Working with layers

Sun Aug 23, 2020 10:13 am

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In this tutorial, you will learn how to work with layers on the canvas.

What are layers?
When you place an item onto the canvas, it is added as a layer.

There are 3 types of layer

Markers
Shapes
Text

Whenever you add a layer onto the canvas, it is always added as the top most layer.
So if you add an orange cone and a green cone to the canvas, then the green cone will show on top of the red cone.
And then if you draw a circle on the canvas, the circle will then appear on top of the orange and green cones

.

With all 3 types of layer you can
Copy, paste, move and delete layers
Or move layers to the top or bottom of the layer stack.

Additionally, when you select a single marker layer, you can
Expand, shrink, mirror, ghost, Align, distribute, lock, unlock, group, ungroup

and if you select multiple shapes or text you can adjust all their colours.

Important:
To work with layers on the canvas, you need to use the selector tool, which allows you to select and modify the layers.

Create a test ground setup:

Start by adding 3 Orange cones, 3 Green cones, and 2 lines onto the canvas like the image below so something to work with.

Selecting a single layer
1. Click the selector tool
2. Now click the orange cone
When you click a single layer, it is highlighted

and the layer functions appear at the bottom of the session planner.

Always click anywhere on the canvas, to deselect any layers you have highlighted.

Selecting Multiple Layers
There are 2 ways to select multiple layers.

First way:
1. Click the selector tool if it's not already highlighted.
2. Move your mouse cursor to the first layer you want to select. (Do not click the mouse button yet)
3. Press and hold the SHIFT key in on your keyboard.
4. Now click the first layer
5. Keep holding the SHIFT key in and click the other layers you want to select.
You will now see, as you click the mouse button on each layer, it is added to the selection.

Second Way:
1. Click the selector tool, if it not already highlighted.
2. Move your mouse cursor to the top left of a layer you want to select.
3. Click and hold your mouse button in, then drag your mouse and create a box around the layers you want to select.
If you place a box around one layer, then that layer will highlight with its available tool functions.

If your box covers multiple layers, then they will all flash to indicate they are selected.
With multiple layers selected, you can copy, delete, move, group and lock them.

Let’s look at what we can do with the layers, when they are selected.

Copying and pasting layers
First, highlight the layers, you want to copy with the selector tool.

Top copy the selected layer, you can either:
1. Right click the canvas and select "copy". (Or Hold SHIFT and press C on the keyboard)
2. Now move the selected layers out of the way.
3. Click the canvas to deselect anything you have highlighted.

Now to paste the layer, all we need to do is
1. Right click the canvas, and select paste. (Or Hold SHIFT and press V on the keyboard)
Notice the layer or layers are pasted back into exactly the same position they were copied.

This is so you can easily paste a layer or layers on one slide to another slide as well.

Deleting a layers
1. Highlight the layers, you want to delete with the selector tool.
2. Now right click the canvas and select "Delete", or press the keyboard "DELETE" key.
The layers you selected will now be deleted.

If you delete a layer by accident, then you can use the redo function to cancel the deletion.

To use the redo function,
1. Hold SHIFT and press Z on the keyboard. (Click "edit" on the top menu and select undo/redo)
This will cause the last action to be undone.

Moving Layers
Use the selector tool to select some layers.
You can use your mouse to move the layers, by pressing and holding the mouse button on any of the selected layers.

You can also use your keyboard to move the layers as well.
Press any of your ARROW KEYS on the keyboard to slowly move the highlighted layers on the canvas.

When you hold your SHIFT key in, and use the ARROW KEYS, the layers will move faster.

Deselect any highlighted layers by clicking anywhere on the canvas.

The Layer Stack
When you add a layer onto the canvas, it is always added at the top most layer.

Which is fine is most cases, but, there will be plenty of situations, when you want a specific layer to show above, or below another layer.

The way we do this, is by changing the position of the layer in the layer stack.

Change the position of the layer in the stack
1. Click the selector tool, if it’s not already highlighted.
2. Now move the white line so it appears over a cone, by dragging it with your mouse.

The reason it is above the cone, is because the line was created after the cone was.

However, we can change this easily by sending the line to the bottom of the layer stack, or we can bring the cone to the top stack.

