Layers

Using layers to organize your drawings.

The Layer panel can be found in the top-left corner of the editor.

This panel lists your canvases (more about canvases here) and their layers, with everything on each layer, including your pages (more about pages here).

What is a layer?

Layers are an essential tool to organize your drawings. Layers contain drawing elements (geometries, blocks, text, etc.) or even other layers.

Layers let you control a few things:

• The visibility: layers can be shown or hidden, which in turn will apply to all their contained elements.

• The lock behavior: layers can be locked so that the user cannot select the things hosted on them.

• The rendering order: the layer list is rendered from top to bottom, meaning that elements in layers at the top of the list will be placed on the top of your drawing, and layers at the bottom of the list will be rendered at the bottom of your drawing. This list can be reordered at any time.

• The active layer: once active, a layer will host all new elements you draw, new pages included.

All the actions described above can be found in the Layer panel, on any given layer...

Selecting a layer will give you access to its properties, in the Properties panel. A few settings can be edited there...

• Layer name: the name the layer carries in the Layer panel.

• Layer color: the color that identifies the layer in the Layer panel, and the color its elements carry in wireframe mode.

• Layer opacity: the level of transparency of the objects on the layer.

• Layer parent: the layer the selected layer is on. Root means that the layer has no parent layer.

The Properties panel for a selected layer, with its Selection settings and its Inheritable values

Inheritable values

Below those, the Inheritable values section carries a second set: Color, Opacity, Stroke weight, Dash pattern and Dash scale.

These are not applied to the layer's elements on their own. They are picked up only by elements set to inherit them, one value at a time. Change one here, and every element inheriting it updates at once.

More about inheriting values here.

Layers in action

Below, we will review the different actions that layers enable you to do.

Ordering

Layers allow you to determine the order of things on your canvas. Changing the order of layers will affect the display order of elements.

Nesting

Layers can be nested into one another. At any point, a layer can be dragged onto another to turn it into a child of another layer.

Reassigning

You can always change the layer an object is assigned to, pages included. Simply edit the Layer property in the Properties panel.

Layer states

A layer state is a saved snapshot of every layer on the canvas: which layers are shown or hidden, which are locked, and each layer's color and inheritable values. Save one for each way you look at your drawing, then switch between them in one click instead of toggling layers one by one.

Layer states live in the Layers section of the Layer panel, under the Canvases section. Open the ... menu next to the Layers header and turn on Show layer state: a Layer state dropdown appears under the header, with a ... menu beside it.

• Save a state: set your layers the way you want them, then choose Save as new in the dropdown's ... menu. Rayon names the state and opens the name for editing: type yours and press Enter.

• Switch: pick a state in the dropdown. Every layer goes back to the way that state saved it; a layer created after the state was saved is left as it is.

• Modified: once you show, hide, lock or restyle a layer after applying a state, its name in the dropdown reads Modified. Save overwrites the state with the current layers; Restore puts the layers back the way the state saved them.

• Rename and Delete act on the state shown in the dropdown.

Layer states belong to the canvas they were saved on. When you override a view, picking a state in the dropdown applies it to that view alone.

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