build up a document with a nearly automatic export of the article variations.

Thanks

 

[dominik]

3 minutes ago, ndm_fh said:

the different groups are stacked on each other and would be turned on and off.

...

I want to build up a document with a nearly automatic export of the article variations.

The 'automatic' export of article variations is the problem that currently doesn't work like 'layer comps to export' in PS.

What you can do is to put your different composition groups in different artboards that are stacked on each other. In the Export Persona in the layers panel you can turn on and off the visibility of each artboard in the export. That way you can combine different layer combinations and export them with a single click. But you still have to rename the export manually.

While the Export Persona is good for batch exports of multiple slices it does yet not have the ability to compose slices of different layers that are stacked on top of each other.

Another way I do this is to use sapshots. Snapshots are basically layer comps and you can recall them randomly with a single click. Once a snapshot is restored you can export it via the file menu. This also is not automatic but works (at least for me) quite well to create variations of a design.

Cheers,
d.

[ndm_fh]

27 minutes ago, dominik said:

The 'automatic' export of article variations is the problem that currently doesn't work like 'layer comps to export' in PS.

What you can do is to put your different composition groups in different artboards that are stacked on each other. In the Export Persona in the layers panel you can turn on and off the visibility of each artboard in the export. That way you can combine different layer combinations and export them with a single click. But you still have to rename the export manually.

While the Export Persona is good for batch exports of multiple slices it does yet not have the ability to compose slices of different layers that are stacked on top of each other.

Another way I do this is to use sapshots. Snapshots are basically layer comps and you can recall them randomly with a single click. Once a snapshot is restored you can export it via the file menu. This also is not automatic but works (at least for me) quite well to create variations of a design.

Cheers,
d.

Thank you for your detailed answer.
I'll give it a try.

[Scrant]

Serif if you're listening, please, please, please bring proper Layer Comps similar to Photoshop to Affinity Designer and Photo! It seems such a simple thing to implement that will save hours and hours of export work each time something changes. The workarounds above are not sufficient. Consider this my official upvote for the feature. Thank you, .

[ooLeveloo]

Just as a heads up, this has been resolved with the Layer States tool in v2. Haven't tried them yet, but it seems to work similarly to Comps.