Is there a way to reset the values of a Layer Effect?

[GarryP]

This relates to Designer and Publisher, and possibly Photo too (I haven’t looked).

Sometimes, when I’m experimenting, I play around with a lot of the different values pertaining to a Layer Effect.
For example, with the 3D Layer Effect I might change the: Radius; Softness; Shininess; Opacity; Ambient % and Direction.

Most of the time - because I’m just experimenting - I get into a mess and just want to put the values all back to what they were before I started playing around. However, I can’t find a way of resetting the values in the Layer Effect to their defaults without resetting the whole layer formatting back to its defaults (“Revert Defaults”), which means I lose all of my other formatting: Colour; Stroke; other Layer Effects; etc.

Is there a way of resetting the values for a Layer Effect to the defaults without affecting anything else?
If not, can we have one please?

This was mentioned a few years ago..

...but, as far as I can tell, nothing has changed since then, but I could easily be missing something in the UI.

P.S. Gaussian Blur doesn’t really need a reset function because it’s so simple but it wouldn’t hurt to have one to make the UI more consistent.

Edited July 8, 2019 by GarryP

[MEB]

Hi GarryP,
I'm afraid there's no way to do this. Here's a workaround that may help although is a little convoluted: create an object in a new document, apply all FX styles with the default settings to it (excluding Colour and Gradient Overlays), save it to the Assets panel, then drag it to the document you want/need, go to menu Edit ▸ Copy to copy all these default settings to the clipboard, select the object you want to "reset" and go to menu Edit > Paste FX. This should reset all the FX applied to that object (except colour and gradient overlays).

I will fill an improvements request for this.

[GarryP]

Thanks MEB.
That does seem a little convoluted.
I think just making a copy of the layer and playing around with the copy might be easier for me, but I’m sure your workflow may come in useful too (I don’t use the Assets panel much so I might be missing out on some good workflows).
Thanks for filing the request.
Fingers crossed for something along these lines soon.

[Johnonlineuk]

This is a little frustrating... If you change the way a new rectangle behaves, it stays the same the next time you want to use it (This may be frustrating for other users). However, when you choose an effect such as an outline, you have to go through each stage every time. I want to be able to have a standard effect of a gray inner outline!

I know that you will constantly be compared with Photoshop and to be honest, Affinity Photo is fantastic, but some of the shortcuts I have been used to in PS are clumsy in AF.

[GarryP]

Welcome to the forum Johnonlineuk.

That’s a good point. If the software is copying the formatting of the last edited shape (of the same type) then why doesn’t it also bring the effects over too? Or, to put the question another way, if there is a reason to copy the formatting, why does that reason not also apply to the effects?

Personally I would prefer to have every new layer formatted to default but there’s no way to do that – as far as I know – other than having to press the Revert Defaults button every time, which can be a bit of a drag.

[David Battistella]

Just confirming that this has never been resolved. A basic reset button to take layer effects back to an original state would be a pretty handy tool and feature. 

 

david

 

 

[MEB]

Hi @David Battistella,
Welcome to Affinity Forums
Thanks for your feedback. Apart from this thread there wasn't much requests for this as far as I'm aware. I've updated the report to bring it up to dev's attention.