Layers Poll

[Gms9810]

I use them frequently, they help keep things organized but I do think the layers gallery could stand some improvement.

[jen0dorf]

Hi

As someone who uses Xara for Vectors and photoshop for the rest I do use layers a lot in PShop. I do sometimes confuse myself switching between the two programs.

As an aside would be very handy if when I exported as a PSD Xara didn't flatten the image, but I suppose thats not possible.

Ian

[Soquili]

Ian what version of Xara are you using? Exporting to psd maintains the layers using Xtreme Pro 4.0. Only the vector shapes are converted to png with alpha.

[MEB]

Ian what version of Xara are you using? Exporting to psd maintains the layers using Xtreme Pro 4.0. Only the vector shapes are converted to png with alpha.

If Xtreme could export the vector shapes as paths when exporting to Photoshop...

[BONES]

OK, I'm not done with this yet. I think a lot of the problems people come up against with layers are down to their workflow. They get into particular habits using other packages and want to continue to work in the same way in Xara, whether it is using the application to best advantage or not. With the toolset and functionality of Xara, I simply don't see a need for more complex layering than we have already. In Xara's heirarchy we have:

- Objects which can be selected and edited individually or with marquee selections

- Groups which allow many separate objects to be edited together and to have effects applied as though they were a single object

- Layers where we can turn things on and off or limit editability

Surely this combination of features has every situation covered? Yes, there are limitations but adding more complexity solves none of them. e.g. Sometimes its annoying that a group will bring all objects to the same "Z" level. so I'd like to see some effort into being able to create a group that allowed some non-group objects to be interleaved with objects within the group. The challenge there would be adding things like drop-shadows or group transparency but I see a lot more value in working on that than I do in nested layers. In fact I think groups are far more useful and powerful than layers and more effort in improving them would open up a lot more possibilities than adding to layers.

That said, I think the idea of combining some of the functionality of the Names Gallery and creating a heirarchical view of objects, groups and layers is an excellent one, a-la Combustion or After Effects.

[Xcellent]

Bones, could you please tell me how do you select in the attached .xar the black circle (or ANY other colored circle) with max 3 mouse clicks? Thanks.

[bigrick]

Complete overhaul

[joolz]

As a Xara 'newb' and software developer my comments on Layers are thus...

I was expecting to be able to click on an object and then... right click - Move to layer name/number (whatever) . You can only seem to move objects infront or back based on the current position (what if there are 100 layers and you want to move from 99 to 49?)

I was expecting to be able to move layers around within the tree itself (to create nested layers)

I was expecting to be able to drag an object off the work area onto the layer 'gallery' to change its layer

I was expecting to see the number of objects on a particular layer

I was expecting to right-click an object and be able to find out what layer it is on


Now maybe, you can do all of these things.. like I said, I am new

Just some thoughts..

Great software though

[covoxer]

Ha, ha! Well, if you expect it to be so, then when you'll develop your graphics program it will certainly work the way you expect it to!

Just kidding,
Seriously though, the layers implementation in the object oriented graphics concept is of secondary importance. The complex layer structures are not essential unlike they are in the layer based graphics concept (e.g. Photoshop).
Actually any graphic design can be created in a single layer. Layers are just helpers in organising more convenient workflow. And we use them to some extent for the HTML and animation exports (the frames in animation are internally equivalents to layers, you can't have multiple layers in animations).
Of course, improvements of the layer implementation is a good thing as well as lots of other features we have on the wish list. So it just waits for it's time to be implemented. But how much time? No one can tell.

Now some answers:

I was expecting to be able to click on an object and then... right click - Move to layer name/number (whatever) . You can only seem to move objects infront or back based on the current position (what if there are 100 layers and you want to move from 99 to 49?)

You can do this in the Object Gallery in XtremePro5.

I was expecting to be able to move layers around within the tree itself (to create nested layers)

You can freely move them around in the gallery, though you can not nest them, so no trees.

I was expecting to be able to drag an object off the work area onto the layer 'gallery' to change its layer

Drag it within the object gallery.

I was expecting to see the number of objects on a particular layer

Ctrl+A and look at the status bar.

I was expecting to right-click an object and be able to find out what layer it is on

"Find" button in the Object Gallery.

[cbutton69]

I never use layers. I haven't taken the time to understand how they work. Sometime maybe.