One Layer System

[JGD]

44 minutes ago, fde101 said:

We could call them Zebras and Anteaters, but in the end they are what they are.

Aha touché! Naming is just what it is; it should be as descriptive, short and unambiguous as possible. Even though in a literal sense that's what they are, “Global” seems to me to be too vague a word; hence my proposal of “Document Layers”, as in “layers belonging to a specific Publisher/Designer file”. And “User” doesn't make any sense, as it has been said here already, so, again, if each app already has established naming conventions, why not use them? In fact, you could have “Document Layers”, “Master Page Layers” and “Page Layers” in Publisher, “Document Layers” and “Artboard Layers” in Designer, and just “Layers”, period, in Photo. Different apps call for somewhat different conventions and UX, and there's nothing wrong in that. As long as they are somewhat consistent across the suite and predictable in their behaviour, users will be fine.

44 minutes ago, fde101 said:

Some layers are groups, but not all.  Shapes, embedded documents, text objects, adjustments, etc. are all layers.  Layers are not automatically created for them, the objects themselves are the layers.  This is a typical behavior of many modern graphics programs (though not so common in page layout software, and most programs use different names for them).  The Affinity Layers studio is roughly the equivalent of Blender's Outliner, for example.

Now this is a bit confusing for me, right now, but as soon as the 29th of this month I'll be sure to check it out…

44 minutes ago, fde101 said:

This can be done already.  There is a menu option that is on by default and hides them when outside of the page area, but you can turn that off.

It's good to know; maybe it's a new feature and I missed it, maybe it's not that easily discoverable, or maybe it's just me who am an idiot.  Anyway, I'll still ask it again: even if you can toggle it, can you still maintain said hierarchy? AFAIK, seeing how there aren't global layers and pages are always layers themselves, an object can never belong to two artboards at the same time, or not belong to any artboard from the moment it touches one.

Maybe there has to be a mode akin to Illustrator where Artboards are just… I dunno, removed from the Layers panel and get a panel of their own, or something. Or just kicked up to a separate level inside of the current Layers panel. Or maybe those newfangled Document Layers could get their own level above the pages and, as long as you were working on those, you could get an experience similar to that in Illustrator. Or maybe you could intermingle global layers and artboard layers, in a more fluid conception (that would probably be the best UX scenario, as you could have global background elements, global foreground elements, and everything in between). Whatever works for big projects (like, say, website or app mockups) where organising stuff by Artboards isn't the end-all, be-all, which would mean you could instead just use them as glorified export slices.

[fde101]

2 hours ago, JGD said:

an object can never belong to two artboards at the same time

No, but it can be spread across the pages of a facing pages spread in Publisher, and you can partially work around this using symbols if you really need to.

 

3 hours ago, JGD said:

It's good to know; maybe it's a new feature and I missed it,

Not new and you probably just missed it.  View -> View Mode -> Clip to Canvas.

 

[Steps]

4 hours ago, JGD said:

 In fact, you could have “Document Layers”, “Master Page Layers” and “Page Layers” in Publisher, “Document Layers” and “Artboard Layers” in Designer, and just “Layers”, period, in Photo. Different apps call for somewhat different conventions and UX, and there's nothing wrong in that. As long as they are somewhat consistent across the suite and predictable in their behaviour, users will be fine.

This will certainly break with the common file format philosophy and therefore be troublesome with the Photo & Vector Persona.

Or what do you think how this different layer stacks should work together?

[duckrabbit]

On 1/15/2019 at 1:19 AM, Steps said:

 This will certainly break with the common file format philosophy and therefore be troublesome with the Photo & Vector Persona.

Or what do you think how this different layer stacks should work together?

InDesign already works like this behind the scenes: In scripting, you can cycle through collections, pages, groups etc… in an unrelated fashion.

In other words: there is no reason a set of per-AD-artboard/per-APub-page-layers can't become a set of per-AD-pasteboard/per-APub-document-layers, with the caveat that these two systems might be confusing to one another when starting a doc in one app, then working on it in another one.

OR there could simply be an option "view per artboard/view per page" that groups all layers per artboard/page with a single mouseclick, keeping the understanding that some items that seem to be "on top" in one page, will --after dragging-- end up at the bottom of another page. But with the added bonus that a layer may become accessible in another page (or eg being greyed out?)

[Steps]

1 hour ago, Domikenens said:

with the caveat that these two systems might be confusing to one another when starting a doc in one app, then working on it in another one.

Everything that might confuse someone results in higher support efforts.

There will be support requests, forum posts and a demand for explaining video tutorials.

I think it's unlikely that Serif wants to add complexity.

[Country Cow Designs]

On 1/10/2019 at 11:37 AM, MEB said:

Hi Designer_George,
Welcome to Affinity Forums
No, this is not available in the current Beta. There's however plans to support global layers in an upcoming version (after Publisher's release).

Hi, I'm just wondering whether global layers is available yet or if it's due for release too? I design sewing patterns and this would be a huge help for layering out sizes that people don't need but I can't seem to find it in the current version of Affinity. Thanks.

[MEB]

Hi @Country Cow Designs,
Welcome to Affinity Forums
We made some changes since then to allow users to place objects on layers outside artboards (covering more than one at once). Just disable the Edit All Layers button on the bottom left of the Layers panel and the objects should be kept on their own layer(s).

[Michail]

2 hours ago, MEB said:

We made some changes since then to allow users to place objects on layers outside artboards (covering more than one at once). Just disable the Edit All Layers button on the bottom left of the Layers panel and the objects should be kept on their own layer(s).

What does this have to do with global levels? Or have I misunderstood something?

[MEB]

Hi Michail,
It's not the same as global layers but may help in a few cases and it's something that wasn't possible before. I'm not sure if it helps @Country Cows Designs's workflow specifically but i thought it worth a mention.