Both ways give the same results.

Sending a layer to the bottom of the stack
1. Click the white line if it’s not already highlighted.
2. Right click the canvas, select layers and click "move to bottom".
This will make the line go to the bottom of the layer stack.

You should now have a good idea how layers generally work, and how to manage them with the selector tool.

Working with Marker Layers

When we select marker layers, we have some additional features we can work with.

We can align marker layers vertically, or horizontally on the canvas.

Vertically aligning layers
1. Select the 3 orange cone layers, using the selector tool
2. When they are highlighted, right click the canvas and select "layer", then click "Align Verticaly".
You should now see that the cones have aligned vertically.

To align horizontally, you do exactly the same, but this time choose align horizontally.

Align Distributing layers

When we place markers onto the canvas, we can't always get them perfectly spaced out.
This is where align and distribute, comes in.

When you select 2 or more marker layers, and use align and distribute, the layers between the first and last layers will be distributed evenly.

1. Make sure nothing is selected, by clicking the canvas anywhere.
2. Select the 3 orange cones, by clicking first on the left cone, then holding shift down, and clicking the other cones.
The cone we selected first and last, will be the key markers, so anything we selected between these, will be aligned and distributed.

3. Right click the canvas, select layer, and click align and distribute.
Notice how the cone in the middle, is aligned and positioned between the 2 other cones.

This feature will be really handy, when creating your ground layouts, using cones, balls and poles.

Locking and Unlocking Layers

As you get more and more familiar with the session planner, you will start creating more complex sessions.
The more complex the session, the more marker layers you will place onto your canvas.
With lots of layers on the canvas, it can be easy to accidentally move a marker layer out of position.
This is where locking a layer, or locking a set of layers into position will come in handy.
Because, once you lock a layer, it cannot be moved, until you unlock it.

1. Click the selector tool, if it’s not already selected.
2. Select one of the orange cone markers.
3. When it’s highlighted, right click the canvas, select layer and click "lock layers".

: Image-11.jpg (228.34 KiB) Viewed 8166 times

4. Now click on the canvas, anywhere once to deselect the cone.
5. Try and move the layer now.
Notice that you cannot move it, and see a message pop up saying the layer is locked.

Unlocking layers
1. Click the locked layer so it's highlighted.
2. Now right click the canvas, select layer, and click "unlock layers".
You should now be able to move the layer like normal.

Grouping Layers

There may be situations, when you need to select a layer with another layer, or join layers together, like placing a marker layer under a player.

Instead of having to drag a box around the two layers, you can use the group feature.

So when you click on a grouped layer, all the layers in the group will be selected.

As a result, you can copy or move them as a single layer.

1. Use the locator slider on menu one, and drag the red circle target marker onto the canvas.

: image-13.jpg (10.46 KiB) Viewed 8166 times

2. Drag any player marker, on top of the target marker, as shown below:

: image14.jpg (8.25 KiB) Viewed 2542 times

3. Click the selector tool, and make a box around both layers we just added.
4. Right click the canvas, select layer and click group layers.
5. Click anywhere on the canvas, to deselect any layers.

Now when you click on either the player marker or the target marker, notice that both layers get selected.

6. Drag the player marker to another location.

Notice that the red target marker moves with the player marker.

Ungrouping layers
1. Click the layer that contains the player marker, you'll see the target marker gets selected as well.

: image-15.jpg (11.93 KiB) Viewed 8166 times

2. Right click the canvas, select layer and click ungroup layers.
3. Click the canvas anywhere to deselect any layers you might have highlighted.
4. Click the player marker we just un grouped.

Notice that just the player marker gets selected now.

You have successfully, grouped and un grouped the markers.

Changing Shape Layer Colours
1. Using the selector tool, select both lines we added to the canvas.

2. When they are highlighted, click any of the ink buttons at the bottom of the session planner.

: image-17.jpg (9.25 KiB) Viewed 8166 times

Notice that the lines colour change.

Also notice, that shape layers do not have a white selection box around them.

Instead, you see the position handles, which you can use to alter the layers.

That’s it, you should now have a good understanding about how layers work on the canvas.