♥ Hands-on exercise. See Ortelius File > New From Template > Exercises & Demos > 6-Layers Exercise.
Auto-activate Clicked Layers
Objects are drawn and manipulated on the currently active layer. Click a layer to activate it. The arrow icon to the left of the layer name indicates the layer is activated. The dark blue highlighting in the Layer view indicates the selected layer, and typically follows the active layer. A dot to the left of a layer indicates an object within that layer remains selected. Click onto a layer to activate it.
By default, all drawing and object manipulation takes place in the active layer. Objects in other layers will not be selectable unless you switch active layers. To change the default setting so all objects are selectable and the active layer changes automatically, choose Layer > Auto Activate Clicked Layer from the main menu. Uncheck this setting to return to the default state.
Layer Stack Order
Layer Groups
Right-click in the Layer pane to add a Layer Group. Drag-and-drop other layers into the group. A note on Layer Groups: only one layer can be active at a time. Layer Groups can be selected (and for instance, moved or deleted), but only individual layers within the group can be active, not the group itself.
CAUTION! When a Layer Group is deleted, all the layers within the group are deleted with it.
Clip Objects to Map Area
Objects within the map area are viewable up to the map area border, giving a clean “clipped” appearance. All layers are clipped to the map area by default. Occasionally, it may be desirable to have an object overhang the border and spill into the margin area. For example, it may be desirable to a layer containing text, a map title, and a logo may be drawn in the drawing canvas’ margin areas. To allow a layer to draw into the margin areas of the drawing canvas, uncheck Layers > Clip Objects to Map Area from the main menu.
Move Objects to Layer
Select any objects within a layer and choose Layer > Move To from the main menu and choose which layer will accept the objects. There is an option to create a new layer to accept the objects. Objects will be placed on the new layer without any object displacement. Additional pasting (multiple pastes) will result in object offset as normal.
Copy Objects to Layer
Select any objects within a layer and choose Edit > Copy from the main menu. Choose a different layer and choose Edit > Paste from the main menu. Objects will be pasted to new layer without any initial object displacement. Additional pasting (multiple pastes) will result in object offset as normal.
