General Category > Ongoing Anim8or Development
Layers
Steve:
Trevor and Raxx: Check out the new default layer in build 1112.
Water Music: The layer number is preserved for converting to Mesh/Subdivided, duplication, editing, splitting, etc.
thecolclough: Bug fixed: #098-021 - Components assigned to hidden or locked Layers can be altered by editing commands.
cooldude234:
I really like the way layers have been streamlined on graphic editing software and I think you should head things in that direction a bit.
For example (refer to the attached image) in fireworks 8 you can add new layers and new layer folders by the dropdown menu on the layers tab (there is a couple other ways to do this but that mostly ties directly into the bitmap editing functions and is relevant here). The top most layers will appear on top of everything else and have priorty over everything below it. And I also like the folder feature as it can really help to organize your project especially when you have 50+ items that make up your image.
I think this could help in anim8or as you could group things into folders.
For example; lets say you have a model of a car with detailed interiors and parts like an engine. You could create a folder in the layers to keep all the engine stuff into, another one for the dash, one for the seats, and lastly one for the exterior. This way you don't have to cycle through a gazillion things to find just what you need, and you could also hide stuff based on these layers (hide a layer completely or just one object in that layer).
Using fireworks 8 again you can also lock a layer completely (which I think anim8or DRASTICALLY needs as it would help selection and editing of many vertices without accidentally editing something you don't want to), you can collapse a layer (for hiding of the layer's contents (NOT THE CONTENTS THEMSELVES!) for more organization) and you can even drag a layer with its contents to move it above or below another.
Also I figure this shouldn't be to hard to implement considering you already have grouping (which is still a completely separate thing to this, in fireworks you can have a group of a group in a layer but you can't group layers) and UI elements in place in the scene mode with the scene contents tree.
EDIT: I have to modify this again (second post in a row LOL) because I forgot to add the darn picture ::)
Steve:
Layers are now supported for Figure components for visibility. Locked support will come next.
I am using the Separate model so when you hide something in, say, the Object editor it vanishes everywhere. While this is the most generally useful, it makes it difficult to make a test render of the final look in the Scene editor, for example, without going though all the different parts of your project and making sure that it's all visible.
So I've decided to add a GUI option to toggle between a Modified Global mode that I'll call Override, and the currently used Separate. This new mode will assume everything in the other editors is set to Visible. It will allow you to do a final render without leaving the Scene editor by just enabling all Scene layers and changing the Layer mode to Override or whatever better name comes up :) .
Trevor:
Thats actually a really great idea.
1 button override for render awsome.
Trev
johnar:
I really like the idea of this layer function, but just can't work it out?
All i've been able to do with it is hide everything, by either clicking on the 0 layer in the top toolbar, or going to options -> layers and unticking/ticking layer 0.
I can't work out how to add an object to a paticular layer, (or is it adding a layer to an object), and the layer numbers in the top toolbar are just permanently greyed out, except layer 0.
going to 'options -> layers isn't really helping either.
Could someone please enlighten me here.?
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