Feature Request: Layers with alphabetical order SOLVED

[JanJ]

Hi,
i would really appreciate it, if the layers could be sorted alphabeticaly, as in engineering drawings there are often many layers.
Also it would be great if i could select multiple layers to switch them off and on simultaneously.

Is this possible? Otherwise it would be a great feature for future versions.

Regards,
JanJ

[Tracker Supp-Stefan]

Hello JanJ,

Welcome to our forums and thanks for your post.
Those layers are shown in the order they are actually "stacked" in the document, so if you have e.g. some overlapping content on two separate layers - turning the one higher in the list ON, will cover the one under. So this is the actual structural order of the layers, and it has to stay like it is actually in the file. If you reorder them in alphabetical order - you will then not know which layer is on top of which others, and what will be the result when you turn on or of any given layer. I am afraid that this is not likely to be changed.

Regards,
Stefan

[JanJ]

Thanks for your quick answer!

In our business (architecture/engineering) we are working a lot with CAD and PDF-Drawings containing many layers. They are used for grouping but have not effect on which element is on top of each other (See attached PDF-example). As switching Layers on/off is a standard scenario in planing, it would be great, if the usage in XChange Editor was similar to CAD-Software like AutoCAD etc.

Regards
Jan

[Paul - Tracker Supp]

Hi Jan,
you can already show/hide the layers by clicking the light bulb icon in the layers panel.


Regards an arbitrary order for the layers as presented in the Layer Panel, we can do something there, as Stefan says, currently it is only in the order that the layers have specified in the document, however we can change that so it is only for the display in the panel and changing them would not reorder the layers themselves.

We are looking into options like your suggested Alphabetical order as well as drag and drop for your own custom order for the list.
Again, this is just trelating to the order of display in the list, not for reordering the layers in the document structure.

I have raised a feature request for this, while internal only quoting RT#4148: Feature Request :: Order Layers arbitrarily will help any support staff member to get you a status update.

I hope that helps.

[JanJ]

Hi Paul,

thank you for your help.
I am looking forward to having this feature in the near future!
Multiple Select would also be important to switch layers at once.

btw, i am using XChange Editor every day, and i like it very much!

regards
Jan

[John - Tracker Supp]

Pleasure