Landscape Design Software

Using Layers

When working with complex landscape designs, it is often advantageous to organize your drawing into layers. You can place all your plants into one layer, fill regions into another, and so forth. For example, suppose you have finished adding fill regions and want to begin designing your garden. You can place the fill regions into a layer and lock it, which will prevent them from being accidentally selected.

There is always one layer that is currently active. Whenever you create a new object, it is automatically added to the current layer.

Important: If the current layer is hidden and/or locked, then it will be automatically shown and unlocked to accommodate changes to the new object. This is also true when you paste objects into your landscape design.

To edit layer settings, click the drop-down button to the right of the active layer. (You can also double-click the layer button.)

The following dialog will appear:

Layer

The layer name. Click to set a new name.

Hide

Click to hide the objects in the layer. When the layer is hidden, a small icon will appear.

Lock

Click to lock the objects in the layer. When the layer is locked, a small icon will appear.

Add Layer

Press to add a new layer.

Delete Layer

Press to delete the selected layer.

Press to accept your changes. Note: Your changes will not be applied until you click OK.

Cancel

Press to cancel your changes. Note: You can also use the undo feature to undo layer changes.

To show or hide objects in a layer:

1. Click the desired layer tab to make it active.

2. Click the drop-down button.

3. Select Hide objects in this layer to toggle the visibility on or off.

To lock or unlock objects in a layer:

1. Click the desired layer tab to make it active.

2. Click the drop-down button.

3. Select Lock objects in this layer to lock or unlock the objects.

To select the objects in a layer:

1. Click the desired layer tab to make it active.

2. Click the drop-down button.

3. Click Select objects in this layer.

To move the selected objects into a layer:

1. Select the object(s) you want to move into the layer.

2. Right-click in the viewport, point to Move to Layer, and click the desired layer.

Tips:

• You can also hide and lock objects by type. See Showing & Hiding Objects for details.

• When you add an object to the landscape, the current layer is automatically unlocked and made visible.

• Hidden objects do not appear in a realtime walkthrough.

• Objects in hidden/locked layers are saved and loaded to/from disk normally. That is, you can save your landscape with hidden and/or locked layers, and the objects will remain in the landscape design when you later open the file.

• Layers are specific to the current landscape design. In other words, changing the layer settings in one file will not affect any of your other files.

• Objects in hidden and/or locked layers cannot be selected, edited, or deleted.

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